Jesus Threefold Victory Over Satan
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
JESUS THREEFOLD VICTORY OVER SATAN Satan was the reason for Redemption. There could be no Redemption without defeating Satan. Satan’s eternal defeat was part of the Redemptive plan. Hebrews 9:12 (NIV) But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. Satan is Eternally defeated. Jesus Victory in His Earth Walk John 1:14 (NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. This was God’s invasion of the sense realm. Here natural man lived. It could not work without an incarnation. An angel’s visit would not help. God had to come himself. His first combat with Satan with which we are familiar is recorded in Matthew 4:1-11 and in Luke 4:1-13. In both of these records we have Satan attempting to overcome the Incarnate One as he had overcome Adam in the Garden. He tempted Jesus through the senses the same way he tempted Adam, but Jesus met him with the Word, and conquered him when He came down out of the mount. Matthew 4:18-25 (NIV) As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis,[a] Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. From that day until Jesus gave Himself up to the high priest as our Substitute, He met Satan under every possible form of disease that he could bring to man, and in every place He conquered him. He conquered him as a New creation does today. Matthew 14:31-21 is the story of feeding the multitude in the wilderness. Satan had brought want and hunger to humanity. Jesus answers that hunger in His Love. Remember, in the Garden there was everything Adam would need. Need came by way of disobedience and sin. John 11 gives us a picture of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This is not a resurrection of Lazarus. No one had been resurrected. Many had been raised from the dead. You notice that the author clearly states that he had been in the grave four days already. And Martha said, “his body decayeth.” Jesus proved that He was the Master of the adversary who had the authority of death. Hebrews 2:14 (NIV) “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.” Luke 13:11-16 (NIV) we have the story of the woman with the infirmity. In every contact with the adversary, Jesus conquered him. His Substitutionary Sacrifice Man is a spirit being. The real things about man are not his body. When Jesus said, “Him whom the Son sets free is free in reality.” He meant the liberation of the spirit of the man (John 8:36). He did not have reference to physical slavery but to spiritual. Man’s deliverance is threefold. He delivers man spiritually from the hand of the enemy. He delivers him physically from disease and hunger and want. He delivers him mentally from being ruled by the senses and brings his spirit, that had been a slave through all the ages, to dominate his thinking and his physical actions. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NIV) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. God reveals to Paul of the substitutionary sacrifice of His Son is the most amazing document in any language. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Isaiah 53:4-6 (NIV) Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This is His Substitutionary work in history and it governs the three parts – His spirit, soul, and body and then he leads us through the rest of the chapter showing man’s threefold deliverance from the authority of the adversary. Romans 3:21-26 (NIV) But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[b] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Righteousness is the key to the substitutionary work of Christ. The object of Christ’s finished work was that He might make it possible for natural man to become a New Creation and by that New Creation become the righteousness of God in Christ. Righteousness means the ability to stand in God’s presence as though sin had never been – stand there without any sense of inferiority or condemnation. That means now – not after death. Colossians 2:15; Revelation 1:18 gives us a picture of the combat that Jesus had with the adversary after He had satisfied the claims of justice and had been made alive in spirit. 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Timothy 3:16 (please read these verses). His Victory over Satan in the New Creation Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. When Jesus was recreated down in that dark region as the head of the church, we, in the mind of justice, were recreated, too, when Jesus conquered the adversary, when He put Satan to naught, it is as though we alone had done it. When He rose from the dead, it was our resurrection. And as He appeared among men, it was a type of our resurrection life that we live today. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! The New Creation is absolutely a master over the adversary. The prince of this world came to Jesus but could find nothing in Him. And the prince of this world, Satan, can come to the New Creation and can find nothing in him. If he could find anything in him, he would have dominion over him; but there isn’t for he has the nature and life of God. 1 John 4:4 (NIV) You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. The One who raised Jesus from the dead is in you – the New Creation. You have the life and nature of God, and the One that is in you is greater than any force or power outside of you. 1 John 5:4-5 (NIV) for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. QUESTIONS 1. In what three ways did Jesus defeat Satan? 2.