JESUS: His Timeless Principles                                    4-23-06

“I Have Given You Authority”

Luke 10:1-20 (19)     Audio

In our Scripture reading for today, Jesus’ earthly ministry is rapidly coming to an end.  In Luke 9 He sent out the 12 Disciples to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  And they did just that.  Now in chapter 10 He is sending out others, either 70 or 72, depending on which translation you are using.  Some of the early manuscripts say 70, others say 72.  It’s not important that we know the exact number.

They go out as advance teams to prepare the people for Jesus’ coming.  But they are not just setting up the schedule for His visit.  They are to preach, and to heal, and to have authority over evil spirits.  Let’s read it here in Luke 10.  Read 10:1-20.

Look at v.2 (read).

The harvest: 20 times in the Gospels, Jesus talks about the harvest.  This week I got to spend some time working in my garden.  It’s a wonderful place for me to relax, and to think, and to pray.  And there are so many parallels to our spiritual life that I find in the garden.

I came away with quite a few scratches and slivers this week as I spent time pruning my raspberry and Marionberry canes.  I had to cut out all the dead canes from last year, and prune back some of the new growth.  And even with leather gloves, at times I drew blood. 

Why was I willing to endure the pain?  Because of the anticipation of harvest!  There is nothing quite as delightful as fresh raspberries on cereal in the morning, or Marion Berry/Huckleberry jam on toast made from my wife’s homemade bread.

Tomato plants are growing in my greenhouse.  I planted the seeds early in March, and have transplanted them once, and am about to transplant them a second time, and then about the middle of May, out into the garden.  And then the weeding, and the staking, and the picking off of the hookworms.  Why?  Because as the song says: the only two things that money can’t buy are love, and home-grown tomatoes. Harvest!

What Jesus did, He did with an eye to the harvest.  He saw people as ripened grain awaiting harvesters.  He knew that if they were not harvested, they would be wasted to the kingdom of God.  So He had sent out the 12, and now He was sending out 72 others, and even more harvesters were needed.  So they were to pray that others would join them in the work. 

V.3 seems so contrary to human reason: Go; I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.  The imagery has changed from harvesting to danger.  Why not send them out like wolves among lambs?  Or at least like shepherds among lambs. Or mighty warriors among wolves. Lambs are not only helpless sheep, they are helpless baby sheep.  They have no defenses against wolves.

What does a lamb need if it is to survive among wolves?  It needs a shepherd.  In John 10, Jesus contrasts a true shepherd with a hireling.  And the difference is that when the wolf comes to attack the flock, the hireling, the one who is in it just for what he can get out of it, he runs in fear from the wolf and leaves the sheep on their own.  But the shepherd stays and defends the flock.

Lambs are helpless in the presence of wolves – unless there is a shepherd there.  And these 72 would be helpless in the work they were to do unless they depended on God’s Presence being with them to protect them.  And it’s no different for us today.

If you are going to try to do anything for God, you are like a lamb among wolves.  Go ahead on your own if you like, but the wolves will win every time.  Your only hope, my only hope is the Presence of the Good Shepherd.

Then Jesus gives them some specific instructions for their time of ministry: “Don’t be weighed down by the things of this world.  You’re not in it for what you can get out of it.  You will experience discomfort, and even rejection at times.  Be prepared for that, and don’t let it discourage you from doing what I am sending you to do.”

Then in v.13 & 14 Jesus mentions 3 towns in which He had performed miracles: Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.  The last 2 we know, but this is the only place where Korazin in mentioned.  Yet He did many miracles there.  It just shows us how much we do ­not know about the life and ministry of Jesus.  As the last verse of the Gospel of John says:

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (21:25)

Then Jesus sends out the 72 with these final words in v.16: “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

How many days pass between v.16 and v.17? We don’t know. But there was evidently a day when they were to return.  I wish we had a couple of chapters in-between those two verses to tell us some of the specifics of their ministry.  All we have is their very condensed report in v.17: The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 

Had they preached about the Kingdom of God?  I’m sure they did, because that’s what Jesus had told them to do.  Had the healed the sick?  I’m sure they did, because that’s what Jesus told them to do.  But the thing that had impressed them was the fact that demonic spirits had to submit to them when they came against them in the Name of Jesus.  And that was even before His death on the cross and His resurrection.

Then come two statements of fact that Jesus makes in v.18 & 19:

 V.18 I saw Satan like lightning fall from heaven. 

Satan and God are not two co-equal beings, locked in an eternal battle which neither of them can win.  In Genesis 3, after Satan had successfully temped Adam and Eve, God spoke these words to Satan: 

“Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all the livestock

and all the wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”  (v.14-15)

We aren’t sure if Revelation 12 is a picture of something that is yet to come, or something that has already happened.  But here is what it says:

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (Why? Because he was not strong enough!).

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:  “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him

by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. 12:7-11

Satan is under God’s authority.  Does Satan do evil in this world?  Yes, he does. Does he deceive people?  Yes, he does.  Is he our enemy?  Yes, he is.  Is he powerful?  Yes, he is.  But he is still under God’s authority.  Jesus wants you to remember that.

So why does God allow him to do some of the things he does?  Is it because God does not love us?  “If God could prevent tragedy from happening and He allows it to happen, it must be that He does not love me.”  When you start to think like that, remember the cross.  If you ever doubt God’s love for you, remember the cross.  Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The cross proves God’s love for us.

God permits things to happen that are not His will, and in the midst of those things He promises us that in all things He will work for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28) In our pain, in our anguish, in our grief, God’s promise is that He will work for our good – not just for His good, but for our good as well.

Now we come to the second statement of fact that Jesus makes here in our text.  Look at v.19 (read).

Here are 4 questions I would like for us to look at this morning:

Who is the enemy?

Who is “you”?

What is authority?

How do we exercise authority over the enemy?

WHO IS THE ENEMY?  Jesus has just identified him: Satan.  That passage we just read from Revelation 12 called him “the great dragon, that ancient serpent, the devil, the accuser of our brothers who accuses them day and night before God.”

He is not “the force”.  The one Jesus identifies as Satan is not a force; he is a person, a spirit-being that is evil.  He once was an angel named Lucifer, but in his pride he rebelled against God prior to the creation of the universe.  And in his rebellion he took a third of angels along with him, angels we now know as demons. (Isaiah 14, Rev.12)

That is the enemy of whom Jesus speaks here: Satan and his demonic spirits. 

The second question is not as easy.

WHO IS “YOU” in Jesus statement: “I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy”?  The word “you” is a pronoun, a word that refers to another noun.  Did Jesus give authority only to these 72 that He had sent out?  Is this a limited gift, or has He given the same authority to us today?  Are we included in that word “you”?

In Luke chapter 9 Jesus had given this same authority to the 12 as He sent them out.  As they went out to preach and teach and heal, they needed power to deal with demonic spirits.  Now Jesus does the same as He sends out the 72.  So what reasoning would give them that power and not give us that same power today?

Demons are as real today as they were 2000 years ago. Satan is as real as he was 2K years ago. We are as in need of that authority today as Jesus’ first disciples were.  Even the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost did nothing to alter our need of this authority; following the Day of Pentecost we find the early disciples exercising the authority over the power of the enemy that Jesus had granted them.

In Acts 16:16-18 we read Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

In Mark 16, as Jesus speaks to His disciples the final time, commissioning them to go and preach the gospel everywhere, He says: And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons.

So when Jesus says in Luke 10:19 I have given you authority, the “you” is not limited to only the 72.  It is to us also that Jesus speaks these words, if we are those who believe.

WHAT IS AUTHORITY?

The King James translation says: I have given you power over all the power of the enemy.  But in the original Greek there are two different words used here.  The power of the enemy is the word “dunamis” from which we get our English word “dynamite”.  It is “inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature.” 

But the first word is “exousia”.  And it is “the ability or strength with which one is endued, which either he possesses or exercises.  The power of authority.”

That word “exousia” is used in Matt. 7:29 “He taught them as One having authority, not as one of the Scribes.”

It’s used in Matthew 21:23 where the Priests come to Jesus and ask Him: By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave You this authority?

It’s used in Matthew 8:9 where the Centurion says: I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it.

Authority is something that is given to us by which we can give orders to others that they are obligated to obey.  The dictionary defines it as “power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.”

Jesus said I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy.

So let’s look at our 4^th question:

HOW DO WE EXERCISE AUTHORITY OVER THE ENEMY?

If you are going to become a healthy follower of Jesus, this is very important information for you to understand and to put into practice. 

There is an enemy.  He is bent on your spiritual destruction.  He wants you to join him in hell for all eternity.  You are like a sheep surrounded by a pack of wolves, about to be devoured – unless you understand the authority Jesus has given to you, and understand how to exercise that authority.  So listen carefully.  And you may want to get a CD or a tape of this message and listen to it again and again.

1 Peter 5:8-9 says Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

First we are given two commands: be self-controlled and alert.  God is not going to do it all for you.  You must do something.  As a Christian I must learn to develop self-control.  That is not an impossibility for any one of us.  It is a fruit that the Holy Spirit is wanting to develop in your life and mine.  When God commands me to be self-controlled, He will help me, but He won’t do it all. 

The second command is “be alert”.  Watch out.  Understand that the enemy will try to take advantage of your weaknesses and your weak moments and be prepared.  Don’t get distracted by all the stuff the world has for you.  We are not to be preoccupied with the devil, but we are to be alert to his working.

Why?  Because he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour, for someone to tear apart another translation says.  He wants to destroy you.  This is not a game he is playing.  He wants to destroy your marriage.  He wants to destroy your family.  He wants to destroy your health.  He wants to destroy your peace.  He wants to destroy your hope.  He wants to tear you apart.

Then comes another command here: Resist him, standing firm in the faith.  Don’t give in to him; resist him.

James 4:7 is a parallel passage.  It says: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. First you must be submitted to God. You can’t be in rebellion against Him in any area of your life and expect you can resist the devil.  It just doesn’t work that way.  Remember the Centurion?  “I am a man under authority, so I can say to those under me “go” and they go, “do” and they do.” 

Only those under God’s authority can exercise His authority over the devil.  But when we do submit to God, we can exercise authority, we can resist the devil and he must flee from us.

Let’s look at one more passage about this resisting.  It’s Eph. 6:10-18.  Let me begin reading it as you are turning to it.  It’s about this warfare we are in against Satan and his demons.  And it gives us some very specific things we can do to be victorious in this battle.

Read Ephesians 6:10-18.

Let me just touch on two of these pieces of the armor of God that we are to have and use.

The Shield of Faith, with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  This is not “the faith” as a body of knowledge. It’s not what you know that will protect you from all that the devil throws at you.  This is YOUR faith, your trust in God. Trusting God is a great protection for you when the enemy attacks you.

Paul said to the Christians in Thessalonica: Your faith is growing more and more.  He said to the Christians in Corinth: As your faith continues to grow.  That is what God wants for us, for our faith to grow – through reading and studying His Word, through understanding the kind of God He is, through the encouragement of our fellow believers.  So much to say; so little time!

The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

There are verses that I have memorized that I quote to the devil almost every morning, and even sometimes through the day.  The Word of God is the sword He has given us to resist the devil.

I come against you Satan, with the Sword of the Spirit which says: I have given you authority to overcome all the powers of the enemy. Luke 10:19

I come against you Satan with the Sword of the Spirit which says about Jesus: And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Col. 2:15.

I come against you Satan with the Sword of the Spirit which says The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Rom. 16:20

I come against you Satan with the Sword of the Spirit which says But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thes. 3:3

I come against you Satan with the Sword of the Spirit which says Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4

I come against you Satan with the Sword of the Spirit which says They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.  Rev. 12:11

I come against you Satan with the Sword of the Spirit which says Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  James 4:7

I take authority over you and over all your demons and command you in Jesus’ Name to leave me now.  Be gone from my life.  Be gone from my family.  You have no authority over us because of what Jesus has done for us at the cross when He gave His blood for us.

Let’s come back for just a moment to Luke 10.  Jesus final words to the 72 and to us are these: However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

The greatest thing is not that we have authority over all the power of the enemy.  The greatest thing is not what we can do for God. The greatest thing is what He has done for us in saving us and writing our names in His book of life.  However exciting it may be that we can deal effectively with the devil and his demons, we need to be even more excited about our salvation.  Without salvation, you have not basis for dealing with Satan and all he wants to do in your life.