And Satan's Kingdom Falls
Notes
Transcript
Prayer
Prayer
Almighty God and merciful father,
You alone save. You alone can pull us out of the miry pit and set our feet on solid ground.
You alone can soften the proud heart, quiet the restless heart, and turn the hearts of the violent towards thoughts of peace.
And yet we still look to the strength of men. We still look to the kingdoms of this earth to do what only you can do.
We worship celebrities, politicians, policies, parties – and we fall on the ground and say to the works of our hands, “Save us!”
O Lord, forgive us. For we are now reaping the whirlwind. Every day we read of another mass shooting. Another fallen celebrity minister. Another assault, another broken family, another war. Every day we edge closer and closer to chaos. The human heart is consumed with hatred and rage and it echoes in our homes, our schools, our communities.
Dear Father, may your kingdom come. Turn the hearts of the violent away from their weapons. Give us your grace to glory in our weakness and turn our hearts away from intimidation and bullying and threatening one another.
And give us peace in our souls. Turn us, and we shall be turned. Revive us, and we will be revived. Remind us that we are temples of the living God, that our bodies are sacred spaces where you make your presence known, as you have taught us.
And may that presence go with is, bringing life and peace and beauty wherever we go. Remind us that your strength is seen in our weakness, not in our boasts and bluster and pride.
Turn our heads away from the ugliness of the kingdoms of this world, and cause us to reflect your beauty and life in all that we do. May our words speak peace and our lives speak of rest.
Bless our leaders with wisdom. Give wisdom and justice to Governor Newsom and President Biden, and give them courage to lead with justice and faithfulness. Bless the first responders in our community. May they bring peace and calm whenever they are called out and give them the wisdom to resolve situations quickly. Protect us from those who seek to harm and destroy,
Tear down false shepherds. Destroy those who would hinder and prevent the word of life from taking root in the heart.
Give health to our bodies, which grow weaker each day. Provide for all of our needs.
Give wisdom to mothers and fathers.
And Father, bless our congregation. Bring your sheep in, wherever they are. Gather together your lost lambs.
Bring the wanderers home. Be merciful to our loved ones who have lost their way. May our children and our grandchildren learn of the wonderful works of the Lord and place their trust in you alone.
How we long for your return. Forgive us our sins. Come quickly, Lord Jesus,
And together:
14 Let the words of my mouth,
And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight,
O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Amen
Scripture
Scripture
10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
18 Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
20 And again He said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
sermon
sermon
God created men and women to advance his kingdom through the whole world.
We live in days of constitutional republics, or totalitarianism - or other inventions of the modern age- and so most of us have no idea what a kingdom would be. So we talk about accepting Jesus into your heart, rather than “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
But Jesus talked about kingdoms.
There are three things necessary for a kingdom.
You need people.
You need land.
You need a king.
The kingdom of God is when God’s people live quietly and peacefully under God’s king in God’s land.
This was pictured in David’s reign. God’s people Israel in God’s land of promise under God’s king David. But it was only a shadow. God had far bigger plans of redemption. Even David himself understood that it was just a shadow of the kingdom to come, where justice and righteousness would be perfectly revealed.
1 The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
It was with this Psalm that Jesus stumped the Pharisees. If they thought that David’s reign was the ultimate expression of the kingdom of God, if they were stuck looking backwards instead of forwards - then how can David call his Son “my lord”? Does not this imply that there is a far greater kingdom to come?
When Jesus came into the world, the rumor spread, “Is this the Christ? Is this the Son of David? Is this the promised king?”
If, as the Psalms say, he is coming to bring righteousness and justice to his people and to establish his kingdom on this earth - then that, of course, means that he will destroy Romans, enforce the Sabbath laws, put an end to debauchery, and keep people under control.
But the Jews of that day, just like all of us in every age, struggle to see beyond the flesh. We still think that God’s people is everyone that is just like us; God’s land is the nation that we happen to live in, and God’s king will act according to my expectations of what is righteous and just.
But God, just as foretold over and over again in the scriptures - has a far greater kingdom in mind then simply a recapitulation of David’s reign in Jerusalem.
1 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And peoples shall flow to it.
2 Many nations shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
God’s king will be the Son of David, who sits in Zion - and he will also be God Himself.
God’s people will be all who are taught by God’s king and walk in his paths. And we reign with him since we are all members of Christ
And God’s land is the whole world.
This means that Satan must be cast out.
After the fall of man, God placed him under the bondage of the devil. He holds the world in bondage through the fear of death. He is called the prince of the power of the air. He reigned without hindrance before Jesus came into the world.
Jesus was after a far greater enemy than the Romans. He could have defeated the Romans, and this woman would have still been bent over in brutal pain.
He could have cast all of them down at once, and towers would have still fallen. Death would still reign.
And there would still be no rest - no calm, patient sitting under each man’s vine and fig tree.
That is certainly NOT the kingdom that God describes in the scripture.
Unless Satan is cast out, there can be no rest. Unless sin is crushed underfoot and death is destroyed, there can be no rest.
Suppose the Romans WERE cast out and a Jewish man were placed on the throne. Then what?
That’s been done. And it ended the same every time.
What we long for is a far greater kingdom. But the flesh continues to convince us that the kingdom of God would come through strength, power, money, numbers, righteous war, strong leaders...
One kingdom replaces another kingdom. The king is dead. Long live the king. Same as the old king.
When you read through the history of the kings of Israel - they rejected David’s heirs, so they had one revolution right after another.
And thus the history of the world - one conspiracy, one kingdom, displaces another kingdom, grows strong and is itself replaced by another kingdom.
All of them seeking the kingdom of God on this earth. We will bring about the chicken in every pot, peace and prosperity - and all we need to do is get rid of the others.
In the 19th and early 20th century, the world and the church dreamt of God’s kingdom on the earth. It would be brought about by the principles of the enlightenment, rational thought, science, political action, social engineering - and then came Hitler and Stalin
In the aftermath of 2 world wars, that dream faded. German Theologian Helmut Thielicke said this in Berlin in 1945, right after WW2
Thielicke
Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 Chapter 58: See How It Grows (Luke 13:18–21)
Who can still believe today that we are developing toward a state in which the kingdom of God reigns in the world of nations, in culture, and in the life of the individual? The earth has been plowed too deep by the curse of war, the streams of blood and tears have swollen all too terribly, injustice and bestiality have become all too cruel and obvious for us to consider such dreams to be anything but bubbles and froth.
The dream comes and goes in every age. It was revived again in America in the 70s and 80s. The moral majority, the religious right - the kingdom of God brought about by the right politicians.
As humans in God’s image, we have strong memories of Eden and long for the day when the kingdom of God is restored. We were created to have dominion. It is hardwired into us - but those desires are fallen, and our nature is sinful. Now we seek to take dominion by force, join together and bring about the New Age. The Jews of Jesus’ day coveted taking their kingdom back from the Romans. The Romans strongly coveted spreading the Peace of Rome throughout the world.
And every time we seek to build the Tower of Babel on this earth, it ends the same way. We destroy those who won’t get with the program.
I pointed this out last week, in the first part of this chapter. “Did you hear about those Galileans? Did you hear about those city people who couldn’t build a tower?” They aren’t like us. They are getting in the way of progress. They are causing bad things to happen. God won’t bless us because of them.
How can God establish his kingdom when Galileans keep getting in the way?
The worship of strength and power always ends like that. And then God scatters them all over the earth - because the kingdom of heaven will not come by flesh and blood.
No flesh and blood could have fixed this woman. There was no strength in doctors, science, politics, education - that could have solved it.
2,000 years later, we haven’t progressed all that much. We understand more. God has given us vaccines, antibacterial medications - some pretty amazing things.
But chronic illness still abounds. Every still dies. Women are still bent almost double in pain. And now we take our disabled and shuffle them away into homes - out of sight out of mind.
Because they get in the way of the program!
What we need is influence. Power. Money. Politicians.
What is one old woman compared to the great ministry God has called us to?
What is one abused child? What is one outcast man? If you aren’t on the bus, you’ll get run over.
And everyone cheers. We can’t let one person get in the way of the ministry!! God’s doing great things here!
Jesus’ compassion
Jesus’ compassion
And Jesus sees her. He not only sees her, he has compassion on her.
Gregory of Nyssa said “Mercy is a voluntary sorrow which enjoins itself to the suffering of another.” And this is what Jesus did for us.
He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief - because of OUR sin and OUR misery. And so with this woman.
Look at what he does. He calls her to himself.
“Come here. It’s OK.” And she perceived in him something beautiful and inviting - not condemnation, but peace in his eyes. She comes.
He touches her. When was the last time she was touched? He didn’t find her untouchable and unwelcome. He reached out his hands and touched her.
And he says, “You are loosed from your infirmity.”
Oh how this resonates with me. Do any of you have chronic back pain?
Can you imagine the voice of Jesus taking all of it away? In my mind, her back crackles all the way up, loosens up, the muscles un-tense, the fused spine un-fuses, and you can stand up and for the very first time you are without pain!!
This is so, so different than gathering a million men and marching on Rome. There’s no parade. There’s no sword. No cavalry. No armor. No crucifixions. No prisons or torture chambers, no gas ovens or gulags. No chants of “Lock her up!!”
An invitation. a touch. a word.
And Satan’s empire falls just a little bit more.
An invitation. A touch. A word.
But even this is a picture of something far greater - that is the gospel.
Jesus died for our sins according to the scripture. He rose the third day according to the scripture.
He is even now gathering, defending, preserving his people according to the scripture.
But the method is always the same.
An invitation. A touch. A word.
The gospel call is sent out. The Holy Spirit draws God’s people together in a fellowship of love. And the gospel is proclaimed. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
You will be delivered from the bondage of sin. You will be welcomed into HIS community. And you will one day be called from the ground - your body will raise up, and you will glorify God.
Your pain will be gone. Your anxiety and sadness and loneliness and fears all taken away when He returns. But today, right now, you are already loosed from the curse of the law.
Because Jesus calls you, lays his hands on you, and speaks to you through his words.
There is therefore now no condemnation. And if there is no condemnation, resurrection is assured, glory is assured - and we will walk in the kingdom of God when it is finally revealed on this earth.
The ruler’s indignation
The ruler’s indignation
But we always want something on OUR timetable. We don’t want to wait for the voice of the Son of God. We need to take action NOW!
How are we going to teach sinners how to please God if we don’t do a Sabbath campaign??
How are we going to defeat Romans if we bother with every hurting person that comes along.
And I think it comes down to this. God isn’t doing it fast enough.
How do I know that God will do it right? He’s taking too long. On the one hand, we complain that God isn’t doing enough about sin in the world. Why does God allow wicked people to hurt and destroy and wound?
But on the other hand, we are angry because God judged a whole nation in the days of Joshua. We want God to judge, but only our way.
We want God to deliver us, but only our way. And he takes far too long.
Let’s build a tower. Let’s build a city. Let’s gather a coalition.
And then what? Suppose we get everything we think we desire. Suppose that congress, the president, the supreme court, every governor, every Senator - all of them - came from the right party. We finally win and have OUR GUYS in office.
Then what? Hasn’t that been tried before? Isn’t that just what the communist party was?
Is that what the kingdom of heaven looks like?
God’s kingdom is a different sort of kingdom. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight.”
Mustard seed
Mustard seed
The plant is a bit different than the plants we have all around us in our orchards. Still, you get the point. One tiny seed, and soon it grows to a great tree and the birds rest in the branches.
He is referring to Daniel 4:10-12
10 These were the visions of my head while on my bed:
I was looking, and behold,
A tree in the midst of the earth,
And its height was great.
11 The tree grew and became strong;
Its height reached to the heavens,
And it could be seen to the ends of all the earth.
12 Its leaves were lovely,
Its fruit abundant,
And in it was food for all.
The beasts of the field found shade under it,
The birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches,
And all flesh was fed from it.
Daniel is describing Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. It was glorious and provided for the nations of the world. But the next verse is a voice saying, “Chop it down”.
The whole book of Daniel is about the kingdom of heaven and how much greater and more powerful it is than any kingdom of this earth - including Babylon the Great.
But the Jews still dreamed of a kingdom like a great tree - providing magnanimously for the whole world, a blessing to all the nations. But it wouldn’t happen as long as Sabbath breakers were tolerated.
But what they neglected was the immense pain and suffering that the kingdom of Babylon also brought to the world. New scientific discoveries, like hanging gardens, also like how long a body can survive on a cross.
Jesus, reminding his hearers of the tree, suggests two thoughts to the mind - first, remember that the kingdom of God overcomes the kingdom of Babylon. Babylon doesn’t win. The rock cut without hands does.
And second - remember that trees start from tiny seeds.
The kingdom of God isn’t advanced by the weapons of this world. It isn’t a kingdom of this world. It is more like a tree. It is planted in the heart by invitation, by touch, by word. And it grows and it grows and pretty soon you find it all over the world, if you only have eyes to see. But it takes patience.
Leaven
Leaven
The second figure is leaven - a little yeast that affects the whole lump of dough. The word of the good news, the announcement of the resurrection, has the power to infiltrate the soul, and from the soul to other souls and from other souls the cities and from the cities the whole world.
Until the whole lump is leavened.
You could see the disciples looking around. They had just been rebuked and made small by the powerful ruler of the synagogue. They were also despised fishermen from Galilee, and their numbers were very small. And even among them, there was a traitor.
But like leaven, they couldn’t stop. Once filled with the Spirit, they went throughout the whole world, until the whole lump was leavened.
They never fought one battle with swords. They never raised their voices or argued someone down. They never used the words as weapons to shut their opponents down.
They did what Jesus their Lord did.
Invited. Touched lives. Spoke the word. The leaven is mixed into the dough.
The seed is planted.
Now all is needed is time.
Patience
Patience
And this is where patience comes in.
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.
1 Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
31 But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
But we get impatient and start to look for remedies on this earth.
We look to the works of our own hands and cry out, “Save us!”
But God knows how to deliver the righteous from temptation.
God knows how to judge the nations.
God knows how to establish his kingdom.
He’s called us to invite, to touch the lives of others through hospitality, and speak the words of the gospel.
Be freed from your sins and misery! Be freed from the bonds of death. Be freed from the curse of the law!
And after that, to wait.
Maybe one person will hear us.
Maybe two.
But the kingdom of heaven is like a tiny seed, or like a bit of yeast.
It takes time, but the results are glorious!
9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
