INVINCIBLE CHURCH 11-10-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
11/10/2024
The Perfect Authority of Jesus- Colossians 2:6-15
Colossians 2:6-15 NIV- 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross
We are going to look at
3 Keys to The Perfect Authority of Jesus
1] Jesus was a “perfect human person”!
2] Jesus was the “perfect sacrifice” for the payment of all “confessed and repented” sin!
3] Jesus has the “perfect position of authority” assigned by God, which all true followers of Jesus “identify with” and “live under.”
It all started when “Adam and Eve” sinned, and God told the “serpent, Satan,” “This battle’s not over yet!” A woman will have a “seed” and give birth to a baby. When this baby is born, a process will start that will ultimately lead to the “crushing of Satan’s head.”
God could decide to crush Satan’s head any time He wants to, but He has a “perfect plan” for His creation, in spite of man’s sin. He wants to demonstrate the “true nature” of His perfect love, mercy, power, and grace, while He completely destroys Satan’s “arrogant ego” in the process!
God humiliates Satan with something that’s far less powerful than Satan himself! God is using the seed of a “human woman” to destroy Satan because Satan “manipulated and influenced” a “human woman” to corrupt God’s design for “mankind” in the garden.
The “seed of a woman” is born a man, but it couldn’t be the kind of man who did what Adam did! It would have to be the kind of man who always makes the right decisions through the “authority and power” of God, even when “confronted and tempted” by the devil “one on one.”
It would take somebody who is “fully man” and “fully God” to reclaim the dominion of the garden that Satan had “influenced and corrupted.” So, God sent His Son, born of a woman, to “rescue” mankind and restore “God’s order” to His creation in only the way Jesus could.
It’s the story we see in the Bible that tells us:
1] Jesus was a “perfect human person.” Satan realizes what’s going on, but he isn’t going to give up. So, right after Jesus was born, Satan “manipulates and influences” King Herod into “thinking” that his earthly kingdom is in jeopardy from a future king. So, King Herod “gives orders” for all the male babies who are 2 years old and under to be executed.
Satan knew that Jesus would have been born at that time because he understood prophecy! He knew he couldn’t kill Jesus, so he had to manipulate somebody else to do it! Satan’s afraid of Jesus, because He’ll crush his head. So even since before Jesus was born, Satan’s been trying to eliminate Him!
Think about how that equates in the world today! Satan knows that any baby that’s born has the potential to become a true follower of Jesus, which adds one more: ambassador, warrior, servant, and saint to the “spiritual army” of Jesus!
Satan knows that once a person submits to Jesus as “Lord and Savior,” they are “saved” and “belong” to Jesus, so they’re indwelled by the power of the Holy Spirit. At that point, he can’t permanently defeat them! So Satan’s plan is to have them killed in the womb while they’re a baby.
His plan is still just as “diabolical and evil” as when the “ancient pagans” made child sacrifices, but his “strategy and method” have just changed. We call it abortion. So, back to the perfect authority of Jesus — Satan realized he couldn’t defeat Jesus by having Him killed at birth.
And he couldn’t “curse His perfection” by getting Him to sin when he tempted Him in the desert. So, Satan “participated” in the plan to have Jesus executed by crucifixion, and he “possessed” Judas Iscariot, using him as “the vessel” to betray Jesus, as we see in:
John 13:27 NIV- 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly!”
Jesus is showing here that even though He’s about to be betrayed by a “counterfeit follower,” He’s still completely in control of the situation through the power of the Holy Spirit! Remember, when Jesus was incarnate as a man on Earth, He “performed and worked” miracles during His 3-year ministry, but never on His own. Every time the Bible tells us about Jesus doing “spiritual work,” He gives credit for the outcome to “God the Father” and the power of “His will,” because He had to demonstrate the potential for the power of God to work through the “physical body” of a man!
Jesus did miracles on Earth to show that He had the perfect “authority and right” to rule and also had the “supernatural power” to destroy Satan, all based on His “dependence and obedience” to God. Satan was fully aware of all this, as we see in:
1 John 3:8 NIV- 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work!
So, Jesus as a “perfect human person” led to Jesus being able to be the “perfect sacrifice” as the payment for the sins of mankind! Which means, Jesus Christ conquered sin, death, and Satan through His perfect life, death, burial, and resurrection! So:
2] Jesus was the “perfect sacrifice” for the payment of all “confessed and repented” sin — Now, there are three words that are the most important difference between Christianity and all other “religious belief” systems in the world. These three words are: “Jesus conquered death!”
There’s never been another religious leader who predicted His own “death and resurrection” based on His claims about “Himself” and “His teaching” of truth, then went on to “perfectly keep” that promise!
In order to conquer Satan, Jesus had to conquer death! And in order to conquer death, He had to conquer sin! There’s only one way to conquer death, which is through resurrection. Somebody has to “rise up” from the dead if they’re going to conquer death!
The “wage or consequence” of sin is death. So, God dealt with the continual “sin problem” of His creation, humanity, through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus “took care of” death caused by sin, which is how God maintains His “demand of righteousness” while still giving us His “grace and mercy.”
A big part of our responsibility in all this is how we “deal with” the question of authority. We have to understand who’s “in charge.” At this point, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the “wrath of God” against sin by meeting His “holy demands,” so the sin problem is solved!
Now God is going to clarify the question of authority. This process takes place during the three days that Jesus was in the grave. He didn’t just “die on Friday” and “rise on Sunday.” There’s more to the story, and it takes place over those three days. God’s “perfect plan” wasn’t only to give us a “means” to have forgiveness of sins.
But He wants us to have a “means of protection” from the supernatural power of Satan through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit! God designed a way for us to be “legally released” from the condemnation of sin that Satan continually tries to claim against us.
God also makes a practical way for us to defeat the potential “spiritual attacks” Satan might bring against us on Earth. What Satan didn’t “figure in” to the equation was that the death of Jesus would satisfy the justice of God in such a way that God could keep His love, grace, and mercy for us without compromising His holiness.
Satan knew about the love God has for His creation (humanity), and he was “angry and jealous.” Satan knew about the wrath of God and was afraid. But because of his arrogant, selfish, and disobedient rebellion against God, he had “no concept” of what the grace of God was all about!
God’s grace was an “attribute” of God’s character that Satan didn’t know anything about. It wasn’t part of God’s plan for the angels to have access to the benefit of His grace, so Satan didn’t know anything about it!
God “took on” the penalty of humanity so He could still love “sinners” by paying for their sin through the blood of Jesus Christ, satisfying His wrath and expressing His love without compromising His “holy nature.” Every bit of this was made possible because of the obedient work of Jesus.
Now, don’t miss this. Our sin was paid for by the death of Christ, but (verse 15) tells us something else happened when Jesus was raised from the dead. Satan’s power was “harnessed”! So, when a person is submitted to Jesus as “Lord and Savior,” they are “saved” and “belong” to Jesus.
They’re indwelled by the power of the Holy Spirit, which means now Satan can only try to influence a true follower of Jesus. But he can’t “enter or possess” them, like he can with somebody who’s a “counterfeit believer,” like Judas was!
Before Jesus, the worst things Satan could do to someone was to contribute to their “death” or try to “possess” them. But Jesus defeated Satan and took that ability away from him! So, the perfect “sacrificial death” of Jesus on the cross redeemed His followers from the curse of the law!
Galatians 3:13 NIV- 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”
This is why the Bible calls Jesus “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” because He defeats Satan, who’s described by Peter as a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. Now Jesus has him on a “golden leash” through the power of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Great “Lion Tamer”!
We’ve covered:
1. Jesus as a “perfect human person” empowered by God.
2. Jesus as the “perfect sacrifice” for the payment of all confessed and repented sin.
Finally, we’re going to look at:
3]The “perfect position of authority” that Jesus has been assigned by God.- The reality is, if we want to win “spiritual battles” against Satan on Earth—who’s still alive, deceiving, influencing, and intimidating—we must understand our identity and position in Jesus.
Jesus told His disciples that He would be leaving them soon to return to the “right hand of the Father,” to sit on His throne and run the universe until God sends Him back to reclaim His creation and bring His people home. We see this in:
Matthew 28:18 NIV – 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Jesus Christ is enthroned in heaven, and all “authority and power” has been given to Him by God, including power over demons! In our original passage, we see this in verses 9-10:
"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority."
Also in:
Ephesians 1:19-22 NIV – 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
This is the exact same power that’s in every true follower of Jesus today and the churches in America need to start acting like it—just as we strive to do right here at God’s Invincible Church in Wylie, Texas, and across the world in Indonesia!
Churches need to stop being afraid, weak, and worried, because Satan has been rendered “powerless” against the body of Christ by the all-powerful and precious blood of Christ.
Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV - " 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Jesus has allowed us the “honor and responsibility” of fighting these “spiritual battles” on Earth for all those who haven’t yet come to an understanding of the saving grace of God through salvation in Jesus! Then, Jesus allows us to celebrate His victory over Satan through “praise and worship” of Him!
Revelations 12:11 NIV - 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
The key to all of this is that we can’t defeat Satan in our own power and authority because our power only applies to natural beings, and Satan is a supernatural being. But we’ve been raised, justified, and represented to God by Jesus in the heavenly realm!
Our power and authority is not supernatural, but the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us as our advocate has spiritual power and authority that dominates over everything. We have the freedom, privilege, and responsibility to call on His power and authority whenever we need it.
Satan knows we can’t defeat his supernatural power because we don’t have any of our own. But Satan also knows he can’t defeat the supernatural power of Jesus Christ. So, the strategy of the devil is to try to keep us from living our lives in obedience to Jesus.
Jesus instructed us to:
· Love, pray, and be thankful for everything.
· Go, make, and teach disciples to be obedient to His commands.
· Ask, seek, and knock on the doors of opportunity to advance His kingdom.
Satan wants to disrupt all of it!
Every true follower of Jesus who is obedient to the authority of Jesus has the authority and power to defeat Satan in the name of Jesus! The reason we see so many “powerless” Christians and churches today is because they’re not operating in obedience under the perfect authority of Jesus.
They’re relying on worldly power instead—and a lot of times, they don’t even realize it! Well, it’s our job to proclaim and teach the truth in a way that they will:
Wake up, receive it, and start living, functioning, and operating in a way that honors God!
The point is, we can do it because as true followers of Jesus, we’re not fighting “for victory,” we’re fighting from a position of victory. Everything we do in the name of Jesus will always be a victory! Jesus has defeated Satan!
When we walk by faith under the perfect authority of Jesus, trusting in the power of His blood to give us power over any attacks the enemy throws at us, we’ll always win. The Bible describes this as wearing the armor of God—that’s the perfect authority of Jesus!
We have to understand our:
Identity, position, and power in Jesus, which allows us the ability and responsibility to access spiritual authority under the perfect authority of Jesus—as His ambassadors, warriors, servants, and saints!
Satan wants to ruin our:
Relationship with God, our family, health, finances, witness, testimony, and everything else!
But if we remember that we operate and function in the power of the Holy Spirit under the perfect authority of Jesus, then:
We can stop being afraid, weak, and worried. Satan’s power is ineffective against all true followers of Jesus who make up the body of Christ. Once the sacrificial, precious blood of Jesus was shed and cast, His perfect authority and power permanently made His followers truly invincible!