Untitled Sermon (2)

Our Authority

How do we fight! We need to understand this is about Kingdoms colliding. A Foundational Understanding of Reality: Kingdoms in Conflict“the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” This line of the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” is straight from the Bible—Revelation 11:15. This passage points triumphantly to a time when God will decisively intervene in human history and strike down “the kingdom of this world.” The Lord Jesus Christ, portrayed as wielding a sharp double-edged sword, will be the agent of God in judgment and the final subjugation of evil. This will involve bringing about the ruin of the leader of the opposing kingdom, which the Book of Revelation refers to as “the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan” (20:2).From the very beginning of his public ministry, Jesus both spoke of and demonstrated the nature of the conflict with the opposing kingdom. He was drawn into struggle from the moment he began proclaiming the kingdom of God in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mark 1:21–28). Mark reports that immediately after he taught, an evil spirit manifested in a man and challenged Jesus. Jesus responded not by ridiculing the worldview assumptions of the people in Capernaum, but by dealing directly and firmly with what he perceived the problem to be. There was an evil spirit entity speaking through the man. By his own authority Jesus commanded the spirit to depart. Dealing with these spirits became a customary part of Jesus’ ministry. Mark tells us that “he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons” (Mark 1:39).The kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus’ teaching. The redemptive reign of God was beginning in the person and mission of the Lord Jesus. His exorcisms were a sign of the presence of the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “If I drive out demons by the Spirit [finger in Luke] of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20). Ethelbert Stauffer aptly comments, “the kingdom of God is present where the dominion of the adversary has been overthrown.”All of this points to the reality of a hostile realm in conflict with the kingdom of God. John reveals in his first epistle that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Jesus spoke of Satan as “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). There was, then, some substance to Satan’s claim of dominion when he offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world (Matt. 4:8–9; Luke 4:6). Ultimately, God is the sovereign King over heaven and earth, but these passages reveal that Satan and his minions do indeed exercise significant influence over this world and its power structures.Satan’s reign is not only territorial but temporal. The apostle Paul described Satan as “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4). This reflects the biblical understanding of history as divided into two eras: this present evil age and the age to come.  Satan is the prince of this age, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the inaugurator and king of a new age and a reign of righteousness.

The age to come. Our hope is rooted in God’s kingdom and his promise of a new age. We eagerly anticipate eternal life with our Lord Jesus Christ. 

There is much more to our present experience, however, than finding a secure place to wait until Christ returns. The turn of the ages has already dawned with the coming of the Lord Jesus. 

The good news is that we can experience some of the blessings of the age to come right now. Eternal life is just as much a present experience as a future aspiration (cf. John 17:3). 

Some of these kingdom manifestations include the following:

• the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives

• union and close relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ

• reception and manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit

• ability to break free from the bondage of sin

• authority over evil spirits

Tension between the ages. We live at a time when the present evil age overlaps the age to come. 

The kingdom of God coexists with the kingdom of darkness, but it is not a peaceful coexistence; there is tension. Entering a relationship with Christ means being supernaturally rescued from the kingdom of Satan and installed as a member of Christ’s kingdom (Col. 1:13). Believers truly have a new citizenship in a heavenly kingdom (Phil. 3:20). Our identity is wrapped up in Christ; our allegiance is to the kingdom of God; the eschatological reality is that we are now participants in the age to come and part of the new creation; we are joined to the people of God and we are indeed children of God.

Nevertheless, we still live in the world. Our existence is played out on the stage of the present evil age. Although we are spiritually renewed, our bodies are artifacts of this age and therefore subject to the greatest enemy, death. We continue to feel the impact of sin in profound ways all around us. Violence, bitterness, poverty, crime, terrorism, duplicity and betrayal, and brokenness all abound. Believers sometimes look no different than the unredeemed.

A time of struggle and conflict. Experience tells us that this is a time of strife. And this is precisely what the Scriptures teach us. The imagery of conflict and warfare is found throughout the New Testament.