Clash of Kingdoms.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMark 1:21-28
This week we begin a series on
the Clash of Kingdoms.
We are talking about spiritual warfare.
This week's teaching is dense,
and I encourage you to take notes,
and spend time listening to the recording.
In this series we are going to cover
the Kingdom grid
your authority and identity in Christ
the weapons of our warfare
the nature of witchcraft
curses, and how to be free from them
and living a victorious Christian life.
Very few people understand
that all we do
as Christian disciples
is spiritual warfare.
And for us in Belonging House
we are called to the epicenter
and the most intense area of this war:
we are called to the area
of culture,
the arts,
and the world of imagination.
This arena
is where the battle lines are drawn
and the conflict over
who will control the
hearts and souls of men and women
is waged.
So for artists and creative people
an understanding of spiritual war
is essential.
A lot of the stuff I see in the realm of
Christians in the arts would not happen
if more artists and leaders understood this.
Most of the battles we face
are between our ears.
Mental battle
is the core of the spiritual battle,
and why the forces of darkness
work so hard to fill our imaginations
with lies, dark images, and bad thoughts.
We heard the first reading from the Gospel of Mark
because I wanted you to see
the clash of kingdoms
played out in scripture.
This passage from the first chapter of Mark
is the oldest written description of the ministry of Jesus.
This is Peter's retelling of the events to Mark.
The ministry of Jesus
begins with him going to the Synagogue
in Caparnaum
near his own house
and teaching.
And the sound of his teaching:
the proclamation
that the Kingdom of God
is at hand
elicits a reaction
not from the people
but from the unclean spirits
that had attached themselves to the people.
And Jesus has authority,
by his very nature
as the Incarnate Son of God
to cast them out.
Right from the beginning of the ministry of Jesus
we are presented with a conflict
between unseen forces that are described as "unclean"
and Jesus, who is the Holy One of God.
Bill Johnson once said
that in the Old Covenant you cannot go near a leper
because you will become unclean.
In the New Covenant when you go near a leper
the leper becomes clean.
And this is a great description of two grids:
the Kingdom Grid
and the Religious Grid.
A lot of the teaching people receive
on the subject of spiritual warfare
is from a religious grid.
Jesus Christ never came to start a religion.
He came to establish his Kingdom.
And so we have to sort out our belief system.
I use the word
"grid"
but you could also use the word
"worldview"
or "filter."
People organize their understanding of the Bible
and their experience through a grid.
And for most of us here,
we have received a post-reformation
religious grid.
And for many evangelical protestants
this grid is based in the legal system
and the idea of the substitutionary atonement.
In other words
God is the judge,
I am guilty,
and Jesus, the perfect substitute
takes my place and I am pronounced innocent.
Unfortunately,
God the Supreme Judge (a phrase that does not appear in scripture)
still knows that I am really a rat
so I better obey God as best I can
and keep all God's precepts line by line
or else I am going to suffer the consequences of sin.
Amazing grace was great,
but I am still a wretch
who has to try to make God happy in my own strength
or else.
And so,
I learn as much information as possible
and memorize as much Bible as possible
and be more disciplined
in order to try to be more like Jesus
and I learn as many ministry gimmicks as I can
in order to get my prayers answered
and in order to win in spiritual warfare.
And so I need to name demons, and learn all about them.
I need to learn the right prayers,
and I need to disect my weak soul into all the parts that might need
deliverance.
And if I buy all the right books or go to the right training
I can learn all the prayers that other weaklings found out
work against the big fat demons
who rule this present darkness.
I will somehow be okay
if I keep digging into my past
to find the roots of all my wretchedness
and hopefully be blessed somehow
before Jesus comes
and he rescues me
with his rapture vac
because things in this world are just going to get
worse and worse.
It makes me tired just talking about it.
Because of this prevailing religious grid
people come to the area of spiritual warfare
making two critical, tactical mistakes.
First, they believe they are weak sinners,
except for the righteousness of Jesus
if they hide behind him,
and they believe that the spiritual forces of wickedness
are very strong,
and we have to do a lot of stuff to win
against them.
And if you don't do the right stuff,
you are going to lose.
It breeds a victim mentality,
and an obsession with the demonic.
And so people get fixated on naming demons
and learning spiritual warfare methods.
If our forefathers had done this,
Pagan Europe would never become Christian.
C.S. Lewis once said that Christians make two errors
when talking about the demonic.
Some believe that it should be ignored,
and are blind to the supernatural conflict we suffer,
and others become obsessed,
and eventually get drawn into forms of the occult.
Whatever you look at
grows and becomes bigger.
I have told you what a religious grid looks like,
now lets look at the Kingdom Grid.
Many people come to passages in their Bibles
that do not make sense,
and they do not fit the grid they were taught.
Part of this is reading a verse by itself
and trying to understand it with no context.
Context is everything.
And so,
you either skip those passages
or make up weird interpretations.
There is only one interpretation:
God is the Father.
The Father is looking for a bride
for his Son,
so that he can have a big family
who can sit around his table forever.
In order to accomplish this
the Son
chooses to sacrifice himself
for the Bride.
And the son embraced the cross,
and put to shame all forces of the demonic realm
who oppose God's Kingdom.
And now,
it is finished.
The Son died,
and he rose again,
and now has been given all rule and authority
and is over and above all things.
All things are now under his feet.
Jesus is the King.
And Jesus is taking territory
for the Father
by redeeming human beings
and filling them with the Holy Spirit
so that they can be his Image in the earth
and expand the rule and reign of the Father.
Every redeemed human being
has been given dominion over the created realm
to be God's Image in the earth.
You are called to rule and reign on earth
as a representative of the King,
Jesus.
Jesus accomplished D-Day,
the victory is completely won.
We are in combat to expand and increase that victory.
Everything in this Kingdom
is practical.
If you cannot experience it
it is not the Kingdom of God.
And if you get a Kingdom Grid
you soon discover that most of what Christians
argue about is
religion.
Any time you come upon a passage of scripture
that you cannot understand,
sit with it,
and ask the Lord to show you
how this reveals the Kingdom.
It will begin to make sense.
Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God.
Acts 10:38 tells us
"Jesus Christ went about doing good,
healing all those who were oppressed by the devil."
Paul tells us in Romans 1
that if you confess with your mouth
Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead
you will be saved.
And Jesus tells us in John 3
you must be born into this Kingdom
by water
and the Holy Spirit.
So once you are baptized,
you become a new member of this Kingdom.
And this Kingdom is
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a unique people
and you are new creation,
a redeemed human being
both spiritual and human
and the old is gone.
You are not a sinner anymore,
you are now,
as the Greek says a "Holy."
In Romans 12:1-2
Paul says
that now you are "a holy,"
you have to walk it out
by worshiping God daily by offering your body
to God as your worship
just like when Mary said,
"Let it be to me according to your word."
Your body then
becomes a physical temple for the Holy Spirit,
and you have to choose to be transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
This is not about learning new information,
but rather
about giving up your human thought system
for a Kingdom one.
The Greek word for this is "metanoia."
Isaiah 55 tells us
His ways are not our ways,
his thoughts are not our thoughts.
You can't think up your own way and ask God to bless it.
The core ideas of the Kingdom challenge our human thought system.
And here they are:
1.
In this Kingdom
every thing is about the voice of the King.
Jesus said in John 10
"my sheep hear my voice,"
and the most important thing
is to be in relationship with the Shepherd
and follow that voice.
Notice I never say,
"learn what Jesus says and obey."
That is the law and religion.
It is death.
I say, "listen to the Lord and do what he tells you."
The Kingdom demands a relationship.
Religious performance doesn't require your connection to Jesus.
Leaning something and trying to be obedient
implies human effort and punishment.
The religious grid is fear based,
the Kingdom grid is love based.
2.
This Kingdom requires sacrifice.
Jesus says
"take up your cross and follow me
and I will give you life."
You die first
and then you live.
You let go first
and then you receive.
You step out of the boat
and then you walk on the water.
Again,
this is all about trust and relationship.
3.
This Kingdom is not about rules.
There is only one law in this Kingdom,
love one another.
And Jesus defines love:
a man lays down his life for his friends.
The love of the Kingdom
is laying your life down for others.
Putting others first.
We are back to sacrifice and listening to God.
It is all about relationship.
4.
This Kingdom is supernatural.
Sometimes we hear this word and we get weird.
Weird is not a Kingdom value.
Jesus said
that the blind would see,
the deaf would hear,
the lame would walk,
the dead would rise,
the poor would be given good news,
and the prisoners would be set free.
These things are beyond our ability.
They happen with resources
that are beyond our earthly resources,
and these abilities
come from the Holy Spirit,
who brings life to every person who comes into the Kingdom.
The Holy Spirit working in our lives
is the pledge and seal of eternal life
and the power within us to live in the Kingdom.
This is why Jesus said,
"the Kingdom of God is within you."
This is an inside out kingdom.
When God lives in you,
Paul said in I Corinthians we are given the mind of Christ.
We can think like Jesus.
Jesus said in John
that out of our bellies would flow springs of living water.
Jesus also said that if we dwell in him and
make our home in him
we can ask anything in his Name and he will do it.
These are all expressions of the Kingdom.
Once you understand the heart of the Kingdom
a lot of things begin to fall into place.
The Kingdom Grid is more than adequate,
and when you see the Kingdom,
you start to see things you didn’t see in Scripture.
The Bible talks about the Kingdom on every page.
And first and foremost,
the Kingdom is personal.
God is the Most Relational Being in the Universe,
and Jesus is the King of the Kingdom.
The heart of spiritual warfare
is the Cross of Jesus.
Let’s go back to the cross and look at it
not through a substitutionary atonement grid,
but rather
through the Kingdom grid.
Every detail fits when you use a Kingdom grid.
And this will mess with your head.
If humanity is given dominion
over the earth,
then the moment Jesus became King
was when he received the crown of thorns,
the purple robe and broken reed.
His executioners proclaimed him King,
and this cross bore the royal proclamation:
"Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."
The Cross was the Coronation of Jesus by human beings.
Those executioners had no idea how much power they had.
This Kingdom is personal,
and this Kingdom is not like earthly kingdoms,
this Kingdom does not seek to be served,
but to serve.
Kingdoms are also about a culture.
Seth Godin describes culture this way:
"People like us do things like this."
Jesus makes it clear that this Kingdom is about
eating and drinking at the Father's table.
I would venture to say the that the theme of eating
in the Father's Kingdom is the primary metaphor
for the Kingdom in scripture.
When ever you see eating and drinking
bread and wine
pay attention.
And the second one,
Marriage
is closely related,
because the Kingdom is going to be inaugurated with a Wedding feast.
There are expectations for those who are part of this Wedding.
Your robes must be washed in the blood of the Lamb.
You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that God physically raised him from the dead.
And you must love one another.
So when we pray,
because of our position,
as it says in Psalm 115:
God lives in heaven
and the earth he has given to the children of men.
As members of the Kingdom
we have authority to make a declaration in the earth.
And we speak into this earth:
“Come Kingdom of God.”
And here is the interesting thing.
This Kingdom is so powerful
that even weakened versions of the Kingdom
and distorted and corrupted forms of it,
have the power to change things.
This prayer and this Kingdom are that potent.
The powers of hell and religion do all they can
to prevent the full strength Kingdom to ever manifest.
And so we have long periods of lukewarmness
interrupted by short lived revivals.
Even so this Kingdom
continues to grow and expand all throughout the earth
just like yeast gets into a mixture of flour, water, and salt,
and turns it into bread.
This Kingdom continues to expand
continues to increase,
and continues to jump over man-made fences,
because it is a giant lump of dough.
There is conflict
because there are beings in the Universe
and on this fallen earth
that are in conflict with the Kingdom.
There are those who will not bow their knee
to the Name and authority of Jesus.
And so
we have this warning from St. Peter:
Be sober be watchful
for your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
seeking someone whom he may devour
resist him
being firm in your faith.
And Paul tells us
if we resist the devil
he must flee.
This indicates something
that many people do not understand:
You and I are a different kind of being
in God's economy.
The demonic and unclean
must flee from us
because we are by nature
at a higher level than they are.
You are by nature
strong,
alive,
resurrected,
and powerful.
You are a member of the Royal family.
And when a demon sees you,
it sees Jesus.
We will dig into this next week.
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