“The Strong man competition”
Gladstone Baptist Church – 6/8/06 pm
S1 - When we look around the world, we sometimes doubt that good is winning the war against Evil (OOPS)
Earlier in the service, I asked you to share with each other who was the strongest man you knew or could think of. What were some of the answers you came across?
As a child, I used to love watching the wide world of sports and seeing the strong man competitions. Does anyone remember those competitions. It used to amaze me what these guys did. They are the ones who compete to find out who is the strongest. They pull trucks and planes in time trial races, they lift giant logs – a weight of 190kg above their heads; they race around a course with 2 fridges weighing 415kg on their back. They lift boulders weighing upto 160kg onto stands. They lift and hold cars. These guys are strong!!!
Strength is a good thing isn’t it – we are amazed by strength, but strength can be used for good or for bad. What do you think of when I say the word “bully?” Often you’ll picture a kid that is big, looks tough and mean. He is strong and able to push everyone else around.
Even as adults, the stronger a person is often the more power they can wield. As we grow up, though, power takes on different forms than simply muscle bulk. There is still muscle power, but there is power in organisational structures, in information, in money, in politics. Unfortunately though, no matter what clothes the power is dressed it, it can still be used for good or evil.
When we look around at our world, we see so many examples of people or systems or structures that are powerful and are using their power for evil, for self profit. I think it is absolutely wrong that CEO’s in leading companies are getting paid in the millions when some people in our country are barely able to survive from week to week. But the powerful ensure that they are looked after.
When we look around the world at all that is wrong in it and all the power hungry people exploiting and abusing those around them, we sometimes doubt that good is winning in the war against evil. Who is gaining the most ground in the battle of good verses evil? Do we see the crime rate increasing or decreasing? Do we see families on the whole becoming healthier or sicker? Do we see more exploitation happening or less? Do we see more terrorism or less? I could go on and on. But to me it seems like evil is winning this war.
S2 - What this implies is that Satan is stronger that God and that God is powerless to bring about Good. (UGH)
And that has some fairly serious consequences. It implies that the forces of evil are stronger than the forces of good. And more worrying, it implies that Satan – the commander of all that is evil – is stronger than God. How can that be?
Eph 6:12 says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Is God powerless to bring about good in this world? Is Satan really stronger than God? This is concerning isn’t it.
S3 - But that is not the case. Jesus has got power over Satan and he proved it on many occasions. The unfortunate thing is that many people won’t acknowledge it as God’s power. (AHA) v14-16
But as I read my bible, I see quite clearly that Jesus is stronger than Satan. He has more power than Satan and he proved it on many occasions.
If you have your Bibles there, open them up to
Luke 11:14-28
14 Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. 15 But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” 16 Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
17 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 18 If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. 19 Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. 22 But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
23 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.
24 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”
27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”
28 He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Here is just one example of Jesus driving out an evil spirit or a demon. He was stronger than Satan and that was amazing for the people watching. This was actually a regular event for Jesus. He regularly cast out evil spirits - in fact John says that this is one of the reasons why Jesus came to earth.
1 John 3:8 says He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Jesus intentionally sought to meet Satan head on and to destroy the grip he held over people. His healing of this demonized man shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus has the authority to command Satan’s forces to do anything he wanted. The demons were powerless to stand against Jesus, and Satan himself doesn’t fare any better. If Jesus and Satan went head to head in a strong man competition, Jesus would win hands down. It would be like me entering the world’s strongest man competitions – the only way I’d have a hope of even moving those loads is if I hired a crane for the afternoon.
But although it was obvious to all those people gathered around that Jesus was the ultimate strong man, - they were amazed remember - they debated where his power came from. Let’s read vs 14-15 again.
14 Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. 15 But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” 16 Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
This event is recorded in Matthew’s gospel, Mark’s gospel and Luke’s gospel pretty well identically. One of the slight changes is that in Matthew’s gospel those who debated the source of his power were identified as Pharisees. Mark calls them teachers of the law who had come up from Jerusalem to examine this Jesus Character.
It seems that they had put Jesus in a box and concluded that he couldn’t possibly be from God because after all he wasn’t one of their select group of religious elite. Therefore he must get his power from Satan or Beelzebub as he is called here.
S4 - But this defies logic … How can Satan work against himself? (vs 17-20) (AHA)
But this defies all logic and Jesus, knowing their thoughts, challenges them on this point. How can he logically be working for Satan if he is obviously working against Satan. Read Jesus’ argument again with me from vs 14.
“Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 18 If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. 19 Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
Jesus says, you can’t have a successful army if you have infighting. How do you think the allies in WW2 would have gone if the Allied airforce kept bombing the allied infantry bases. It would have been ludicrous for this to have happened. No kingdom is ever going to succeed if there is civil war going on within it. Matthew’s version uses 2 other illustrations of this same concept. What if a city was divided against itself? Could it hope to withstand an enemies attack? No. And what about a household. If it is divided, won’t it also collapse?
Jesus argues to them that if in fact he was doing good, then he was infact working against Satan. And if he was working against Satan, he could not be working for Satan. That’s just logic.
He rubs these doubter’s noses in it even more when he challenges them to apply their same logic to their own Jewish exorcists. There were those in their own religious groups – even some of their own sons and followers – who practiced exorcism. Does that mean that they must be working for Satan too? Of course not. They weren’t being labelled Satanists, so why should Jesus be.
So Jesus’ power must be logically from God. God’s goodness combating Satan’s evil. And because of this, Jesus can say that in his presence and actions “the kingdom of God has come to you”.
S5 - Jesus stands opposed to Satan and is far more powerful than Satan (vs 21-23) (WHEE)
In everything Jesus did, he stood in opposition to Satan. When Jesus quoted from the Book of Isaiah about his purpose on earth in Luke 3 he said …
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
His work was combating the destructive work of Satan. Satan might seem powerful, but Jesus is more powerful and he aims to overpower and take back what Satan has claimed as his own. He says
21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. 22 But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
23 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.
When we look around us and see so much evil and corruption, we rightly conclude that Satan is a strong man. He has spiritual weapons that he uses against us and he jealously guards all that he has under his control. He loves to bring pain and suffering into your life and he is not going to give up that right without a fight.
But Satan meets his match in Jesus – someone who is far stronger. When Jesus comes and attacks Satan, he will always overpower Satan and his henchmen. Jesus is the ultimate strong man and is able to bind up Satan, destroy his defences and take back what Satan has claimed as his own.
This is how Paul describes what Jesus does when he challenges Satan’s grip on our lives …
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Jesus came to attack Satan on his own turf. Despite Satan’s efforts to resist, Jesus overcomes, Jesus disarms Satan and his cronies and then he humiliates them. He died on the cross and rose again and this just rubs salt into the wounds of Satan and his demons. They thought they had won when they killed Jesus, but in fact, they just helped Jesus purchase the redemption of millions and millions of people. That was a very bitter pill to swallow.
We should not be scared of Satan. Satan is the one who should be scared because he is up against Jesus. Just like this demon who Jesus cast out, one day, Satan will also be cast out of this world for good. That won’t be a pleasant day for him. Rev 20:7 describes what will happen …
7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
S6 - Jesus not only defeats Satan, but wants to indwell us and bring life & wholeness (vs 24-26) (YEAH)
Satan’s eventual defeat should be cause for a huge celebration for us now. Though we still live in a world where his influence is felt by all; though we see evil all around us; though we sometimes think that Satan is winning, we know that one day, Satan will face off against a stronger man in Jesus and will lose big time. That is reason enough to say thank you Jesus.
But there is another thing in this passage that should make us burst into praise. Lets re-read vs 25-26…
24 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”
Jesus’ work is not just attacking, overcoming, disarming and humiliating Satan. If it were, then when Jesus moves on, the evil spirit will come back with 7 of its mates who are even more wicked and stronger than it and they will take up residence in the poor man who had just been set free. He would be far worse off now than before.
Jesus is not just in the business of tossing out unclean spirits and doing a spring clean in peoples lives, just to leave them vacant. If he did this, it would be like the owner of a derelict building currently being used as a squat for homeless people going in, chasing them away, cleaning it up and giving it a nice coat of paint and fixing up all the plumbing and lights and then walking away leaving it vacant. What is going to happen? Before very long, the homeless people are going to move back in – this time with some more of their friends because it is so much nicer than before.
No – Jesus is in the business of tossing out the demonic forces and doing a spring clean so that he can move in and take up residence himself. Jesus’ purpose in opposing Satan is so that he can indwell people and invite them to be part of God’s kingdom.
I think maybe this is why God is not as active in many people’s lives or the world in general as we might expect or hope. God could oppose Satan’s work in every single person’s lives, but if he does this, then they need to be ready and willing to accept him as Lord and Saviour, else they will just have nice clean, but vacant lives ready for Satan to come back in and occupy again. This is not to say that God doesn’t have mercy on unbelievers and seek to bring good to them – he makes the rain fall on the believer and the unbeliever after all. But God can’t prevent Satan from running amuck in a person’s life unless that person chooses to ally himself to Jesus. Jesus won’t come and dwell in anyone’s life unless he is invited to do so.
Some here this morning, might be wondering why their lives are just a complete mess and why they have no hope. Satan has got his claws in you and ripping your lives to shreds. But there is hope. Jesus has already established his victory over Satan and is capable of attacking, overcoming, disarming and banishing Satan from your life. All that is needed is that you ask Him to do so and be willing for Jesus to come and live in you by His spirit. This doesn’t mean that your life will be a bed of roses any longer – Satan can and definitely will seek to attack you. You have now changed sides and you are his enemy so he will throw anything he can at you. But with Jesus indwelling us, we don’t have to fear, because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour this morning, you are still under Satan’s control. I urge you to talk to someone this morning about getting him evicted. I will be hanging around after the service and I’d love to help you ask Jesus to come into your life.
Every person on this earth needs to be indwelt by God. That is our task as Christ’s followers – to help people to find freedom from Satan’s control
When you see people in our world who’s lives are in a mess – what is it that we see? We should see people who need Jesus to come and indwell their lives and bring healing and change.
When we look at our government leaders and disagree with the laws they are making – what do we see? We should see people who need Jesus to come and indwell their lives and give them an understanding of His purposes.
When we look at our neighbours and workmates who we rub shoulders with each day – what do we see? We should see people who need Jesus to come and banish Satan from their lives and bring power and purpose.
As Christians, our challenge is to figure out ways in which we can introduce them to the strongest man in the universe. If only they can see Jesus for who He is, they too would be completely amazed by him. Unfortunately, too many of us have become so familiar with Jesus, that his strength and power have long ago ceased to amaze us. We are no longer compelled to tell others about this amazing strong man. What a shame.
If only we could recapture our amazement we would willingly share Jesus with those around about us. Then they could have the chance to have their lives radically transformed. In fact they will be transformed from walking corpses to living beings.
John writes in John 5:24-27 …
24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
Jesus is the ultimate strongman. He is stronger than Satan and seeks to undo the destructive work he is involved with. He wants to evict Satan from your life and come to live in you and make you whole.
Let’s allow these facts to permeate our lives and outflow in an attitude of praise and worship. Let’s recapture the amazement of these facts and allow this to drive us to share Jesus with those around us this week. Many of them are in bondage to Satan – because they haven’t had the chance to meet the one who is stronger. Let’s give them this chance.
