Thank you. What I think is really interesting about this, what I think is important about this, is that, again, if you were here last week, it sounds like Paul is just saying the same things that he did last week. And last week we talked about this idea that we who were far from God, that we who were not God's people, have been made God's people, and that's good. Yes and amen, amen, great Felicia, well done. Yeah, that's good, that's good. But here's the deal. When Paul goes on today in this passage to talk again about the idea of Gentiles coming into, god's people, people who are far coming in, we have to ask the question is Paul just simply restating? Is he like do you ever talk to somebody who will stop themselves from saying something to just say what they had just said again? Some of you have talked to me and you know exactly what I'm talking about. Yes, is that what Paul is doing here? Well, the short answer is no, because what Paul is doing today is he's actually unfolding more of the dynamic that he talked about last week. You know, last week we talked about us as people who were far from God being brought in, but it's important that we see that there is another dynamic to this relationship. There's another dynamic that Paul is pulling out, see, because when we say that we were not God's people and that he has brought us in to make us his people, I think that we tend to get this picture that we were like barbarians in the wilderness, like aimlessly wandering and nobody to call our own. But that's not the biblical picture. In fact, the biblical picture is that if you are not under God, if you're not a part of his people, that you're a part of the enemy people. And so when Paul stops to say again that we Gentiles have been brought into God's people, what he's drawing attention to this time is not us, but our old allegiances, the people that we used to be, the kingdom that we used to belong to. So it means that everyone who is not under God's rule was under a different rule.
Speaker 1:To say it bluntly and maybe uncomfortably for us, anyone who is not under God's authority is under the rule of some other spiritual authority. Are we uncomfortable yet? Good, well, I mean, buckle up, because we're going on a ride today, guys. This is it. This is it, see, if you're paying attention, if you look in our passage and all throughout the book of Ephesians so far, paul keeps using the language of rulers and authorities. He talks about the prince of the power of the air. He's talking about real, personal, spiritual evil. Okay, and this is hard. This is hard for us Because I don't know if you know this we live in Madison, wisconsin. Good, we're all here together, and I just think that if we were to literally step outside this building and start taking the temperature of people walking by and we start asking them questions like, hey, do you believe in God, do you believe in spiritual evil, do you believe in the devil, we're going to get progressively more like concerned faces right and statistics support this.
Speaker 1:Like Gallup, an organization that does a lot of polling around things like this, they did a poll. They've done polls actually for like the last 22 years, tracking how people think about these kinds of things, and so here's what they found In 2001, 90% of people believed in God and only 68% of people believed in the devil. Now, this is interesting. Actually, if you go further back before 2001, to the 90s, belief in the devil was even lower, and so if you go to the 80s and 90s, it was something like 50% of people believe in the devil and close to 90% believe in God, and so what has happened over time in these past 22 years is that those numbers have both gone down, and so the most recent poll that I saw, in 2023, has belief in God at 74% and the belief in the devil back down into the 50s. And so I just want to say, if you're feeling uncomfortable with this idea of like the devil and spiritual evil, you're in great company, because that's apparently most of America and and it's super interesting because you know they they take these polls and they divide them by by race, by political affiliation, by income level, all kinds of things and, and the more you dive into that, the stranger these numbers become.
Speaker 1:But I, what I want to say, what I just want to put out there for us, is that wherever we're at this morning because when I look out in this room, my guess is that some percentage of us are very uncomfortable with the idea of a personal evil, spiritual being it's uncomfortable. I am, I'll be honest. This is uncomfortable to think about and talk about. What I want to challenge us with today, encourage us with, is to really hear how the Bible describes these things, how the Bible describes evil real spiritual evil and how the Bible says that it interacts and intersects with our lives. And what I think is that, even though this is going to be tough, what I think is that it's going to be helpful for us to really understand the world in a way that, like a purely physical, purely materialistic worldview does not. And here's the deal as uncomfortable as we are with this, when we look out at the rest of the world, at the non-Western world, and when we look all throughout human history, there is a universal experience that there is more to this world than just the physical, this thing, that we're experiencing the disbelieving in the supernatural and, in particular, disbelieving in the evil supernatural. This is a new and distinct phenomenon in the history of humanity. Everyone else, everyone else, all times, believed in this, and so I say that only to say that, as American people living in Madison, wisconsin, we have to check our default position on this. Let's just as open-minded as we can listen to what the Bible has to say, listen to how Paul describes these things, and again, I think that we're going to see that this is a useful thing to talk about. And so we're going to jump into our passage today and what you see in your bulletins. If you see the outline. We're going to jump into our passage and we're going to talk about how God has related to us through Christ, and what we're going to see is that we have been claimed by Christ.
Speaker 1:And I use this word claimed because the picture we get in the Bible, the picture that we get in Ephesians, is this idea of a king, a king who is rightfully in charge of the world but has for some reason gone away or stepped away or something, and other servants have tried to fill his place. Do you know the movie Robin Hood? Of course, the classic Disney version of this story. I don't care about any class in whatever literature Disney, robin Hood with the Fox. So so the point of this story is that King Richard is away. He's doing very important things. He's he's fighting the crusades, which we don't talk about. That We'll leave that aside, but. But he's a good King and we all love him, right? But while he's gone, what's happened? The sheriff of Nottingham his brother, there you go has stepped into his throne and has taken over control of Nottingham and the kingdom and he's ruling it terribly right. And the whole story of Robin Hood is about Robin and the gang kind of fighting against this tyranny.
Speaker 1:But the pretext, the subtext of this is that at any point there's a threat that King Richard can come back. And when he comes back, what does he do? He's going to knock out his worthless brother, he's going to reestablish rule and he's going to save his people from this wicked king. That is the picture of what Jesus has done for us. Jesus has come back. He's a rightful king who's come to claim us, claim his people and claim his throne. And so what we're going to do is we're going to unpack that idea today. We're going to unpack it in three parts. We're going to look at our old tyrants, we're going to look at our liberator and then we're going to look at life with our new king. So again, we're going to see our old tyrants, our liberator and our new king. And again I just want to encourage you this is going to be tough. That's the climate we're in, but I believe that if we can grasp what Paul is getting at, we're going to walk away really encouraged and filled today. So let's pray that that's what happens.
Speaker 1:Lord, I just thank you for this day. Thank you for all that you give us, thank you for your word. I thank you for these just difficult ideas, these things that are hard to chew on. But I thank you, lord, that you tell us these things, not so that we'd be afraid, but so that you can show us how good and strong you are and so that we can be comforted. And so I pray, lord, that as we unpack the truths of your word today, as we unpack this idea of spiritual evil today and the ways that you have defeated it, I pray that you would encourage us, you should open our eyes and our ears and our heart to what you have for us. And I pray, lord, that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be glorifying to you, our God and Redeemer. So, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay, first let's talk about our old tyrants. What do we mean by old tyrants? Well, like I said earlier, we are talking about spiritual beings. Okay, whether you want to call them little g-gods, angels and demons, whatever, the Bible is clear that there are personal spiritual beings and, specifically, we're going to see how Paul describes them, this picture that he paints in Ephesians of them, and we're going to see how Paul describes them, this picture that he paints in Ephesians of them, and we're going to see two things about these guys. One is that they have influence and two is that they are evil, that they use that influence for evil. And so if you have your Bibles open up to Ephesians, we're going to flip back some to see all that.
Speaker 1:Paul's talked about this. But I just want to look at verse 10 of our chapter again, chapter 3, verse 10. Now remember, jessica, just read this. What Paul is talking about is he's talking about about God unfolding his big plan to save us. And he says in verse 10, so that, so you just see all of this big plan unfolding. Paul talks about his apostleship, his mission, his ministry, all that so that, so that, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. So there's a big pointed purpose statement here. All of this was so that God's wisdom would be made known to these rulers and authorities. And so what we have to see here Paul is describing these guys as rulers and authorities. That's very specific language. He's using this phrase, and he used this phrase earlier too. He used this in chapter 1. Look back at chapter 1 with me, to verses 20 through 21.
Speaker 1:And here again, paul is talking about God's plans unfolding, talking about the power that is at work in us and in verse 20, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. And so there's a saying, very simply Jesus is the ultimate boss, he's the king of the universe, he's absolutely at the top of the cosmic food chain. And the way that Paul describes that is by saying that Jesus is seated above the other rulers and authorities. And again, this term rulers and authorities is intentional. He calls them that because they have rule, they have authority. This is a descriptive term to what they do. In other words, paul defines these beings by the fact that they have an exercise influence over the world. So the picture we get is that Jesus has climbed past all of these other guys, these gods of ancient mythologies, whatever, gods of ancient mythologies, whatever. He's climbed past these other beings to become the most important and the most powerful being in the universe. And here's the idea. When we hear that, we start to load in our ideas about the gods, about mythologies, about the different pantheons or whatever. And here's the deal. That's not quite right, but it's closer than some of us might be comfortable with. Here's why I say that One of the themes in the Bible is God going to war with enemy gods, with the Lord fighting with the gods of the nations.
Speaker 1:And you see this really clearly in the book of Exodus, when the Israelite people are under the slavery of Pharaoh in Egypt, god is working out a plan to free them. And then, as God is telling Moses about the 10th plague that he's going to send, the plague of the death of the firstborn child, he's describing what's going to happen to Moses and he says this he says I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. I mean so. Is God saying? I'm going to go through and I'm going to tell those hunks of metal and stone what's what? I'm the real boss here? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think what he's saying is what Paul is saying in our passage. I think he's referring to these same rulers and authorities, whatever they are, these spiritual beings and he's saying I am going to judge them, they're going to pay for what they did. Judge them, they're going to pay for what they did.
Speaker 1:And the Bible accepts this idea that there are other spiritual beings, but says that they wrongfully claim a godlike status, that they claim to be gods and they're not. And this is a key distinction, because you know and they're not. And this is a key distinction Because you know, every other mythology in the world has this idea of many gods, like a pantheon of gods, and the picture is always that these guys are more or less on equal footing and that they're all vying for power or their dominion or their wills or whatever. But that is not the picture here. The picture here is that the Lord is the real, true creator. He made everything. He is rightfully in charge. The point, the picture is that these other spiritual beings have attempted to usurp his throne, tried to take over rule of the world and have led people astray in various ways. They started twisting things, they started conniving. That's how we get the worship of these false gods and really, that's how we get evil in the world. That's how we get the messed up things that we see going on out there around us.
Speaker 1:And here's the deal. What we see in this is that these spiritual beings are exercising influence over the world, and the problem is that it's much subtler than we want it to be or want to admit that it is. It's a subtle, very sinister kind of influence, and we see that in Ephesians 2. So look at Ephesians 2 with me. Ephesians 2, 1 and 2. It's a powerful verse, powerful two verses. We love these verses.
Speaker 1:Paul says you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience, and I love this passage. I love this passage. But what I found for me and I don't know if this resonates with you, what I found for me is that when I read that, it is really easy to stop after the first part of verse one you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, and I say spiritual deadness. I understand that. Yes, I get that. That tracks with me, and then I just gloss over the rest of those two verses. Right, I don't know if you do this, but my mind just says I don't know about those words, we'll put them aside.
Speaker 1:But here's the deal. It's saying that the prince of the power of the air, let's just say, let's say this in simpler terms the devil, satan, exercises power and influence over people, over people, man. Are we uncomfortable? Yet I am, maybe you guys are fine, but I'm uncomfortable up here. So here's the deal.
Speaker 1:When we think about that, when we hear that our minds automatically go to extreme things, go to very obvious examples of this, when we hear that people are following Satan, we think, oh, folks in the woods doing weird cultic sacrifices and worshiping the devil.
Speaker 1:But here's the deal. That is not the picture here. That is an extreme, obvious one. But that's not the picture, because Paul goes on to say what it does mean to follow Satan in verse 3. Look at verse 3. Among whom we all once lived. This means all of us were once following him. This means all of us were once following him and we lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our hearts and minds Sorry, our bodies and minds and we were, by nature, children of wrath. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying that being influenced by Satan means pursuing the desires of our bodies and minds. It's saying that to follow this great spiritual evil does not necessarily mean weird cult stuff in the woods, sacrificing goats at midnight. It means following us and following the things that we want to do our own desires. And this is interesting because this is contrary to a lot of, I would say, conservative Christianity, a lot of pop culture, where the only ways that we can really grasp this idea of following the spiritual evil is the big bad things, that the way he seems to work is not by pushing us to do these extreme evils that we would never want to do, but by taking the things that we already do want to do and twisting them for evil. And so here, let me put it this way Tim Keller, love Keller. You all know that by now. He said it so wonderfully he talked about.
Speaker 1:So he's in New York City, right, and he's preaching to a room full of like business executives. He's the Upper East Side of Manhattan. You know people in finance, classic, right. And what he warns them directly warns them. He says look, none of you. When you sat out on this field, in this job, none of you said you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to climb to the top of pharmaceutical company and gouge prices so that poor people will die.
Speaker 1:No one says that. No one wakes up with their new college degree and says, I'm going to go destroy the world. That's not what happens. What happens is that every single one of us is pursuing good, god-given desires, desires to do a good job, desires for success, the desire for stability for our family, all these things. We're taking these desires and we are taking one step at a time towards absolute destruction.
Speaker 1:He says no one wakes up with this intention of destroying the world. No, we all are following our desires and we're justifying it, we're explaining it. We're not saying, yes, I get to oppress the poor today. We're saying, well, look, the company has to make a profit. We're not saying, man, I, the company has to make a profit. We're not saying, man, I hope that somebody dies because of my decisions. We're saying, what am I going to do? My hands are tied, I have to. I have to bring home money for my family. You see what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:Like the way that it plays out for us is that we don't. We take one normal, logical step at a time and then the next thing we know we're in too deep and we may feel it. We may feel that, like I don't love what I'm doing, but what else can I do? That's the way that Satan works. That's the way that spiritual evil works. It's subtle, much more so than we would want to admit. It exercises evil influence over people in the world in subtle ways. It doesn't, it's pulling, it's nudging. We don't feel that cold, clammy hand shoving us in a direction. It's a very gradual process. It feels like this is just the way the world works, feels like this is just the way the world works. And again, this might be strange or uncomfortable, and here's the deal.
Speaker 1:A lot of us are carrying this baggage into this room, where we have heard people, heard Christians say things like oh, the devil made me do it, oh, I wasn't in control, it was somebody else, it was something else. And what I want us to see is that's not the picture the Bible paints. Just because there is real spiritual evil that exercises influence over us does not mean that people are not responsible for their actions. And really, what I want to argue today is that spiritual evil doesn't explain the totality of our experience either, you know. And when we look at these horrible things in the world. You know, when we look at like really evil, heinous things, like people coming to power in big companies and oppressing the poor, when we think about youths taking weapons to school, when we think about these big, clearly evil things, our culture is going to tend to take one aspect of the problem and blow it out of proportion. And our culture is going to tend to say, oh, this is clearly a psychological problem. Oh, this boy, this is clearly a social problem. He was failed by his family. He was failed by his culture. You know what? This is a neurological problem. He was failed by his family. He was failed by his culture. You know what this is a neurological problem? Clearly, there is brain chemistry that is not working properly here.
Speaker 1:Some, unfortunately, christians are going to say no, this is simply a moral problem. He should have made better choices. But the Bible says look, all that is true. But the bible says look all that is true. And there's another element that we have to acknowledge. There is another dimension at play here that we have to accept and that there is true spiritual evil that is exercising influence and, so to say, the devil made me do it. Nope, that's wrong, but to say, oh, my brain is messed up, that's why I did it. Look, that's not the full picture either.
Speaker 1:The Bible suggests a complex, rounded view of the problem of evil in our world, and what I want to draw your attention to today, what I want to argue for, is this spiritual dimension, and that it is powerful and that it does exercise influence and that it affects the world around us, and what I want us to see is that that's why it is such good news that we have a Savior, that we have Jesus, our liberator. And so how did Jesus free us from these powers? Well, you know, you guys know the answer to this he did it on the cross, he accomplished it on the cross, and we've seen Paul developing this idea throughout the book of Ephesians so far, and what we see is that one of the things that Jesus accomplished on the cross, in his resurrection, is that when he died, part of us died with him and that when he rose from the grave, we got a new life. In other words, before Jesus, we in this room were under the spiritual influence of evil. We were like citizens of an evil kingdom. We were subject to its laws, we were subject to its influence. And what Jesus did? The picture we get is that. What Jesus did is he took that citizenship, he took that status, he took that part of us that was dead but, more specifically, that was slaves to these spiritual forces, and internalized it, took it into himself, and then he died to kill it. He took the place, he took our place as subjects of evil and took our spiritual deadness inside him so that, when he rose from the grave, he'd give us new life, new allegiance, new relationship to these spiritual beings.
Speaker 1:Remember, last week we talked about how God destroyed the hostility between Jews and Gentiles. You know, there was this dividing wall, this thing that separated us from God's people. Well, he destroyed something else. He destroyed that slavery. He destroyed that subject to the evil forces. And the picture, guys I mean this is too big, this is too big for my brain to wrap around. The picture is now that we're not just free but we're with him, and it's not just him on the throne. But do you remember?
Speaker 1:What Paul keeps saying over and over Is that we are sitting with him on this cosmic throne. What in the world does that mean, guys? I have no idea. This is, I mean, this is like we could probably think about this for the rest of the time. My guess is we will think about this for the rest of the time. But this is an incredible, huge thing, because it means that we have victory. It means that in Christ, we are put above these things. It means that we have victory. It means that in Christ, we are put above these things. It means that Jesus has won and Jesus died to save us. And this is why Paul can say in Romans I'm sure you've heard this we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. It's like you're a citizen of a bad kingdom and you got to try to get out, and so it's like Jesus faked his death and now you are no longer legally tied to this nation. You can come with him, you can escape and be set free.
Speaker 1:And, in fact, what this reminds me of is the movie Captain America Winter Soldier. Yes, we're talking about Captain America. If you remember, in this movie there's a part where Nick Fury is targeted by HYDRA, the big, bad evil organization, and what they do is they corner him and they turn some of his closest people and they kill him, they try to kill him and then, if you remember, in the movie it looks like these guys are successful. Nick Fury dead, I think. We see a skeleton on the ground and everything. He is gone. And so the bad guys, they leave him alone Because he's dead, he's not our problem anymore, and they go on to you know, unfold their big plan against Captain America. But what we find out later on in the movie is that it turns out Nick Fury is not dead, he was alive. But because he faked dead, he was freed from the oppression of this group.
Speaker 1:And look, yes, this analogy, this comparison with Nick Fury and Captain America and Jesus falls through, but it's the same picture. Jesus died so that our allegiance would be dead. And here's what I want us to see. Here's one of the things I want us to see.
Speaker 1:Paul says in our passage that the reason why Jesus did this, the reason why God did this, the reason why he unfolded all of this, the way he did, was to show off his wisdom to the rulers and authorities. In other words authorities. In other words, jesus won, and he wants to gloat about it. He wants to really rub it in their faces that he got them. And theologically, there's a term for this. This is really neat. We call it Christus Victor, and it's this idea that when Jesus went to war with the spiritual rulers and authorities and when he went to the cross, it seems as though he was defeated. It seems as though all hope was lost. It seems as though they had won.
Speaker 1:But we find out that no, this was the plan all along, and the picture we get is that as Jesus gets up from the grave and walks out, that this is like a victory march, this is a victory lap, he is rubbing it in these guys' faces I won, you lost. There's nothing you can do about it. That gets me pumped. I love this stuff and here's what I think. I think that for those of us here in this room, when I say Jesus conquered evil, when I say that we have, in Christ, victory over evil, we all go yes, amen. And then we think I wonder what we're going to do for lunch. And then we think I wonder what we're going to do for lunch Because here's the deal we hear this phrase a lot in the church.
Speaker 1:We hear this idea that Jesus defeated evil a lot. I think this is really a palatable concept for us, but we tend to minimize its significance Because we live in a culture that says there is no such thing as supernatural evil. We just we're swimming in these waters. We tend to imbibe it and then we tend to disregard this dimension of our faith. We tend to downplay the spiritual component of life and we shrink the statement. We shrink it to say something like, yeah, Jesus beat those bad thoughts that I have, or Jesus beat the temptations that I have, but it's so much bigger than that. It is cosmically bigger than that. Because let's say for just a moment, let's indulge me and say that we view the world in a fully supernatural way, like the Bible suggests. All throughout history. That's perfect timing for that. Okay, let's backtrack. Let's pretend like we have this supernatural worldview. Look, I'm getting attacked right now, do you see it? Okay, let's pretend we have a supernatural worldview. Okay, let's pretend that we view the world the way the Bible does.
Speaker 1:All throughout history, all throughout human history, people have experienced this primarily as powerlessness. Edith Hamilton, the author of the book on Greek mythology. She describes the ancient pagan, but primarily Greek and pre-Greek worldview like this she says that what is most clear about the ancient Greeks and their predecessors is that they were terrified of the world and its mysteries. They were terrified of the world and its mysteries. And look, whether you believe in the anthropomorphized forces that the Greeks did, whether you're talking about something else. Whatever it is, these ancient Greeks understood the powerlessness of their position in relation to these beings. In fact, you could say that was their primary experience with these beings was their powerlessness.
Speaker 1:It's put in different ways. Say, you're a farmer when Zeus brings a storm that will wipe out your crops, you don't do something about it, you hold on and pray that it won't be so bad about it. You hold on and pray that it won't be so bad. Or when you are going about your business and all of a sudden a loved one has died, you're not trying to exercise some control over Hades, you just hold on and you pray that they're going to make it to the other side. In other words, they look at the things that are happening in the world around them and they say I clearly have no control over these things that are happening. They understood very well the fact that the world was not subject to them.
Speaker 1:And look, while we may struggle with the idea of a supernatural world, my guess is that we don't struggle with the idea of a chaotic world. My guess is that we are very comfortable saying, yes, the world is chaotic and out of our control. And look, I'm not trying to downplay the spiritual element, but even aside from that, we fully know that there are forces at work in the world that very much seem to be against us. And they seem powerful and it seems like we are helpless against them. And if you need a better example of this man, you ask a farmer today hey, what's your relationship with the weather? Like Prayer. You ask a doctor hey, what's your relationship with disease and death? Like Prayer. And a lot of work, of course, a lot of intelligent work. But at the end of the day, every time sorry, joe, I put you on the spot Every time I've talked to Joe about this, the thing I always hear him say is we are ultimately powerless against death.
Speaker 1:We know this, it's coming. So how do we face these things? How do we face these things, these spiritual forces that are against us? How do we face the helplessness that we experience in life? It brings us to our last point. We turn to our new king, specifically, as Christians, we cannot forget that our Lord Jesus has conquered these things. And, friends, it is one thing to say that God is in control. It is another thing to look disease and evil and death in the face and say my God has defeated you, to say that these things you do not have the last word. My Lord Jesus does. And so, practically, what does that mean? Well, some Christians have taken this to mean that if we were truly spiritual, if we truly exercise the spiritual power that we have, that we would not experience these things because they have no power over us.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's really the picture here, and I think we see that most clearly with death. And if we look at Paul, I mean you talk about someone who understood better than any human in history what it means that Jesus won. You're talking about Paul, and Paul, he looks death in the face multiple times throughout the New Testament and he says some of the wildest stuff you've ever heard. He says this in 1 Corinthians 15. He says he's quoting an Old Testament psalm. He says death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? Guys, this is a taunt. This is probably, I think, the first instance of death metal music in history. Like Paul is laying into it right.
Speaker 1:And so we have to ask the question. Those of us sitting here we know, yeah, paul died. He died a long time ago. And so it's like are we saying that Paul wasn't spiritual enough to beat death? No, absolutely not what we're saying. What I'm saying is that death has lost its power over us, power in, like the ultimate sense, power in the sense that when Paul looks at death that is coming for him, he says I'm not afraid of you anymore. I'm not afraid because you are not the end of the story anymore. I know that Jesus is waiting for me on the other side, and that's why Paul can say wild things like to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul, are you nuts? That is a crazy thing to say. It's because he understands. He understands that Jesus won, that he beat death. He knows that death doesn't have all the cards anymore. It's played its hand and it's lost. Still, that's what it means. I want to end with this.
Speaker 1:Paul's conclusion in this whole passage is in verse 13. Look at that with me. Is in verse 13. Look at that with me. All this stuff we just talked about Gentiles coming to the faith, jesus defeating the spiritual evil in the world, paul's mission, all of this he says. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I'm suffering for you, which is your glory. See, at this point Paul's in prison and word's getting out.
Speaker 1:People are hearing that, hey, this guy, paul, he claims to be kind of a big deal. He claims to be an apostle of the true Lord of the universe, the one who is victorious over all of reality. And he's rotting in the jail cell. And the natural question that people are asking is like Paul, are you sure you're on the right track here? Because it would seem to me that if this God really was all-powerful, that he would get his number one man out of prison. But he doesn't. And Paul's response is essentially look, don't be distracted, don't give up, because God really, truly, is in control. And again, for those of us sitting here, me saying our God is sovereign, it's a very palatable concept. It's hard to swallow but it's palatable. But what I want us to see is that the way that Paul gets here is through the true fact that Jesus has defeated spiritual evil in the world.
Speaker 1:The way that Paul comes to this conclusion of trust God he's in control is because God won. Specifically, god was always going to win. See, because we see that before God ever made anything, before God made a whole world, he knew how he was going to fix it. Before there was ever the problem of evil, god had a solution to evil. Before there was ever a place to fix, a people to rescue, or evil to defeat, the Father knew that the Son would go and do that. And for however long the world has been spinning and for however long spiritual beings have influenced and led humans astray, and for however long people have walked in sin and been separated from God, god was executing his plans from God. God was executing his plans. And it turns out that, despite this vast knowledge, despite these domains and powers and influences, these spiritual beings had no idea. They were duped, completely defeated. They had no idea what God's plan was and, worse for them, they were pawns, they were a part of it. And we see this again clearly in the gospel, because our Lord Jesus became human. And what did he do? He came to earth and subjected himself to the rulers and the authorities, to the spiritual powers.
Speaker 1:And you know the book of John. It says that Judas, the guy who betrayed Jesus at the very end, that he was being influenced by Satan. And there's this powerful scene near the end of John where Jesus is with all of his disciples and they're eating dinner. And Jesus says, look, one of you will betray me. And if you remember, you know, some of them start like nudging each other. Who is this guy? And they ask Jesus he's like I know who it is. And he looks at Judas and the book of John says the wildest thing. It says that then Satan entered into Judas and Jesus looked him in the eye and he said to him what you're about to do, do it quick. And you imagine, judas went off and he betrayed Jesus, sold him out, set him up for this sham trial that eventually led to the cross.
Speaker 1:And you have to picture at this point that Satan must have thought that he won right. He killed the God of the universe, the king. This is it right? The universe, the king. This is it right? But it turns out it wasn't. It wasn't a win, it was the plan. It was the plan the whole time. He rose from the grave. He defeated death, he defeated Satan and friends, what I want each of us to consider today is that, if these spiritual beings, if Satan himself, who surely sees and understands more than we do.
Speaker 1:If even he could not see God's plan coming, if even he could not do anything to stop it and, in fact, if even he was just a pawn in the game, what can we do but trust this God? What can we do but trust this Lord? I mean, he defeated Satan by surrendering to him. What a wild idea, Friends. This is the king that we worship. This is the king that we worship, this is the king that we trust. This is the king that Paul says we can approach, the one who loves us, the one who listens to us. This is the king that the Bible says has a good plan for us. This is the king who is in control. Let's pray.