Pastor Jonah preached Genesis 6:1-4. He taught us to see Jesus as the ruler of heaven and earth, seeing him as not only the forgiver of our sins, but the liberator of our souls from spiritual oppression. Lector: Asia Filipiak
Pastor Jonah preached Genesis 6:1-4. He taught us to see Jesus as the ruler of heaven and earth, seeing him as not only the forgiver of our sins, but the liberator of our souls from spiritual oppression.
Lector: Asia Filipiak
Big Idea: Jesus is the ruler of heaven and earth. See him not only as the forgiver of our sins, but also the liberator of our souls from spiritual oppression.
Preface:
-secondary issue.
-Opportunity to be like the Bereans
-see bulletin for resources (book table for unseen realm)
Early in my faith, I would have said the fall is what’s wrong with the world
There, we see that we are sinful, we have responsibility for our rebellion against God
This is true…but is it the whole story?
Is everything wrong with your life your fault? All of it?
To blame everything on our own personal sins does not account for all we face in life
Nor does it agree with the Scriptures’ teachings.
Yes, the Bible talks about our personal sins often.
Sin is very serious…but our sin is only part of our problem.
We looked a this passage recently:
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but agains the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers overs this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
-Ephesians 6:12
Part of what’s wrong with the world is our personal sin.
Another part is spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.
The Bible reveals there are spiritual forces seeking to distort and destroy.
If we truly want to know what’s wrong with the world, and what there is to do about it, we must understand these spiritual forces of evil.
Here’s how their invasion begins:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,
-Gensis 6:1
“Man” here means humankind…human daughters are being born.=
Why word it that way? Because look what comes next:
the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.
-Gensis 6:2
Verse 1, daughters born of man, now, we have “sons of God” in verse 2.
There is a distinction between human daughters/sons of God.
Every time “Sons of God” is mentioned in the OT, it refers to the divine council we learned about 2 weeks ago, the spiritual beings God invites to participate in his rule of the universe.
Here are a few examples:
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?…when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
-Job 38:4,7
Sons of God can’t be human, they’re present before humans are created.
Psalm 82:1,6, where we learned about this divine council:
God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment…I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;”
-Psalm 82:1,6
They appear again in Psalm 89:
who in the sky is equal to the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the sons of God, a God feared greatly in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all surrounding him?
-Psalm 89:5-7
One more from the Psalms:
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
-Psalm 29:1-2
“heavenly beings” is the same phrase elsewhere translated “sons of God.”
Sons of God are heavenly beings! Elohim, citizens of the unseen realm.
These elohim see how attractive human women are and commit a grievous sin:
They took as their wives any they chose.
-Genesis 6:2
The domain of these beings is the heavens, not earth
They were not meant to live on earth nor marry human women.
Verse 4 tells us what comes of these marriages:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.
-Genesis 6:4
No one knows for sure what Nephilim means or where it comes from
It’s likely an Aramaic word adopted into Hebrew that means giants.
Average Jew then was around 5’ tall, based on some data in the OT, these “giants” were probably 7-9’ tall, so not King Kong, but real big!
Earliest interpretations all affirmed the nephilim were giants born of elohim+women.
In the earliest Greek translation of the OT, they translate this word as giants, too.
This is an invasion from members of the Divine Council, seeking to create a new race of non-image bearers on the earth, distorting God’s plan to destroy his creation.
Jude describes the sin this way in the NT:
I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged.
-Jude 6
There’s the invasion. They left the place where they belonged.
Jude also compares their sin to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Apostle Peter does precisely the same thing, showing us the dire consequences of their actions. 2 Peter 2:
God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family…God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes.
-2 Peter 2:4-6.
Spiritual forces seek to distort and destroy…but God responds with judgment.
Once these elohim take human wives, once Nephilim are born, look what God decides:
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
-Genesis 6:3
He sets a doomsday clock. You have 120 years, then the earth will be wiped out.
And this is precisely what happens: he floods the earth!
Under these spiritual assaults before the flood God saw..
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
-Genesis 6:5
The result of spiritual attacks is the increase of evil in the hearts of men
Spiritual forces seek to distort and destroy!
But God seeks to rescue and restore. That’s the goal of the flood, to wipe out the spiritual invaders and re-start with Noah.
Some of your problems are the result of your sin, but some of them are the result of invasions from the spiritual realm.
Did you notice 6:4 also said and afterwards? Not sure how, but Nephilim are still around post flood. Several theories, that’s for another time.
Even after the flood, we see what a serious problem these giants are for God.
Numbers 13 tells of the tribe of Anak, who “came from the Nephilim.”
They’re described as one of the giant clans, along with several others in the OT
God sends a flood of soldiers led by Moses and then Joshua to wipe these clans out
You’ll find a few instances in the OT where a specific phrase is used, devote to destruction. Here’s an example:
We captured all [of King Og of Bashan’s] cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors.
-Deuteronomy 2:34
This happens several times in the OT…men, women and children. No survivors.
Why? Why such destruction? This word, total war or devote to destruction is only given when the army of Israel invades the lands of giant clans, nephilim or descendants of nephilim.
This is how seriously God takes this invasion, this is how seriously God takes spiritual warfare.
The OT tells us that God has wiped out the Nephilim. They are gone now.
The NT tells us that the rebel elohim responsible for this have been thrown in prison, awaiting the final day of judgment.
Spiritual forces seek to distort and destroy…BUT GOD rescues and restores!
Yes, his plan involves the forgiveness of your sins, and it also involves your spiritual liberation.
So. Let’s take a breath…what do we do with this?
If you want to understand what’s going on in our world, you must realize that we are under assault from the spiritual realm.
This is what the earliest Jews believed.
This is what everyone in the world of the Bible believed…
What the Babylonians who held the Jews captive believed.
This is what the apostles believed, and this is what Jesus came to deal with.
Spiritual forces seek to distort and destroy…BUT GOD seeks to rescue and restore.
We have to have a supernatural worldview if we want to understand the fullness of the world’s problems and, more so, the fullness of Jesus’ mission.
So, let’s consider what Jesus does about these spiritual forces
2. Jesus came to rescues us from spiritaul bondage and restore us to God
When Jesus is baptized in Mark 1, the same language for the Red Sea parting in exodus is used for the skies opening above Jesus.
Jews reading this would have been clued in immediately, This is a new exodus story.
Jude 5 says it was JESUS who led the people out of slavery in Egypt.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the exodus story!
Just as Israel left Egypt to start a new kingdom, Jesus leaves the waters of baptism to start a kingdom.
Just as Israel went into the desert for 40 years, so too Jesus begins his ministry with 40 days in the desert.
Each one of Jesus’ responses to his temptations from Satan come from Deuteronomy 6-8, where Moses prepares his people to enter into the promised land
Unlike Israel, though, Jesus overcomes temptation.
After his temptation, Jesus leaves the desert and calls his first disciples.
In mark, he then heals a demon possessed man.
In the first exodus, seas are parted, people are freed, and they go to war with offspring of spiritual evil.
In the new exodus, the sky is parted, Jesus sets his first disciples free, AND THE KING GOES TO WAR WITH SPIRITUAL EVIL.
FROM THE START of Jesus’ ministry, he announces spiritual war has begun.
This encounter in Mark 1 is the first time a demon is cast out in the Bible.
And it is cast out by king Jesus.
At Peter’s confession before the transfiguration, Jesus says “the gates of hell” will not withstand the church.
The gentile culture there called the very mountain he was standing on the gates of hell. They believed that mountain was where gods came to earth to marry women.
Sound familiar? It was on that mountain they believed spiritual invasion occurred.
So Jesus says, “these gates cannot hold me back”…he goes up THAT mountain and reveals himself in his glory, robed in glorious light.
In his transfiguration, Jesus is saying, “I am taking back what is mine.”
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Jesus is Crucified and dies, and for a moment the spiritual authorities perhaps thought they had won.
But we know what happened. He rose! He rose victoriously, triumphantly, and listen to what he says to his disciples after:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
-Matthew 28:18
can you see what he’s saying now? ALL authority, both IN HEAVEN and ON EARTH
In the unseen realm and the seen one.
I am Lord of all…which means you do not have to be afraid anymore.
You do not have to live under the oppression of false gods demanding your worship.
Spiritual forces seek to deceive, disorder, and distort…BUT GOD rescues and restore.
And then Jesus sends us out and shows us what spiritual warfare means:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
-Matthew 28:19-20
Do you see? Spiritual warfare isn’t yelling at demons or reading into every bizarre occurrence
If you want to push back the spiritaul darkness of our world, build the kingdom of God
These rebel elohim sought to overthrow God’s rule on earth, deceiving, distorting, destroying God’s creation.
But Jesus has asserted his authority over everything, so we go.
We go and establish God’s kingdom on earth, just as it is in heaven.
The invasion has failed, because the king has come.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all he has commanded us.
Now, we call our minds to the source of our power…
COMMUNION