Angelic Conflict part 249: The Carrier of the kingdom of God – Luk 4; 11:14-26; Mat 12:45; Mar 1-3; 2Co 5:18; Rom 1:16; Joh 14:30.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 249: The Carrier of the kingdom of God - Luk 4; 11:14-26; MAT 12:45; Mar 1-3; 2CO 5:18; ROM 1:16; JOH 14:30.

 

 

 

LUK 11:20 "But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

 

LUK 11:21"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own homestead, his possessions are undisturbed;

 

LUK 11:22but when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied, and distributes his plunder.

 

LUK 11:23 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

 

In Luke, Jesus launches His ministry from His hometown. As in Mark, but in a slightly expanded manner, He begins by announcing that the kingdom of God has arrived in his own person.

 

LUK 4:16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

 

LUK 4:17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,

 

LUK 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are downtrodden,

 

LUK 4:19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

 

LUK 4:20 And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him.

 

After a moment of awkward silence, Jesus adds:

 

LUK 4:21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

 

The cost of the captives or the sheep is staggering - the spiritual and physical life of the Shepherd.

 

This is apart from all the physical suffering leading up to the cross and the first three hours of the cross. This is all encapsulated in the final three hours of the cross.

 

And the Shepherd has the power to take it up again, both spiritually and physically in resurrection.

 

We have talked a lot about the victory of Christ over the strong man and the plundering of the strong man’s house. What we have not focused on yet, in this study at least, is the cost to Christ for the defeat of the ruler of this world and his dark kingdom and the redemption of the sheep.

 

The scene that should have been illuminated by the brightness of the noonday sun was shrouded in darkness (LUK 23:45).

 

It was as though nature itself were cognizant of the suffering of its Creator.

 

Out of the darkness came the cry, “‘Eloi (el-o-ee), Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ —which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (MAR 15:34).

 

These words mark the climax of the suffering of Christ for a lost world. Here He drank to the dregs the cup of sorrow, grief, and pain on our behalf and for the ultimate defeat of the KOD. In these hours when the sun refused to shine upon the suffering man, Jesus found fitting expression to His feeling of desolation in the words of the Psalmist.

 

Isaiah had given a vivid portrayal of the suffering Servant who was to be “wounded for our transgressions.”

 

John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as “the Lamb of God that takes away the collective sin of a world of sinners.”

 

Christ gave Himself a “ransom for many.”

 

Him who knew no sin God “made sin” for us.

 

On the cross Christ became a “curse for us” and so redeemed us from the curse of the law.

 

We are “redeemed by the precious blood of Christ,” His substitutionary spiritual death on Calvary. He gave Himself a “ransom for all.”

 

The writers of the Gospels make it plain that Jesus “had a baptism to be baptized with” and a “cup to drink.”

 

Paul and other writers of the epistles lay out clearly the same plan of redemption. Jesus had to pay the price alone and tasteddeath—spiritual death—for every man.

 

Spiritual death is broken communion with the Father, the Spirit, and even His own deity. Jesus had a taste of such a broken communion, the first and last He ever experienced—in those desolate hours when darkness lay upon the earth and upon His soul.

 

That is the reason He used the words of distressed astonishment: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani —“my God, my God, to what end or purpose hast thou forsaken me?”

 

Yet this is followed by the wonderful word tetelestai - “It is finished.”

 

The term signified the completion of a transaction by the full payment of a price or the discharge of a debt by a completed payment. All sin incurs a debt which the sinner owes to God. The debt must be discharged before that sinner can be accepted by God.

 

COL 2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

 

COL 2:14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

 

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

 

When Christ died, He gathered to Himself the accumulated debt of a sinful race and offered to God a payment for past/all sins.

 

Christ could say, “It is finished” (JOH 19:30), or “The debt has been paid in full.”

 

“With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” In doing so Christ offered a final prayer: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). This was in keeping with Christ’s own statement, “I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (JOH 10:17—18).

Christ did not die because life slowly ebbed from His veins. His life was not taken from Him. Christ died because by an act of His will He dismissed His soul from His body.

 

Christ was sovereign over His death as He was sovereign over His resurrection.

 

The particular sermon in Joh 10 is on the heels of the man born blind who was healed by Christ.

 

LUK 22:14When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.   

 

Luk 22:15 And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;   

 

Luk 22:16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."  

 

Luk 22:17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves;    

 

LUK 22:18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes."   

 

Luk 22:19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."   

 

Luk 22:20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. 

 

JOH 9:24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner."

 

JOH 9:25He therefore answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."

 

JOH 9:26They said therefore to him, "What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?"

 

JOH 9:27He answered them, "I told you already, and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?"

 

JOH 9:28And they reviled him, and said, "You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

 

JOH 9:29"We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this man, we do not know where He is from."

 

JOH 9:30The man answered and said to them, "Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.

 

JOH 9:31"We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing, and does His will, He hears him.

 

JOH 9:32"Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.

 

JOH 9:33"If this man were not from God, He could do nothing."

 

JOH 9:34They answered and said to him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?" And they put him out.

 

They assumed that he was born blind because of sin, which was a prevalent view of the time; even the disciples thought the same.

 

This man is a casualty of war and the shepherds of Israel are not drawing him to deliverance and salvation but scattering him.

 

Rather than care for the man as the leaders of Israel and God’s Law, they excommunicated him from the temple.

 

JOH 9:35Jesus heard that they had put him out; and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 

 

JOH 9:36He answered and said, "And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"

 

JOH 9:37Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you." 

 

JOH 9:38And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him.

 

JOH 9:39And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind."

 

Those who say they see apart from Christ are arrogant liars and are blind. Without the true Shepherd the sheep are captives, blinded by the lies of the strong man.

 

JOH 9:40Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said to Him, "We are not blind too, are we?"

 

JOH 9:41Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' [without faith in Christ] your sin remains.

 

He had spoken to them about light and darkness and now He is going to change to the sheep and the Shepherd. To the Jews a shepherd was any kind of leader, political or spiritual. The house of the Jewish leaders had been occupied by many demons and they willingly subjected themselves to them for the reward of wealth, power, and prestige.

 

ISA 56:11-12

And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied.

And they are shepherds who have no understanding;

They have all turned to their own way,

Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.

"Come," they say, "let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink; And tomorrow will be like today, only more so."

 

JOH 10:1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.

 

JOH 10:2"But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

 

Christ came exactly as was foretold of Him.

 

JOH 10:3"To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

 

JOH 10:4"When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

 

JOH 10:5"And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." 

 

JOH 10:6This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.

 

This sheepfold is the nation of Israel. Verse 16 contains the other sheep who are the Gentiles, but Christ first came to the Jews. They did not understand so the Lord continues to explain.

 

JOH 10:7Jesus therefore said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

 

JOH 10:8"All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

 

JOH 10:9"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

 

JOH 10:10"The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.

 

JOH 10:11"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

 

JOH 10:12"He who is a hireling, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters them.

 

JOH 10:13"He flees because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep.

 

satan’s ministers care nothing for the sheep but only care for themselves.

 

God’s ministers, or under-shepherds, care for the flock and they work hard to protect the sheep from the thief. They do this through the preparation of doctrine, through prayer, and their own spiritual growth.

 

JOH 10:14"I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me,

 

This reveals the intimacy that our Lord has with every sheep. The shepherds of the east knew each sheep individually, their tendencies, health, age, etc. and he cared for each one.

 

The Lord knows you personally, more than you will ever know yourself, and He cares for you more than anyone ever could.

 

JOH 10:15even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

 

JOH 10:16"And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold [Gentiles]; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock [Church] with one shepherd.

 

JOH 10:17"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

 

JOH 10:18"No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."

 

Christ did not die as a martyr but as a willing substitute.