Angelic Conflict part 320: Current work of Christ – Luk 22:24-27; 2Ti 2:11-13; Rev 22:2-5; Joh 16:7-16; 11:25-26.Title: Angelic Conflict part 320: Current work of Christ – Luk 22:24-27; 2Ti 2:11-13; Rev 22:2-5; Joh 16:7-16; 11:25-26.
Christ has released to all men through faith in Him and His word to live free of the tyranny of satan dethroned, though they still experience the effect of his world system.
Every possible form of demonic power has been subjugated to Christ and that power, released to all men when Christ was enthroned at the right hand of God, is for all who have faith in Him and His word.
We noted this in several passages.
Rom 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
We also noted from Paul's quote of Psa 44:22 in vv. 36 that we will still lose some battles while we are faithful to God's plan, but God has a purpose in strengthening our resolve when He allows these losses.
Justification of life means that though some will bring charges against us, and certainly in our losses they will mock us and God, that we must put our confidence in God who delivers us in His perfect timing.
Psa 42:9-11 I will say to God my rock, "Why hast Thou forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance, and my God.
We have to love with the love of God and continue to trust in our Father. A thorn in the flesh can be a great source of strength when that weakness leads one to depend solely on God's strength.
Let go of your human weapons and pick up your spiritual ones.
2Co 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
Rom 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Christ reigns at the right hand of God and we reign with Him. If the eyes of our soul are enlightened to the inheritance of victory that has been shared with us by Christ, then we will reign in this life, in our everyday experience.
We noted that we are higher than angels, Heb 1:14.
We noted that we are allowed to share in Christ's victory through grace.
We are allowed by God’s grace to share in the victory that Christ accomplished on the cross, and by which all believers were forever justified before the Father.
We saw a wonderful example of this in the gospels. The 12 were told that they would sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
The disciples argued with one another as to who was regarded as the greatest. It is likely therefore that they argued over who would sit on what throne. None of them probably wanted to sit on the throne of a lesser tribe and all of them likely wanted to sit on the throne of Judah.
Our Lord responded with something very, very important. It is one of the main reasons for the failure of doctrinal Christians, which is the unwillingness to be a servant of all.
Therefore, if we are going to share Christ's victory, in our experience in time, we must be the servant of all.
Luk 22:24 And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest.
Luk 22:25And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called 'Benefactors.' [a person who provides help or assistance]
Whom does the world rely upon to provide help or assistance? It is those who lord it over them. They are, in every society, those who rise to the top through human ambition. But in Christianity we are to rely on God for help or assistance.
Luk 22:26"But not so with you, but let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.
Luk 22:27"For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves [He washed their feet - does the Son of God actually have to state that He is greater than them?].
Here is application of the example that Christ has set for all of us through His cross.
Phi 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus
1Pe 2:21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps
Here He reveals the great distinction and conflict between the world's idea of what makes one great and God's idea. If you saw a person reclining at a table and another serving them or washing their feet you would conclude, from an earthly point of view, that the one at the table was greater. Man looks at the overt appearance, but God looks upon the heart. All the doctrine in the world as knowledge in your soul means nothing if it is not mixed with faith and application from which we would become like Him, the one among you who serves!
Rev 2:13 'And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations;
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.
2Ti 2:11 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him;
2Ti 2:12If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us [rulership];
Mat 10:32-33 "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him [new reigning title] before My Father who is in heaven. "But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
2Ti 2:13If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
Rev 22:1 And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
Rev 22:2in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Rev 22:3And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him;
Rev 22:4and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
Rev 22:5And there shall no longer be any night; and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them; and they shall reign forever and ever.
This is the destiny of all believers and the resurrected Christ is the sealing guarantee of it. Let this comfort you and let it give you the confidence to take the doctrine that you understand and reign in life.
We who used to be captives of the satanic kingdom are now the very ones who proclaim its demise. The Church is God’s eternal trophy case of grace.
We exist “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph 1:6) and we are the evidence of God’s brilliance and power in bringing about the destruction of His foes, and thus the liberation of His people.
Even though the Church has always been full of a great deal that does not in any way glorify God, exhibiting carnality, pettiness, narrowness, self-centeredness, and abusive power tendencies that characterizes all other fallen human institutions, God has used her to His glory. And so it is that the Church is nothing by herself, but a trophy of the grace of God. God has used to weak ones of the world to shame the wise. Even the petty, narrow minded, self-centered, and abusive members, if believers in Christ, will be raised in glory and be just like Him. To the universe she will be the most astounding trophy case anyone could have ever imagined.
God always gets His way. It is of no use to oppose Him.
Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." |