Untitled Sermon (31)

Paul explains it like this in Ephesians 1. Check this out:

Ephesians 1:16–23 ESV16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

In this passage Paul says because of his death on the cross and resurrection, Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father, and as a result, all authority has been given to Him. Authority above every rule, power, and dominion, now and forever. So, it starts there. It starts with Jesus and the authority He’s been given.And from there it moves to us. Because look at what Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 2:

Ephesians 2:4–6 ESV4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Paul says because of God’s love for us, through faith in Jesus we have been made alive as well, and as a result, we too have been raised up and are seated with Jesus in the heavenly places.Which means, through Jesus we have been given a share in His kingdom and His authority. Which means, in the name of Jesus, we can speak and pray with spiritual authority. That like Paul, we too can turn to a demonic spirit or situation and say, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”Now, when I say that, I know what some of you are thinking. You’re thinking, “Oh boy, pastor’s finally gone off the deep end. I knew eventually things would get crazy out here at MCF. And here it is because now pastor is talking about casting out demons. I can’t believe it.”And that right there is part of the problem for most Christians and why most Christians fail to walk in spiritual authority. Because for them, it just seems too far fetched. It just seems too radical. They just can’t believe it.But here’s the deal. If our battle is against demonic forces, and it is. And if we want to overcome those forces so we can lead people to Jesus. Then we have to be willing to get a little radical. We have to begin to believe that maybe, just maybe, what Jesus said and Paul confirms is true. That as a Christian, in the name of Jesus, we can have spiritual authority over the demonic forces of darkness that come against us.And that being the case, we need to learn to walk in it.The question then is, “How do we do that? How do we walk in spiritual authority?”To be honest, that's a sermon series by itself. So unfortunately, we aren’t going to be able to cover every aspect of it today. However, this topic is something we are going to continue to learn more about through the book of Acts. Because this won’t be Paul’s first encounter with a demonic spirit. But in order to give us an introduction into how spiritual authority works, I quickly want to give you three initial requirements that need to be present in your life if you want to begin to walk in spiritual authority. Here’s the first one:Requirement #1 - I have to be a committed Christian committed to the truth.When I say committed Christian, I’m talking about a Christian that is all in. In other words, you are a fully committed Christ follower who has surrendered your life 100% to Jesus. Which means, this type of authority isn’t available to the half hearted Christian or to the Sunday only Christian. Why is this a requirement? Because if you try to operate in spriitual authority without a solid relationship with Jesus, it can be very dangerous. Let me show you what I mean:In a few chapters we are going to get to a story in Acts 19. It’’s a story about seven brothers who have an encounter with a demonic spirit. An encounter that doesn’t go well for them. Check this out:

Acts 19:13–14 ESV13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.

In this story Luke says there were seven brothers who were Jewish exorcists. Which means their professions was to go around and cast out demons. Which in the first century, wasn’t uncommon. And the way it worked, is if you were an exorcist, you were always looking for new ways to do your job. New incantations or rituals that might work better to get a demon out of someone.And so apparently, as these guys are going around trying to cast out demons, they hear about Paul, and they hear he’s had some success using the name Jesus. And so they decide, “You know what, why don’t we try using Jesus’s name like Paul does, and see if it works for us.”And so that’s what they do. They say something like, “In the name of Jesus we command you to come out!”. So, what happens? Check this out:

Acts 19:15 ESV15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

Ok, can I just tell you, this isn’t good sign for these guys. In fact it’s never a good sign when you’re trying to cast a demon out, for the demon to say, “Who do you think you are.” That’s not good, in fact, it’s really bad. How bad? Check this out.

Acts 19:16 ESV16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Luke says in response to the men’s command, the evil spirit goes Chuck Norris on them, beats the tar out of them, tears their clothes off them, and sends them running naked.Not good, right?So, a great question would be, “Why did it work for Paul to use the name of Jesus but not for these guys?”How about this. It didn’t work because they didn’t belong to Jesus. In other words, they weren’t Christians. They weren’t seated in heavenly places with him. They didn’t have the Holy Spirit working in and through them. And the evil spirit recognized that. Unlike Paul, the evil spirit recognized they had no association with Jesus. Which meant, they had no authority. Which is why the evil spirit basically says, “Just who do you think you are?”All that to say, if you want to walk in spiritual authority, you need to have a solid relationship with Jesus, otherwise, you might find yourself trying to fight a spirit you have no authority over.Requirement #2 - I have to be committed to spiritual growth.If you recall, when the entire incident took place, Paul was on his way to pray. On his way to church. On his way to further his relationship with God and others.And the same must true for any Christian who’s going to operate in spiritual authority. The fact is, if you’re not growing in your faith, it’s going to be difficult to walk in spiritual authority. An authority that comes as we spend time with Jesus.And when I say spend time with Jesus, I’m not just talking about at church. I’m talking about a daily relationship that you are cultivating through prayer and God’s Word. A relationship that over time grows and develops us into spiritually grounded Christians. That’s why Paul prays this for us. He writes in Ephesians 1:

Ephesians 1:16–19 ESV16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

Paul says his prayer for us is that we would grow in the knowledge of who we are in Christ, and the power we have through Him.So, how do we get that knowledge? Paul says it’s through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. A wisdom and revelation that is given to us as we spend time with Jesus.All that to say, if you want to walk in spiritual authority, you have to spend time with the one who has it.Requirement #3 - I have to believe that Jesus has ultimate authority. In Matthew 28, right before Jesus ascends in to heaven, he says this:

Matthew 28:18 ESV18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus says all authority in heaven, meaning the entire universe above us, and on earth, where you and I live, has been given to Him.I want you to think about that. Jesus says the entire universe, which is composed of over 100 billion galaxies, consisting of billions of stars, is under his authority. A universe that consists of every living thing, whether human, animal, bird, fish, or spirit, is under his authority. That’s what Jesus says. That’s incredible, right? The question then is, “Do you believe Him?”In other words, do you truly believe that Jesus has that kind of authority. You see, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where you truly believe Jesus is who He says He is, or you don’t. And that He has ultimate authority, or He doesn’t. You see, it’s not about “if Jesus has the authority”. It’s “Do we truly believe He does”. And if we believe that, and we are willing to operate in that, then we can walk in spiritual authority. Which means, when the enemy confronts us, we don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to back track. We can with confidence as we claim the name of Jesus.