Text:
“Our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, the powers of this dark
world, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6.12
The composer George Handel, who wrote the Messiah, and many other pieces
of music, wrote an oratorio towards the end of his life. With the title Theodora, the performance took place in
The music by Handel, with the
words by Thomas Morell tells the story of how around 305 AD the Roman Governor
of
ordered all citizens to sacrifice to the Roman god Jupiter.
Theodora, a Christian woman refuses. She is immediately thrown into prison,
her friend Didymus tries to rescue her, but, captured, he too is condemned.
The story is about conflict, between faith and state power
between Christian belief and pagan life,
and how Theodora’s life is caught up in the conflict between the two...........
Theodora in prison, sings:
“That I might rest, For ever blest, With harmony and love,”
the audience, we are told, didn’t like the performance very much............
Paul reveals to us something of a conflict in Romans chapter 7.
Paul tells us something of the conflict within himself between the Holy Spirit and his own sinful self.
Paul tells us, of an ongoing struggle within himself, between the righteousness that he has received from Jesus Christ, and his old human nature. We suddenly gain a glimpse into Paul’s very soul, and see that he is by no means holy or perfect yet. Paul experiences a conflict in himself as the life of Christ is at work within him, challenging the sin that like dry rot runs through the whole of life, our thinking, our speaking, our doing.
A conflict that is common to all Christians between the life of Jesus Christ working within us and the darkness that is within ourselves
Now, the Bible also speaks in much wider terms about this conflict with sin, as one which affects the whole world.
The Bible, in fact, speaks dramatically about the power, or force of sin, which dominates the whole world. And its this that the letter to the Ephesians is speaking about. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, the powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, writes Paul.
As the apostles, crossed seas, mountains and
deserts, with the Gospel, and came into great confrontations in the cities of
the east like
The Bible speaks of a global
realm of evil, which, as the currents of history flow, can be seen sometimes
more, sometimes less clearly. Karl Heim was a leader and thinker in the Church
in
He pondered these things very deeply and he came to the conclusion that the forces, powers, and authorities of evil, portrayed in the Bible, these were the deeper forces at work, “the powers of this dark world”. He was living with them on every side !
And the reality is, we still see wars ravaging the earth, the clash of empires, greed, hunger, famine, despair, corruption.... are these not the signs of “the spiritual forces of evil” that Paul speaks of ?
Look at the life of our Lord Jesus ! Right through the gospels from the beginning of His ministry, we see the conflict in which Jesus is engaged. Satan tests Jesus in the desert, offers Him earthly power, invites Jesus to use the powers He has for Himself.
At Caesarea Philippi, Peter
tries to divert Jesus away from the great purposes of salvation, that long
journey to
John tells us, that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one”( 1 Jn. 5.19). But, here is the Good news: Jesus says: “Take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16.33). There at the Cross a stupendous victory took place Jesus “having disarmed the powers and authorities... triumphed over them by the Cross” (Col.2.15). At the Cross, Paul proclaims: Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age” (Gal.1.4). “This is the victory that has overcome the world... who is it that overcomes the world ? He who believes in Jesus ......”(1 Jn. 5.5).
He “gives us the victory”(1 Cor.15.57).
You
might remember the famous Ugandan bishop Festo Kivengere, he tells of how in
February 1973 he went to see three men from his diocese:
The
government had trumped up charges against them, and had condemned them to
death. The bishop went to see them. Bishop Kivengere writes very honestly: I was wondering what to say. How do you give
the gospel to doomed men who are probably seething with rage? We approached them and as they turned to
look at us, what a sight! Their faces were all alight with an unmistakable glow
and radiance Before I could say anything, one of them
burst out: "Bishop, thank you for coming! I wanted to tell you. The day I
was arrested, in my prison cell, I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my heart.
He came in and forgave me all my sins! Heaven is now open, and there is nothing
between me and my God! Please tell my wife and children that I am going to be
with Jesus. Ask them to accept him into their lives as I did."
The next Sunday, I
went to preach to a huge crowd in Kigezi, the home town of..
the men. When I told them the testimony of the man
they knew, there erupted a great song of praise to Jesus!
In
the days and the weeks that followed, he says, there was an upsurge of life in Christ, which challenges death and
defeats it.
Yes,
all of the stories we have heard this morning come from extreme circumstances -
the story of Theodora, Karl Heim, the martyrs in
Jesus says: “Take heart, I have overcome the world”. There at the Cross Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities... triumphed over them by the Cross”.
This “ is the victory that has overcome the world... who is it that overcomes the world ? The one who believes in Jesus ......”(1 Jn. 5.5) !
AMEN.