Hebrews 1:14
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Sun Tzu has some of the most quoted statements in his classic book, “The Art of War,” and perhaps the most commonly quoted phrase says, “know thy enemy, know thyself, and you will not have to fear the result of a hundred battles.”
You woke up today a soldier in battle, though you may not have known it.
you’ve got friends and Allies in this war. Friends who are loving, powerful, and devoted to their cause.
you’ve got enemies in this life, who want to destroy you, enemies who are powerful, and enemies who aren’t just passive about their hatred for you.
I’m not talking about the president, or senators, or Russia, or that strange cousin you haven’t seen in a while.
I’m talking about the fact that we walk amongst angels and demons, spiritual warriors that are constantly locked in conflict.
Your life is taking place in the midst of a spiritual battlefield, and every day you wake up is another chapter in that battle. Every day you walk through the line of fire in your neighborhood, you navigate traps the enemy has laid for you in your workplace and in your home, you struggle against deceitful spies he has placed in your life.
The consequences of this war are eternal and infinite - the casualties are not just bodies but souls. The consequences aren’t just for this life, but the life to come as well. You are not safe from this war, this isn’t happening overseas but in our homes, our schools, our churches.
Being involved in a war with such high stakes means we can’t afford to be ignorant concerning it, though my fear this morning is that many of us are ignorant in this matter.
We are engaged in spiritual warfare
We are engaged in spiritual warfare
We fight against principalities
We fight against principalities
The Apostle Paul makes a very clear point in the book of Ephesians who our struggle is against in this life.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
We are a distracted people when it comes to our struggle. We are so quickly caught up spending our energy fighting against political opponents, cultural opponents, people in comment sections on social media, or even other Christians! Some of us have laid down arms altogether, convinced that we have no enemies in this life in any capacity, and so we simply will not fight. Some of us are ignoring the war that has come to our doorstep, choosing rather to wage separate wars. Others have become convinced that we are in peacetimes, but neither of these approaches can do away with the actual war that threatens us.
Our enemies cannot be touched or seen directly and neither can all our allies; we witness only their effects in our lives. We are caught in a struggle against spiritual forces, against evil forces that seek to destroy us. They rule over darkness, and they are not passive in their fight.
We fight alongside principalities
We fight alongside principalities
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
While we struggle against fallen angels, we are also defended by holy angels. We see that the Scriptures clearly teach that angels are spiritual beings that are actively involved in this world and in our lives.
This can be difficult for us to accept or to grasp, because we are a people that are so driven by what is physical. Either we do not believe in what we cannot see, or we too easily forget about what we cannot see.
In addition to that, we put very little effort into understanding what cannot be seen. We may get to a point where we understand that our struggle is primarily spiritual, but do we know what that means? What does that look like? Who are our enemies, and who are our friends? Is this a daily struggle, a future struggle, a past struggle?
We may have many questions, which shows us an unfortunate reality: We are ignorant concerning the spiritual forces we struggle against, and our enemies thrive on ignorance.
We are ignorant concerning the principalities
We are ignorant concerning the principalities
To put it simply, our struggle is primarily concerning angels. This is important, because there is a wide range of misconceptions when it comes to angels.
Common misconceptions
we “get our wings”
angels are eternal or all-powerful
angels are plump babies
angels aren’t real (the most dangerous of all)
What are angels anyway?
In the beginning, God created two types of rational creatures: humans and angels. While humans were created with body and spirit, angels are purely spiritual beings that can, at times, manifest themselves in a variety of visible forms.
At times, we see angels that look exactly like people. (Sodom and Gomorrah)
At times, they are terrifying creatures. At times, they are glorious forms that are praising and worshiping God. (Revelation, Isaiah)
Angels apparently went through a “probationary” period just like Adam and Eve did. There were those who obeyed and were confirmed in immortal glory, and there were those who rebelled in sin and have been cast out of God’s Kingdom forever. These are what the New Testament calls “demons,” and they are even now awaiting the final judgement when they will be cast into the lake of fire forever.
These angels are the spirits who are playing major roles in our spiritual conflict.
elect - ministering spirits
reprobate (demons) - no hope of salvation, and seek to destroy any hope that humans may hold on to.
Illustrate:
Imagine any conflict, and try to think of a better advantage than the other side not even believing you exist. Imagine a football game where one team is convinced that the other isn’t even on the field. Every time the quarterback gets hit he tries to come up with some medical explanation for why his body keeps getting violently thrown to the ground, but refuses to believe in the 300 pound defensive tackle that is continuously pounding him into the ground. Imagine a war where one country stubbornly insists that the enemy isn’t real even though they continue to sustain casualties every day.
Imagine if there were evil spirits hell-bent on corrupting our souls, in conflict with angels all around us, and we continued to pretend like they don’t exist even though we are constantly plagued by their attempts to destroy us.
You don’t have to imagine, because this is the reality we often find ourselves in.
We have been dominated by the principalities
We have been dominated by the principalities
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We have found ourselves in a state of deadness in our sin; more than that, we have found that we have become followers of Satan himself. in our sinful condition, we make disciples of demons. Following in the footsteps of Adam, we have all become seduced by the false teachings of the evil one and have willfully followed him in our lives.
We have become utterly dominated by the evil spiritual forces in this world; not just as passive victims but as his converted followers doing what is evil.
This is an issue not even angels can solve, for even if they could overpower the demons, they can’t do anything about the fact that humanity has becoming willingly enslaved to evil. Even if our slavemasters could be defeated, the angels remain powerless to cure the evil that has pervaded our own souls.
Know thy enemy, know thyself, and it seems that we have every reason to fear the result of every battle coming our way.
Thankfully, one greater than any of the angels has arisen for our cause. More than an angel, we have come to behold the Christ.
Christ has guaranteed our victory
Christ has guaranteed our victory
Among us has risen a champion, a Christ
Among us has risen a champion, a Christ
This is the main point of the whole book of Hebrews: We have come to behold the Christ, who is far superior to anyone or anything else. In fact, in verse 13 of Hebrews 1, we read:
And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
In a couple weeks, we are going to look at a passage that further confirms this, Hebrews 2:7-8 quotes Psalm 8 saying,
Hebrews 2:7–8 (ESV)
You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
While angels and demons are all around us locked in bitter conflict, and while their contribution to this battle is far from inconsequential, it is Jesus alone who arises as the victor. He is the almighty one, the champion, the conqueror. He is the one who brings victory, and he is the one who commands the spiritual forces in this world.
Jesus proved this to be true in his life and ministry on Earth
Christ is sovereign over the spiritual forces
Christ is sovereign over the spiritual forces
Time and time again, Jesus showed that he was powerful over the demons, the evil spiritual forces. The book of Mark gives us one example:
And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
There are plenty other examples, like his success over the temptations of Satan in the wilderness (during which angels were ministering to him), the submission of the legion of angels in the man in the outskirts of a town, or the several other exorcisms he performed that nobody else could.
In each of these examples, Jesus showed himself to be in absolute authority, completely sovereign over the forces of darkness.
The demons knew who he was, they knew that they were powerless against him, and they shuddered at his name and presence in this world.
Christ proved himself ultimately victorious over the evil of this world in his resurrection from the dead - this was the climax of his victory. It was in the resurrection that we saw Satan and his demons lose their most powerful weapon, which was death.
This is why John says in his gospel
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus has shown himself to be definitively victorious over the evil forces of this world, and that isn’t all.
Christ has secured victory for his own
Christ has secured victory for his own
In addition to destroying our enemy, he did what the angels could never do - he has redeemed his people. When it comes to the spiritual conflict we find ourselves in, there are two immediate benefits we see flowing from this: we have been given hearts that love God and hate evil, and we have been given power and authority over the forces of evil that once dominated us.
New Hearts
New Hearts
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Remember that one of our biggest issues isn’t just that we’ve been dominated by evil forces, its that we have become willing soldiers for their cause.
Jesus redeems our evil hearts and gives us new hearts that love to serve God. This is something that only Jesus could do, and he has done it.
Through faith in him, we are transformed from death to life, from servants of evil to servants of good, from loving evil to loving what is good.
Apart from this redemptive work, we would have no hope but to experience the same defeat the evil spiritual forces await.
Power over evil
Power over evil
In addition to redeeming our evil hearts, Jesus also equips us with power and authority over the evil forces of darkness in this world.
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
It is Jesus and Jesus alone who has laid the foundation for our salvation. Nobody but jesus has shown themselves able to save us from the sinful state we have plunged ourselves into, and nobody but Jesus has proven themselves capable of aiding us perfectly in our time of need.
if I may be so bold to offer an improvement to Sun Tzu’s phrase, or at least adapt it for our purposes, “know thy enemy, the thy Lord, and you will never have to fear the result of any battle.”
Jesus is the one who has decided the end of this spiritual war we find ourselves in; he is coming again to finalize his victory once and for all.
But until he does, the battle continues to rage in this life.
So, what does it look like for us to fight in a battle when we know how the war ends? It certainly doesn’t mean we lay down our arms and stop fighting; rather, we fight all the harder with confidence because we know that we will win the war in Christ.
Christ sends angels to help in the battle
Christ sends angels to help in the battle
While the war is over, the battle still rages
While the war is over, the battle still rages
In saving us, Christ has made us into warriors and not passive observers. He has equipped us for battle, not just for viewing.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Christ sends angels as ministering spirits who help us in the battle
Christ sends angels as ministering spirits who help us in the battle
In this battle, we fight alongside angels against demons.
When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Calvin said,
From this passage the faithful receive no small consolation; for they hear that celestial hosts are assigned to them as ministers, in order to secure their salvation. It is indeed no common pledge of God’s love towards us, that they are continually engaged in our behalf.
While there may be many misconceptions about angels, we cannot miss this important fact: while Christ has proved himself victorious in the war, we still remain locked in bitter conflict with principalities and spirituial beings. We cannot afford to ignore that. At the same time, we recognize that God has sent angels to fight alongside us and help us in times of need. We cannot ignore that either.
While looking to the victory Christ has won for us, we must pick up our arms and continue to fight this spiritual battle every day.
We must press forward - at the end of this war is a beautiful inheritance purchased by Christ that is our complete salvation!