Who’s In Charge Here? (Part 2)
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. —Matthew 16:18b
LAST WEEK: How do we explain why the gates of Hell appear to be prevailing against the church in the American context? Three options:
1. It’s all a sham, Jesus is not God. All those people who forfeited their lives saying they saw Him die and rise again were having a very long group hallucination.
2. LAST WEEK: Satan is in charge as the rightful “god of this world”.
3. THIS WEEK: Distorted and dismembered “discipleship”
11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. —Acts 19:11–17
Jesus is extolled when He ALLOWS evil to give false discipleship its proper beatdown. What just happened?!?!
1. False discipleship’s value was made blatantly clear.
13 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. —Matthew 5:13
2. These highly religious people who were engaged in spiritual activity stole Christianly language and churchy practices, but did not genuinely know Jesus Christ.
21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ —Matthew 7:21–23
It’s one thing to know ABOUT Jesus Christ, but something else to KNOW and be KNOWN by Jesus Christ.
16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. —Titus 1:16
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. —1 John 2:3–6
When we truly know Jesus Christ and are truly known by Him, it doesn’t just change ONE THING, it changes EVERYTHING.
18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. —Acts 19:18–20
The gates of Hell cannot prevail against genuine disciples who hold nothing back in their devotion to see Christ’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. —James 4:7
