Spiritual Warfare on Lord's Supper Day
When the Lord laid it on my heart to preach this on Lord's Supper Day, I just went dumb. How do I relate this to the bread and wine...wait a minute,...blood and body,...bingo! These are affected in warfare! Then silence again, how? The fact that the congregation I was billed to minister with could number not more than 20 made the enterprise no less daunting. This is what we ended up with:
The first reading was Revelations 12:11 - " And they overcame him (Satan) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, ..." and maybe we should have read in addition 2 Co. 10:2-5.
Touching on the two phases in which the saints overcame Satan: First by the blood, the set L/S wine and bread came in handy to place emphasis on how Christ never wants us to forget the emblems of our EXIT victory. Those can never be replicated. He has already won the victory that has set us free from bondage to Satan and sin. Bringing in the illustration of Israel's exit from Egypt through the blood of the lamb was sweet. It demonstrated as well God's justice and non-discrimination (for if the Egyptians had faith in the God of Israel, they would also have gone for the blood, but here they failed and were condemned). We who have put our faith in the blood of Jesus have then inherited salvation and any claim of Satan on us is forever broken.
Second phase is the POSSESSING victory, which is by word of testimony: Proclaiming Christ's dominion over everything, and thereby challenging the lies of the retreating Satan. Here we take the battle to Satan and let him know that his time is up as per Matthew 28:18. The parallels of Israel's remarkable victories in the Promised land, particularly at Jericho with Joshua, against the Midianites with Gideon and against Moab and Amnon with Jehoshaphat made a nice bridge to show how the 7 weapons of our warfare listed in Ephesians 6 are virtually weapons of victory, rather than engagement. The people did what God asked them to do, and without touching the enemy, the enemy turned its belly up, showing he had really been defeated already.
What was left was to emphasize the need to put on the amour of victory rather than admiring or ignoring them. What we pursue Satan to possess is not land and material things as in the days of Joshua et al, but rather the souls of men held under his lies. I will be happy to hear your comments.
The first reading was Revelations 12:11 - " And they overcame him (Satan) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, ..." and maybe we should have read in addition 2 Co. 10:2-5.
Touching on the two phases in which the saints overcame Satan: First by the blood, the set L/S wine and bread came in handy to place emphasis on how Christ never wants us to forget the emblems of our EXIT victory. Those can never be replicated. He has already won the victory that has set us free from bondage to Satan and sin. Bringing in the illustration of Israel's exit from Egypt through the blood of the lamb was sweet. It demonstrated as well God's justice and non-discrimination (for if the Egyptians had faith in the God of Israel, they would also have gone for the blood, but here they failed and were condemned). We who have put our faith in the blood of Jesus have then inherited salvation and any claim of Satan on us is forever broken.
Second phase is the POSSESSING victory, which is by word of testimony: Proclaiming Christ's dominion over everything, and thereby challenging the lies of the retreating Satan. Here we take the battle to Satan and let him know that his time is up as per Matthew 28:18. The parallels of Israel's remarkable victories in the Promised land, particularly at Jericho with Joshua, against the Midianites with Gideon and against Moab and Amnon with Jehoshaphat made a nice bridge to show how the 7 weapons of our warfare listed in Ephesians 6 are virtually weapons of victory, rather than engagement. The people did what God asked them to do, and without touching the enemy, the enemy turned its belly up, showing he had really been defeated already.
What was left was to emphasize the need to put on the amour of victory rather than admiring or ignoring them. What we pursue Satan to possess is not land and material things as in the days of Joshua et al, but rather the souls of men held under his lies. I will be happy to hear your comments.
Dady God bless u. Wen sum1 is influencd by d Holy Spirit, he/she preaches 4rm d bible nt philosophy. Philosophers hv special wordz 4 particular gatherins, I even rememba usin david nd goliat to preach salvation, so again I say God bles u.
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