Title: Angelic Conflict part 238: The victory of the Christ – Phi 3:8-11; 1:29-30; 1Pe 4:12-13; Mar 9:20-29; Dan 10:12-14; 2Sa 5:22-25.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 238: The victory of the Christ - PHI 3:8-11; 1:29-30; 1PE 4:12-13; MAR 9:20-29; DAN 10:12-14; 2SA 5:22-25.

 

 

The NT has taught us over and over that we are to expect suffering especially when we are following God.

 

PHI 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

 

PHI 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

 

PHI 3:10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

 

PHI 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 

1PE 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

 

 The only problem is the confrontation of evil and the overcoming of it, 1PE 4:13.

 

The real problem therefore is not the evil alone.

 

1PE 4:13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.

 

ROM 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

 

PHI 1:29 For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,

 

PHI 1:30 experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

 

Paul's inability to reach Thessalonica had nothing to do with either what he willed or what God willed: he knew it was simply the result of satan hindering him.

 

1TH 2:17 But we, brethren, having been bereft of you for a short while —  in person, not in spirit —  were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.

 

1TH 2:18 For we wanted to come to you —  I, Paul, more than once —  and yet Satan thwarted us [more than once].

 

A young boy being possessed by a demon which made him deaf and dumb and several times attempted to kill the boy is a result of the war.

 

MAR 9:20 And they brought the boy to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling about and foaming at the mouth.

 

MAR 9:21 And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood.

 

MAR 9:22 "And it has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!"

 

MAR 9:23 And Jesus said to him, "'If You can!' All things are possible to him who believes." 

 

MAR 9:24 Immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, "I do believe; help my unbelief."

 

MAR 9:25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." 

 

MAR 9:26 And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!"

 

MAR 9:27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.

 

MAR 9:28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"

 

MAR 9:29 And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."

 

Likewise is the delay of the angel who came to answer Daniel's prayer a result of the war.

 

DAN 10:12 Then he said to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.

 

DAN 10:13 "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

 

DAN 10:14 "Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future.

 

God lets the elect angels fight and God lets the elect believer fight. It is a privilege and an honor to be able to fight God's foes with superior power.

 

2SA 5:22 Now the Philistines came up once again and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim.

 

2SA 5:23 And when David inquired of the Lord, He said, "You shall not go directly up; circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees.

 

2SA 5:24 And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act promptly, for then the Lord will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines."

 

2SA 5:25 Then David did so, just as the Lord had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.

 

God at times fights alone though in this case represented by Moses: EXO 12:12 'For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments —  I am the Lord.

 

In every case, for Israel, the battle was the Lord's.

 

Due to satan's propaganda the early church's understanding of him as the main force behind evil dissipated into a more liberal theological allegorical understanding of evil and the person of satan became irrelevant. The conflict became more theoretical and less real. The idea of warfare began to be lost to a more philosophical view. I'm not saying that we blame satan for everything that happens to us to which we disagree, but certainly he is a willful force against God that we are to be alert to his schemes.

 

Satan is portrayed in the NT as "the god of this world," "the ruler of the power of the air," and "the ruler of this world," 2CO 4:4; EPH 2:2; JOH 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.

 

He is portrayed as possessing all the kingdoms of the world, and is explicitly said to have control of the entire world. LUK 4:6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

 

1JO 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

 

He is portrayed as being ultimately behind murder and lying:

 

1JO 3:12  not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.

 

JOH 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

 

Several cases in the gospels have satan responsible for sickness. NT epistles are silent on the matter so we can only conjecture if this still occurs.

 

LUK 13:10 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

 

LUK 13:11 And behold, there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all.

 

LUK 13:12 And when Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your sickness." 

 

LUK 13:13 And He laid His hands upon her; and immediately she was made erect again, and began glorifying God.

 

LUK 13:14 And the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the multitude in response, "There are six days in which work should be done; therefore come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day."

 

LUK 13:15 But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead him away to water him?

 

LUK 13:16 "And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?" 

 

LUK 13:17 And as He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire multitude was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.

 

ACT 10:38 "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him.

 

Satan is responsible for many of the attacks upon believers, EPH 6:12-13.

 

EPH 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

 

EPH 6:13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

 

"We moderns cannot bring ourselves... to believe in the real existence of these mythological entities that traditionally have been lumped under the general category "principalities and powers." ... It is as impossible for most of us to believe in the real existence of demonic or angelic powers as it is to believe in dragons or elves, or a flat world." [Walter Wink - professor of NT theology]

 

The earth is engulfed by cosmic forces of destruction, and that evil and suffering are ultimately due to this diabolical siege.

 

Both Jesus and His disciples recognized that he had come to destroy the devil and his works, thereby redeeming his people from the realm of darkness and setting them free for the kingdom of God.

 

Jesus most certainly defined Himself and his ministry in terms of aggressively warring against this satanic kingdom.

 

1JO 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;

 

1JO 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

 

COL 1:13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son

 

HEB 2:14-15 Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

 

COL 2:15 He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.