Series Title: Resurrection Encounters

Sermon 5: An Encounter with Authority

Text: Matt 28:16-20

When Jesus had fasted for 40 days, He was led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The second temptation is the one that fascinates me. The devil takes Jesus onto a high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Obviously this is something in the realm of the supernatural. But then the devil says, “All this authority I will give to you, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if you will worship before me it will be Yours” (Luke 2:6). The word ‘authority’ there is exousia, which means to have the authority to perform, the liberty to do as one pleases. Before I go any further I need to tell you there are some things that happen in Scripture for which I have no explanation. For example, how did the devil get authority over the nations; when did he get that authority? I have no answers to those questions, but I do know that if this temptation was a real temptation, then the devil had authority over the nations.

Now let us fast forward and look at Luke 22:53. Jesus has been arrested. As He is being arrested Jesus turns to the soldier and says, “This is your hour and darkness is in control.” The same word exousia is used there. The devil was in control and had the authority to do as he pleased. This was the hour of the powers of darkness.

Turn to Matthew 27:45-46.

The Darkness of Evil

Jesus spent three hours in the darkness. He spent three hours battling with the powers of darkness. Paul rightly referred to the devil as the prince of the power of the air, as the ruler of darkness. This was Satan’s hour. During that time a material darkness settled over the earth. It was a manifestation of the powers of evil and the empire of sin. I believe the devil produced the darkness, and that it was a symbol of his intention to extinguish the Light of the World. Three hours; that’s how long the battle lasted.

(Aside: Take time to look at where the word ‘darkness’ appears in the New Testament. Wherever you come across it, it is a symbol of evil. Darkness and death are twin sisters, and on the Cross as our Lord was passing to death, He was surrounded by the cohorts of prince of darkness. It was an outward and material symbol of a more sinister and unfathomable spiritual darkness into which Jesus entered.)

Before we look at what transpired in the darkness I want to look at:

The End of the Darkness

Seven times our Lord spoke from the Cross, three before the darkness and four after. There was no voice heard during the darkness. The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, had silenced hell. The fourth word is a cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” The fifth word shows us His humanity, “I thirst.” The encounter with evil had taken its toll on His human frame.

The sixth word is one of triumph, “It is finished!” In the Greek, it is the word tetelestai. It’s an artist’s word. It is the word an artist uses when she stands before one of her creations and says, “Tetelestai, it is finished; I cannot add anything more to it. It is complete.” It is a builder’s word. It is the word he uses when he hands over the keys to a new building and says, “Tetelestai, it is finished; I have done everything according to the plan. It is complete.”

And looking back into the darkness Jesus said, “Tetelestai, it is finished. Father I have completed the work you gave Me to do. Everything is completed according to the plan. I cannot add one more thing to it.” His last word is a word of confidence, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” He did not die a natural death. He died of His own volition. Did He not say, “No man takes my life from Me”?

An interesting thought to ponder: before the darkness the cries of hell were all around the Cross.

Matthew 27:29 – the soldiers
Matthew 27:31 – the crowd
Matthew 27:41 – the Chief Priests
Matthew 27:44 – the thieves

When the darkness had passed there was no shouting. There was no derision. The only voice other than Jesus was a Roman soldier who said, “Surely this Man was the Son of God.”

What Happened in the Darkness?

We need to go to Colossians 2:13-15 to see what happened:
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Several years ago I was asked to take the funeral service of a lady who was 84 years old and whom I had never met. As I sat and talked with the family, I asked them to talk about Mum so I could get some of her personality. As they freely talked, one of the daughters said her mother was afraid of the dark. For 84 years she had slept with the light on.

We are told in the opening verses of John’s Gospel that Jesus is the light of humanity. That as the light He penetrated the darkness and the darkness will never be able to extinguish His light. In the deep, silent darkness of Calvary our Lord triumphed over the forces of evil, the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness. Paul tells us that there in that thick darkness the Light of the World DISARMED the powers and authorities. He took away their authority.

I do not know all that happened in the darkness but I do know as I have come to the Cross, I have come into the realm of light, healing, cleansing, forgiveness, and deliverance. I have come into the realm of peace to a place where there is no fear. Out of the darkness of Calvary has shone the light of hope for humankind.

The Triumph over the Darkness

Jesus meets His disciples for the last time in Matthew 28. They met on a Mountain in Galilee. We read in verses 18-20,
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Amen. Do not miss the significance of the first sentence of v. 18. All authority, all exousia now belongs to Jesus. Because of Calvary, because of the triumph of the cross, the devil has been disarmed of his authority and it has been given to Jesus. King Jesus has all authority in HEAVEN and on EARTH. The kingdoms of this world are no longer under the authority of the devil. What an amazing thought: Jesus has ALL exousia. He then commissions His disciples in this way: I have ALL AUTHORITY in Heaven and earth. I want you to go into all the world and make disciples of ALL NATIONS.

We have a term to describe someone who has taken up illegal residency of someone’s dwelling. That individual is a squatter. That is exactly what the devil is. Many of us think when we leave the comfort zone of the church to evangelise, we move into Satan’s territory. No, the devil is a squatter in our world. He has no authority over the nations any longer. That authority was taken from him by Jesus on the Cross. But the devil will squat on all the ground we allow him to have. When we go to fulfil what we call the Great Commission we are not entering Satan’s kingdom; we are reclaiming the ground from a squatter who has no longer any authority over it. And we go with the authority of the King of kings.

Graham Kendrick wrote the following song:

For this purpose Christ was revealed
To destroy all the works of the evil one
Christ in us has overcome
So with gladness we sing
And welcome His Kingdom in
In the name of Jesus we stand
By the power of His blood we now claim this ground
Satan has no authority here
Powers of darkness must flee
For Christ has the victory
(Refrain)
Over sin He has conquered, Hallelujah He has conquered
Over death victorious, Hallelujah victorious
Over sickness He has triumphed, Hallelujah He has triumphed
Jesus reigns over all

Jesus reigns because of Calvary. Darkness is defeated. The devil is a squatter. We have been given the awesome responsibility of reclaiming this world for Jesus. We have been commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations. This commission comes with a wonderful promise, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He goes with us. So as we leave worship today let us go to reclaim our homes, our neighborhoods, our schools, and our workplaces for Jesus, the Victor over the darkness.