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Printer Friendly VersionWhen 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.
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:
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.”
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.
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.