Jesus is this freedom fighter, he's the special ops from God sent into enemy territory to bring the kingdom of God, to bring freedom, to bring purpose and power.
In this episode I want to talk about Jesus confronting Satan and demons.
When Jesus came he clearly expressed what his job description was and that was to give every person who believed in him abundant life.
I talked about this super abundance, this overflowing life.
Well Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.
So you can imagine right now there's about to be a confrontation.
So Jesus comes and he says first of all look I've come to bring abundant life.
Then he calls out Satan and demons as they come.
The enemy comes and he calls him a thief.
The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.
Then in Nazareth back in his hometown in the synagogue he begins to explain how he's going to accomplish that vision, what his mission is going to be.
He says that he's come to preach the gospel of the poor, he's come to set the captives free, to bring sight to the blind, to bring freedom to the oppressed and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.
Well now he's going to live it out, he's going to show us how he does it.
And so his public ministry is just starting to get started and he starts off with this confrontation with the devil.
So in Matthew 4, so if you have your Bible look at Matthew 4, the very beginning Jesus goes out into the wilderness led by the spirit and for 40 days fasting and praying confronted by the devil.
And so he goes through these temptations.
Now what's happening here?
Here's what's happening.
Satan has been given this earth.
He's called the God of this age.
It says in scripture that he has blinded the hearts of the unbelieving.
So Satan is in ultimate and utter control over the earth, over humankind.
Jesus is this freedom fighter, he's this special ops from God sent into enemy territory to bring the kingdom of God, to bring freedom, to bring purpose and power.
And so he's about to begin his ministry so of course the devil would come to try to get him off course.
So I'll tell you this men and women, when you have a purpose from God and you have a calling from God and you're choosing to follow Jesus, you better be ready for the devil to come.
Now I'm not talking about the literal devil because the literal devils only one created being can only be at one place at one time.
But his army, his emissaries, his cabal of demons will come.
And they will come and they will attack you, they will try to steal from you, they'll try to rip you off, they'll try to get you off course and that's exactly what the devil did with Jesus.
So before Jesus has said anything or done anything, the devil comes and tempts him.
Now it's interesting that in Matthew 4 starting at verse 12, this is what we read.
Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he departed from Galilee and leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali.
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light and upon those who sat in the region in the shadow of death light has dawned.
So when Matthew is describing the coming of Jesus and the coming of the kingdom of God and his ministry is confrontation, he makes it about light and darkness.
So this contrast of light and darkness characterizes Christ prophesying from the Old Testament of what the Messiah would do and what it would be like with the coming of the Messiah, this is all from Isaiah.
So Jesus comes bringing the light into the darkness and this is the first thing that Jesus does in verse 17.
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I would argue the only message Jesus had was the Kingdom of God.
Now there were different derivatives of it, but the main point of everything Jesus said
and did was all about the coming of the Kingdom of God.
And he says repent.
You've got to turn around.
This confrontation with the devil is about men and women being willing to make a 180,
to make a turn from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, from the kingdom
of Satan to the kingdom of God, from the kingdom of selfishness to the kingdom of selflessness.
That's the first step in this confrontation with the devil is the challenge before us
to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
I say to any of you that are struggling with the devil, you're in the clutches of the devil,
you're in captivity, God wants you to repent, he wants you to change, he wants you to turn
away from your sin, turn away from your ways and go after the kingdom of God, to seek first
the kingdom of God in your life.
Then Jesus said this, Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brothers, Simon called
Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.
Then he said to them, you shall follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
They immediately left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, John his brother,
in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, he called them and immediately
they left the boat and their father and followed him.
So first Jesus proclaims repent, that means turn, do a 180 away from the direction you
were going, follow the kingdom of God, make the kingdom of heaven your priority, and then
the second thing he does is he says follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.
So Jesus says repent, follow the kingdom, and now he's saying be my disciple, don't
be a regular dude, I'm calling you to be a disciple of mine, and I will transform you
into an evangelist, I will transform you to be able to follow me and I will make you able
to make others followers of me.
So it's not just you following me, it's about you following me so that you can make other
men and women followers of me.
So Christ's purpose on this earth to confront demons, to confront the devil, is to make
us his evangelists, to make us his disciples, to make us his apostles and his leaders here
on earth.
So Jesus is going to do it alone for a while, but heck this is like the first day of the
kingdom ministry of Jesus, he's already looking for disciples, he's already looking for other
men and women to join his team and become those kingdom people that can confront the
devil.
This idea that sometimes pervades the church, the idea that well God's going to, he's sovereign,
he has foreknowledge, he's going to accomplish his will, all of that is true, the part that's
missing though is that he's going to accomplish his will through people, through us.
He's using us, he's commanding us to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
So God confronts the devil through regular people just like you and me.
Verse 23, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among
the people.
Then his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all sick people who
were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics,
paralytics, and he healed them all.
Great multitudes followed him from Galilee, from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond
the Jordan.
So you see what Jesus does in confronting the devil, he comes, he preaches the kingdom,
he heals sicknesses and diseases, and he casts out demons.
So wherever Jesus went in his ministry on the earth, he was constantly preaching the
kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons.
So if you've never learned how to cast out demons, go back to my series on Satan, Demons
and the Fourth Dimension.
And I give some of the preliminary steps of how to do that, how for you to be set free,
but also for you to be used by God to set other people free.
But this is what Jesus is doing.
So when we talk about the mission of Jesus setting the captives free, here in Matthew
4, He's actually doing that.
And men and women, God's MO on this earth was to go in, wherever He went, to be sent
out by the King, by His Father, to be and bring the Kingdom of God and to set the demonized
free.
Fully a third, fully a third of Jesus' ministry was casting out demons.
He was constantly dealing with demon-possessed people and then setting them free.
So that freedom to set the captives free has been given to you.
Now I'm going to talk about that in my next message.
Because in the next message, I'm going to talk about the authority that we've been given
to cast out demons.
In other words, Jesus is modeling it right now.
So right now, in Matthew and in Luke, in the early days of Jesus' ministry, He's modeling
how the Kingdom comes.
He's modeling how to confront the devil.
In our next episode, He's going to literally talk about how to do it, what the authority
and power that He's given to us.
So first of all, wherever you are in your journey with Christ, repent.
If you need to repent of sin in your life, you need to repent of the life that you're
living, you know it's not going in the right direction, turn around.
Repent.
The word in Greek for repent is metanoia.
And that is the idea.
Metanoia means to turn around and to do a 180.
So if you're headed in the wrong direction, and you know in your heart you're headed in
the wrong direction, come to Christ right now and say, Lord, I know I'm not headed in
the right direction.
I know I'm not following you fully in this relationship.
I know, Lord, that I'm hanging out with the wrong people.
And I commit to going your way, to following you fully with my life.
That's repentance.
Then become His disciple.
Jesus took disciples and He trained them and He transformed them.
Become a Jesus disciple.
Well, what does that mean?
Well, disciple literally means discipline.
It means you've got to discipline your life toward the kingdom.
Start reading God's word every day.
Spend time in prayer.
Ask God for the things that you're searching for.
Ask Him to reveal that to you.
Start obeying Him in little areas of your life.
Obey Him with the things that you watch on TV or movies that you see.
Obey Him in the books that you read or the magazines you look at.
Obey Him when you're on the internet.
Be holy.
Your eyes are the orifice of the soul.
Walk in holiness in what you see.
And then preach the gospel.
I mean, wherever you go, share Jesus with people.
Share Jesus with a waitress or a waiter if you're at a restaurant.
One of the best ways to do that is to just ask a simple question.
How are you doing?
And actually make it not a statement but a real question.
How are you doing?
Not how are you doing, but how are you doing?
How's your day going?
Is there one thing, if there was just one thing that I could pray for you about, what
would that be?
Ninety percent of the people that I ask that question to give me some kind of an answer.
And then usually, and I don't mean you get up, stand up, and lay hands on their head
and pray for the Holy Spirit to fall upon them in the restaurant, but you gently and
quietly say, well, can we pray right now?
And then pray for them.
What they ask, two sentences, three sentences.
Don't go much longer than that.
You don't want to get them in trouble with management.
I was at Sprouts, which is a grocery store here in Colorado, just a couple of days ago.
Going through the line, the lady was there, and it just seemed appropriate to ask her
the first question I just said.
I said, how are you doing today?
She said, it's okay.
It's been kind of a hard day, and I couldn't believe she was that honest.
Most people aren't.
I said, well, what do you mean?
She opened up about something, and then she started to tear up, which was kind of crazy.
And so I said, you know what, why don't we pray right now for that?
Because it seems like it's pretty heavy on your heart.
She said, oh, you would?
She was so appreciative.
And so I prayed for her right there.
It took all of 15 seconds, the prayer, and I mean, she was really wiping away the tears
at this point, and God was using that in her life.
Well, that's what we mean.
That's setting the captives free.
That's the beginning steps.
of someone feeling loved, someone feeling appreciated, that then it was appropriate
to say, hey, if you're ever looking for a good church, come to the road at Chapel Hills.
I picked up my groceries, and I walked out, and that took no more time than if I had done
nothing.
So may God use this.
May you be a warrior for the kingdom.
May you be a loving, kind warrior to others in a powerful way.
Let's bring the kingdom to our cities and our states, our family, everywhere we go.
God bless you.