This world is under the power of Satan.
In 1 John 5:19 (ESV) we happen across this startling truth that, "...the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." For the apostle John, the whole world wasn't this vast, dark, uninhabitable universe. Nor was it the earth itself, but it was the vast frontier of humankind. The world includes every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth. And all of it is under the power of the evil one.
To be under something is to be under its power or influence. This is the status of unredeemed humanity. We might dismiss such a bold, unqualified assertion, except we don't realize the power of something until we try to escape its power.
Consider the power of gravity. We convince ourselves that because we can jump, we have power over gravity. Some of us can barely jump, while others can leap over the high bar or dunk a basketball. But just because you can jump doesn't mean that you are free from gravity. Despite our strength, gravity wins!
And that's how it is throughout all the world. Sure, we can jump in our strength. But that doesn't mean that we can fly. Anyone is capable of showing love. You don't have to be a Christian to love people. But what's it take to be set free for love? To be able to love without limits? What does it mean to love as Christ loved, supernaturally (defying anything humanly possible)? What does it look like to be loving boldly, sacrificially, willingly, even courageously, unto death? Such amazing love doesn't seem humanly accessible.
When we attempt to jump, we realize the power of gravity. When we attempt to love, we realize the power the evil one has over all the world. We want to love and we aspire to love, but selfishness comes more naturally and spontaneously to us.
The Bible tells us that when we've been set free from the power of evil one, we love! But when we've not been set free from the power of the evil one, we hate. 1 John 2:11 (ESV) says, "But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
The Bible tells us that when we've been set free, we walk as Jesus walked, abiding in truth. Otherwise, we walk in darkness, hating truth, for fear our evil deeds be exposed.
The Bible tells us that when we've been set free, we look to God for life. We look to his power to sustain us, protect us, and save us. Otherwise, we look to the things of this world for life. Thus 1 John 2:15-17 (ESV) warns, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life-- is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
If you're not under the power of the evil one, you're free to love! Instead of being ruled by hatred, anger, resentment, past wounds, bitterness, and jealousy, you forgive as you've been forgiven. Instead of walking past a person in need, you respond. You walk with people in a costly way, even though they have nothing to offer to advance you.
If you're not under the power of the evil one, you're free to walk as Jesus walked. You are free to keep doing what you see your Father in heaven doing, speaking what you hear your Father in heaven saying, and keeping in step with the Spirit of the living God!
If you are not under the power of the evil one, you're free to abide in Jesus and enjoy life in him! Instead of being ruled by the desires of your flesh, you're ruled by a desire to please God. Instead of being ruled by the lusts of your eyes, you yearn for what is unseen. You walk by faith, not by sight. Instead of being ruled by pride of life-- how much you know, how much beauty you possess, strength, wealth, and friends-- you worship God for the life you've found in Christ. You worship him who is true, who is infinitely beautiful, who is infinitely powerful, and who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, who became a friend of sinners and laid down his life for us.
This world is under the power of the evil one. Our inability to love without limits, forgive, serve, resist the flesh, and turn our eyes from the sin is the evidence. Try to jump. No matter how deeply you aspire to touch the heavens, you're quickly overcome by the evil one's power, unless of course, you are born of God! As John 8:36 (ESV) says, "So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed!"
Idols cannot sustain, protect, nor save us.
In 1 John 5:21 (ESV) we happen across this command, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Idols are those things we depend on to sustain us, protect us, or save us. When the pastor talks about other people's idols, you smile with agreement. But when the pastor talks about your idols, you try to justify yourself.
The nation of Israel trusted in its own strength instead of trusting in God's power. Israel put its hope in bows and arrows and chariots and modern weaponry instead of trusting in God's protection. Israel put its hope in gold and silver instead of in eternal riches. Israel put its hope in its own kings and politics and alliances with foreign governments instead of trusting in the Lord Almighty. Israel put its hope in religious duty-- in rules, rituals, and regulations-- and missed the mercy of God. Israel put its hope in bread and pots of meat. But what did Jesus say in Matthew 4:4 (ESV)? "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
I was reading the story of King Asa this past week, who had a foot disease, probably gout! And the Bible says that instead of putting his hope in God, he put his hope in doctors and medicine.
So what do you hope will sustain, protect, and save your soul? Guns? Gold? Silver? Great wealth? Presidents, senators, representatives, political parties, or foreign alliances? Religion? Good deeds? Works? Worship liturgies? Getting baptized, taking communion, or tithing? Will doctors, medicine, and modern science save you?
Novelist David Foster Wallace, not long before his suicide, spoke to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. He said, "Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive."
"If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is... they're unconscious. They are default settings." (Quoted from Tim Keller, Center Church)
Only Jesus can sustain us, protect us, and save us.
1 John 5:18-19 (ESV) says, "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one."
John 1:4-5 (ESV) says of Jesus, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
1 John 5:4-5 (ESV) says, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."
We have a gravity-defying... hate-defying... pride-defying... lust-defying... flesh-defying... sin-defying... death-defying... darkness-defying... world-defying... Satan-defying hope. We abide in Jesus, as our daily bread, to sustain us. We trust in Jesus to protect us, though this world is filled with evil terror. We believe in Jesus for eternal life, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We turn away from idols, and it's our delight to do so, because idols hold no promise for the redeemed of God, and not for the world.
1 John 5:11-12 (ESV) says, "And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."
1 John 5:20 (ESV) says, "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."
Jesus did three things for us.
First, Jesus destroyed the power of sin.
For centuries, gravity seemed impossible to conquer-- but along came came the Wright brothers. They demonstrated that we could defy gravity and fly! Likewise, no one could break Satan's power. But along came the Son of God to break the power of sin forever. Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread and satisfy the cravings of his flesh. Satan took Jesus atop the mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said in Matthew 4:9 (ESV), "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Satan took Jesus to the temple and tempted him to steal the glory of God for himself, but Jesus defied Satan's power.
Our world says that you can't change, that Satan's power can't be broken, and that you can't fly. But our Lord God Almighty says that you can! Not by power, not by might, but by his Spirit. The world says, "No way." But Jesus says that you are more than conquerors through him who loved you. And in Christ, neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Second, Jesus arrested the chief perpetrator.
Everyone feels safer when the strong man is behind bars. In Matthew 12:29 Jesus describes himself as the one who enters the strong man's house and ties up the strong man! In John 12:31 (ESV) shortly before his betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus proclaimed, "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out." 1 John 3:8 (ESV) says, "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."
Colossians 2:15 (ESV) says of Jesus, "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him." Hebrews 2:14-15 (ESV) says, "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."
We no longer have any excuse to continue sinning. You only need to trust what Christ's power has accomplished on the cross. It's like when you fly. When you fly, you don't trust in your own power. What human-powered machine has ever reached the heavens? Instead, when we fly we're carried to the heavens by a power that is not our own. For the Christian, that power is the Spirit of Living God. By the Spirit of God we thrive.
Third, Jesus took our death penalty.
Friends, we were all guilty. At one time, we thought we could be lawless, that we could sin freely, and choose our own way, and defy God's unchanging law. But what we discover is that we're subject to God's law, and that apart from Christ we are slaves to sin, deceived, lying to ourselves, under the power of Satan, subject to sin, subject to death, subject to God's wrath, and fully accountable for our own actions.
But instead of demanding our blood as the just penalty for our wickedness, lawlessness, and foolishness, Christ offered his own blood. He died in our place, taking the just penalty for our sins-- sins we committed in the flesh. Christ took our penalty upon his own flesh. By his wounds we've been healed.
1 John 3:4-5 (ESV) says, "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin." 1 John 2:2 (ESV) says, "He (Jesus) is the propitiation (the appeasement, the mollification, the placation of God's wrath) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." John 3:16 (ESV) says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Friends, we're no longer held captive by the evil one. Isn't that good news?
Nor are we held captive because of God. God chose to send his Son, in the likeness of sinful man, to break the chains of sin, set us free, and protect us from the evil one forever. Because of Christ Jesus, Satan can't lay a single finger on us. Isn't that good news?
This means that the only thing that could potentially keep you captive is your choice. Jesus destroyed the power of sin, he arrested the chief perpetrator, and he paid our penalty. So what are you waiting for? Repent and be baptized. Confess your sin. Call on the name of the Lord. Escape the corruption that is in this world caused by sin.