OUR STRUGGLE The Power Of The Cross Colossians 2:13-15

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1 OUR STRUGGLE The Power Of The Cross Colossians 2:13-15 Today marks the end of our series on spiritual warfare that we ve titled, OUR STRUGGLE. Over the past 6 weeks our goal has been to help people see with Spirit eyes by exploring what the Bible has to say to us about spiritual warfare. We ve been asking God to pull back the blinders to help us recognize that behind the people we interact with and the situations and circumstances we encounter, is spiritual reality. We ve tried to equip people to be strong in the Lord so that we can stand against the enemy s stealing, killing and destroying. When it comes to spiritual warfare, people tend to gravitate toward one of two extremes: either we ignore the spiritual dimension and dismiss its relevance or we tend to fixate on it, seeing demons behind every bush. The famous author C.S. Lewis spoke to this 75 years ago when he wrote, There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. We re wrapping up our series today by looking at the topic, The Power of the Cross. I want to be sure we understand that in Jesus Christ you and I have victory over Satan and against anything he throws at us. I d like to invite you to join me in reading Ephesians 6:10-13 aloud a passage that has served as the theme text for this series Ephesians 6:10-13 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. AMEN! The idea for this sermon series started to germinate about a year ago when Pastor John King sent me an with some ideas about this topic that he and Pastor Doris Barr had been discussing. John s sense was that it would beneficial for us to preach on this topic. As I processed the idea with John and our staff, I thought it would be helpful for us to have a number of our staff preach during this series, so we could get a variety of personal perspectives 1

2 on the subject. Some of you have kidded me over the past couple weeks about not preaching. After all, what work does a pastor have to do all week if they re not preaching? But it has been intentional, not just a chance for me to kick back and relax. We ve covered a lot of ground in this series. I began the Sunday after Easter by having us explore Elisha s prayer that God would open the eyes of his servant and David s spiritual reality-filled perspective as he engaged Goliath in battle. During the 2 nd week of the series I led us in considering the implications of the Armor of God for us in Ephesians chapter 6. During weeks 3 & 4 Pastor Susan and Pastor Traci preached from the story of Jesus encounter with Satan in the wilderness. They helped us explore the enemy s tactics and Jesus response. Last week Pastor John King and his wife Cindy preached about spiritual warfare in the context of the family. Using 1 Peter chapter 5 as their text, they did a great job of giving us practical insights about withstanding the enemy s attacks against our family. (If you missed any of the messages in this series, or if you d like to listen to any of them a 2 nd time, you can find the written and audio versions of each of these messages on McBIC s website.) As we talk about spiritual warfare today, I thought you might find these 10 Rules for Combat interesting, and funny 10 Rules for Combat 1) If the enemy is in range, so are you. 2) Try to look unimportant. Your enemy may be low on ammo. 3) Teamwork is essential. It gives the enemy someone else to shoot at. 4) If your attack seems to be going well, you ve walked into an ambush. 5) If it s dumb but works, then it isn t dumb. 6) Anything you do can get you shot, including doing nothing. 7) Don t ever be first; don t ever be last; and, don t ever volunteer for anything. 8) The Quartermaster has only 2 sizes: too large and too small. 9) Five second fuses only last 3 seconds. 10) The enemy only ever attacks in one of 2 ways: When you are ready for them. And, when you are not ready for them. I recently asked our church family the question, How has God used this series in your life? I suspect that a number of you can relate to this response I received in answer to that question 2

3 When I heard that you had scheduled a series on Spiritual Warfare, I was both elated and terrified. I was elated because I wanted to know more about how to rebuke and neutralize Satan in my life. I was terrified because I was warned that simply preaching about it would stir up Satan and make people and the church come under attack. I have been praying for myself and McBIC on a daily basis in an attempt to thwart evil from besetting us. People are so afraid of this subject, but they don't realize that the best defense is to bring it out into the light of day and give everyone tools to resist and rebuke Satan. In Christ we can resist Satan. Our Heavenly Father has provided us with everything we need to resist the enemy. First of all, He has provided us with his presence. In 2 Kings 6:16 we read, Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And in 1 John 4:4 we re told, The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. We don t have to be afraid or timid in the face of the enemy s attacks or his opposition, because God is with us. We are not alone. And secondly, God s Word assures us that we are armed for the spiritual battle for anything our enemy would bring against us. We have authority in Christ over our enemy Satan and all of his attempts to derail us, because of the work Jesus did on the cross. During Lent we focused on the cross for seven weeks by studying attributes of Jesus and the implications those qualities have for our lives. Today, we re going to look at the cross again, considering the implications it has for us as followers of Jesus who are engaged in spiritual battle. The Scripture I planned to use today was Colossians chapter 2 verses 13-15, but as I was reading Colossians in preparation for the message, I was reminded that the spiritual battle is a major theme of the Apostle Paul s in this short letter to the 1 st Century Church at Colossae. So, I m going to read some selected verses from chapters 1 & 2 leading up to the verses we re honing in on, and I ve tried to underline the verses that speak specifically to spiritual warfare Colossians 1 & 2 selected Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 3

4 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. I ended up underlining much of this passage, because so much of Colossians chapters 1 & 2 speak to our victory in Christ and to the power that is available to us through Him. I was reminded of the advice someone gave me in school one time about highlighting. If you re highlighting large portions of what you re reading, you re kind of defeating the purpose. Highlighting is supposed to emphasize selected statements and ideas. But in this case, it reinforces the fact that the topic of spiritual warfare is a primary emphasis in this passage. In the verses I just read we see that through Jesus Christ and the victory He won at the cross we have strength and power; we are rescued from sin and its consequences; we are reconciled to Jesus; we ve been given fullness; and we ve been buried with Jesus in baptism and raised with Him through faith in the power of God. And that brings us to verses of Colossians chapter 2: Colossians 2:13-15 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. These verses emphasize that God made us alive in Christ by forgiving us of our sins. The law which prescribes death as the penalty for sin was cancelled Jesus nailed it to the cross. And look at the end result of all of this in the last sentence. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. At the cross, our enemy, Satan, was defeated and publicly embarrassed by Jesus. What does it mean that Satan was embarrassed and made a public spectacle? Doris Barr shared something with me two weeks ago which cast Satan s embarrassment about the cross in a new light for me. 4

5 Doris was part of a teaching that Terry Wardle was doing at Ashland Seminary in which Dr. Wardle referred to a 14 th Century Christian mystic named Julian of Norwich. Julian pointed out that Satan is a pawn of God. She said that Satan s hell is knowing that no matter what havoc he wreaks in our lives God can turn it around and use it for his good. Satan can t stop himself from being God s pawn, because his nature is to do evil, but even as he seeks to harm us he is aware that God can take what he has done and use it for God s good and for our good. Nowhere was this more evident than at the cross the place where Satan realized that whatever he did would be thwarted by God through Jesus. Isn t that awesome! Think about the implications of this for your life? How freeing and empowering is it to realize that God can trump anything that Satan does because of Jesus death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection? What is the difficult circumstance you re facing right now? What hardship are you walking through? What relationship is causing you anxiety and pain? Satan intends to use wherever you are and whatever you re walking through to harm you, but in Jesus Christ, God desires to turn it around to use it for your good. In the last half of Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul speaks to our secure standing in Christ and in his love. Listen to these words And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:28-39 selected God works for the good of those who love Him, no matter how bad things seem. He is for us! And there is nothing.anywhere, that can separate us from his love. That is so powerful! We re going to close our service today by giving you the opportunity to receive Communion. As we remember Jesus sacrifice for us on the cross, we also celebrate our victory in Him over sin and over death and over the power of our enemy. Throughout this series, I ve heard different people share insights God has given them about spiritual warfare and seeing with Spirit eyes. So, as we prepare for Communion I encourage you to reflect on the questions: What has God shown you during this series? And, What are you going to do about what God has shown 5

6 you? Take a moment to reflect on those questions and feel free to write the answer on your outline in the space provided. As you spend a moment reflecting on your response to those questions, Susan Vigliano is going to come and prepare to lead us through Communion 6