Angelic Conflict part 253: The Carrier of the kingdom of God – Rev 3:14-22; 1Jo 4:1-6; Mat 4:23-24; 9:35; 10:5-8; Luk 10:1-20Title: Angelic Conflict part 253: The Carrier of the kingdom of God – Rev 3:14-22; 1Jo 4:1-6; Mat 4:23-24; 9:35; 10:5-8; Luk 10:1-20.
As we have noted in the opening chapters of the gospel of Mark and Luke is that Christ preached the gospel while simultaneously casting out many demons. The point is that the prisoners who are to be set free are trapped in the bondage and oppression of satan's kingdom.
What the kingdom of God means, therefore, is that the hostile alien kingdom of demonic captivity, oppression, poverty and blindness is coming to an end through the ministry of Jesus Christ.
He is the carrier of the kingdom of God and He is the vanquisher of satan and the kingdom of darkness.
For now this occurs one person at a time through the gospel and experientially through doctrine and the ministry of the Spirit. Soon, the entire universe will be under a singular will – the will of God and all because of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
Christ's ministry culminates in the cross.
Through His substitutionary spiritual death Christ will move from delivering people from the physical bondage of demons to the deliverance from the whole kingdom. The physical war becomes spiritual.
Whereas there was captivity, oppression, poverty, and blindness on a physical level, all of these would be eliminated spiritually.
Christ can now heal the captivity, oppression, poverty, and blindness of my soul through faith in His finished work.
Now, though I may be blind, sick, physically enslaved or oppressed, I will never be in soul and spirit through His finished work.
As the Lord said to the church of Laodicea:
Rev 3:14 "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
Rev 3:15 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot.
Rev 3:16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
Rev 3:17 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
Rev 3:18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
Rev 3:19 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.
Rev 3:21 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Rev 3:22 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
The believer, transformed at salvation and transformed in mind through doctrine will never be subject to these things ever again!
The believer minus doctrine will only realize his freedom after he exits this earth and is face to face with the Lord. Either way, the kingdom of God carried to earth by Christ has completely defeated the kingdom and darkness and has set the captives free.
As the Church foundation was being built there was still power over demons in order to reveal that the kingdom of God was now embodied in the Church, Act 5:16; 8:7; 16:18; 19:12.
Because of this many were being set free from demonic, cultic practices.
Yet in the epistles the spirits at work in the world are deceiving spirits using false doctrines to mislead believers.
There is no indication of any fight against demon possession of the body or casting out demons.
1Ti 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,
2Co 11:4 For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
2Th 2:2 that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
1Jo 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1Jo 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
1Jo 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1Jo 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
1Jo 4:5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
1Jo 4:6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
In many instances, teaching about the kingdom of God is mentioned in the same breath as healing or casting out demons, activities that demonstrate the power of the kingdom of God.
Mat 4:23 And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
Mat 4:24And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.
Mat 9:35 And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
The Lord not only talked about the kingdom but He embodied it and freed people from the tyranny of satan.
Wherever He went, he was about freeing people from the scourges of the ruler of darkness.
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.
Our Lord also commissioned the disciples to preach the kingdom of heaven with the commission of authority over demons.
Mar 3:14 And He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach,
Mar 3:15and to have authority to cast out the demons.
Therefore, word and deed go hand in hand. There is the word of power and the demonstration of power – the witness of the lips and the witness of the life. |