The Avengers | Pastor Dwain Wolfe

Hallelujah. How are you doing? I have an assistant to help me preach

today. Over on the left. If you haven't seen Roger, this is

my trustee assistant today. Over we're on the right. I know it's a

little harder to see on the science, but we're going to preach together today.

This is you know who it is, Captain America. Yep, you've

got it, Captain America. Captain America is the leader of the not the

Disciples, the Avengers. This is the leader of the Avengers. Right.

So, yeah, Father, we just asked you to make the word so

rich today so powerful. Thank you in advance for describing our hearts, moving

our hearts with what moves yours. We give you the praise for the word

and for the body that we can come together celebrate issue look to you through

him. We gave you the thanks for it in Jesus' name. Everybody said,

amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. Yeah. So Captain America is

the Captain of the Avengers. You know about that. This guy was actually

created in nineteen forty. I didn't know if you knew that, but nineteen

forty, so you know, Marvel picked up on him, and I knew

you were marveling already at what I had done. But here he is.

And I want to talk about avenging a little bit. I want to talk

about defending and avenging because Jesus is the ultimate avenger and the ultimate defender,

and you know, sometimes we don't know, maybe we don't think of him

in those terms. But I want to remind us of that a little bit

as we think about him, and just see him not only as our intercessor,

but see that his intercessory rule is one of avenging and defending. And

I hope to just clarify again this morning who our battle is with, who

are warfare is with? Hebrews seven, and this is talking about, you

know, just the amazing priesthood of Jesus. Hebrews seven is talking about Melchzedic

and the amazing priesthood of Jesus, and it says verse twenty four. I'm

going to pick it up there. But because Jesus lives forever, he has

a permanent priesthood. So this priesthood relationship means he's representing us before God.

Right, And this is part of why we pray in his name, is

because our approach to God is through him, right, That's our approach.

We come to God through him. So he's made a way for us to

come to God. If it were for him, we wouldn't have a way

to come to God. He is the way, the truth of life.

No man come to the Father but through him. Right And so it says

he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he's able to save completely those who come

to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. King James

translation, he ever liveth to intercede. Now that means that that's actually been

his role from the beginning. It's not just his role since his first advent.

This has actually been his role from the beginning. Is and we know

that because he is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.

So this has been his role. Alonge is to be our intercensor,

to be to be the one who would represent us before the Father. And

he was prepared to do so even from the foundation of the world. So

he ever lives. And here's a little bit about what an intercessor means.

And I think we can conclude a bunch. And when I think about intercessor,

like, I'm all thumbs. I don't know what in the world.

An intercessor is we're exhorted in the intercession. And there's examples of intercession,

but I think the greatest example of intercession is actually the life of Jesus.

Right. He's the embodiment of the heart of God toward us. He's the

embodiment of the prophets. He's the embodiment of every prayer that was prayed from

the beginning of Adam's fall and just the desperation. Can you imagine the desperation

of Adam and Eve, Hello, somebody, can you imagine having lived in

the garden of Eden and now you're out and there's fiery angels at the east

entrance, and your whole life has changed. So from the very beginning of

that fall until his coming, he was the embodiment of what it was to

intercede, what it was to avenge, what it was to defend, what

it was. And so you know, some things we can conclude about that

is that he ever lives to represent us to God and therefore against the enemy.

And I want to touch on that more as we go. He ever

lives to fight for us, he ever lives to save us from our enemies,

he ever lives to deliver us. He ever lives to stand between us

and those who would devour us, he ever lives as our representative, he

ever lives as our attorney. We know the Holy Spirit is called the paraclitos

in the Greek. He is our representative, he's our attorney. But do

we realize that the Holy Spirit is just the spirit of Jesus sent to dwell

in us. While Jesus, in an actual tangible being, is at the

right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit of Jesus has been sent to

dwell in us to renew us and open up the Holy Spirit communion with Father.

But that Holy Spirit, who we would consider our attorney, our representative,

the Holy Spirit, is actually the spirit of Jesus. So Jesus is

our attorney. Jesus is your attorney. Jesus is your defender. Now he's

defending us, and he is representing us, and he's our attorney on the

basis of what he's done, not on the basis of what you've done,

on the basis of what he's done. He's representing us before the Father,

and so he silences our accuser. Right, he's our attorney, he's our

justification. But the Bible says not only our justification, but our justifier.

He is the embodiment of other's father's heart toward us. If you want to

think about the father's heart toward you, the father's heart toward mankind, we

have to realize that Jesus is the embodiment of Father's heart toward us. So

when religion or religiosity or whatever you know we've all heard or thought or think

of or whatever you know, whatever we would think of with regard to Father's

heart, we have to see the full embodiment of his heart is hidden in

Jesus. So he is an expression that could not find its fulfillment until he

came and bore my sins and allowed me to come back and to come near.

That's another interesting thing, is no matter what you think about God and

a picture of God or God the Father in the Old Testament, you have

to realize that God's heart could not find an ultimate expression of intercession toward us

to rescue us until Jesus had come and bore everything that I deserved in his

own body. And so Jesus is the full expression of the fulfillment of Father's

heart toward me. And it's kind of summed up in Corinthians five eighteen.

It says God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of

reconciliation, and that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. He

was reconciling the world. He wasn't reconciling Christians to himself in Christ. He

was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. He was reconciling every person to

himself in Christ and not counting people's sins against them. Now, this is

interesting. This is the heart of God. The heart of God is that

he's not counting people's sins against them, that He's actually dealt with all sin

in Christ. And these are crazy things and cool things for us to wrap

our heart around, our mind around, because it's powerful to shift us out

of a legalistic aspect toward others into a grace based aspect toward others. Not

that we omit truth, but Jesus was the embodiment of grace and truth.

So John Wan says, Moses gave us the law, but Jesus has given

us grace and truth. And this is super important for us. And we

see some other things about his intercession over in Isaiah in these passages that talk

about him before he came, So several hundred years before he came, the

prophet Isaiah was talking about what it would be like when he came, and

what he would be like when he came, and Isaiah fifty nine is one

of those it says truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil

becomes a prey. That sounds like a bad time to live in. But

the Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that

there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one to intervene.

So his own arm achieves salvation for him. He put on righteousness as

at breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head. He put on

the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. Now this

is an interesting thing when we think about an avenger, and here we are

with Captain America, an avenger and he's set out against evil. And I

think it's very interesting that it Marvel or Disney or whatever it is, many

times they're actually reaching in the themes that we understand because there's a thread of

Biblical reference in all of our hearts, and what all of us yearn for

is some hero that will deliver us from some bad villain. It's a biblical

thread, even woven into culture and society, and Jesus is that avenger.

And I think it's very important that we keep the theme very clear that it's

rescuing people from evil, not judging people because they're evil. This is a

huge biblical theme, and we can get confused if we let religion weigh on

us too heavy, and we can begin judging one another and judging people and

judging the young saved, which is not the full expression of what an intercessor

is, A defender, is an avenger is more shouting would be even more

exciting at this moment Isaiah sixty one. The fear of the Sovereign Lord is

upon me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

Now, this is again another Messianic passage. We know it's a Messianic

passage. How do we know that because when Jesus was baptized Luke chapter three,

Luke chapter four. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on

him, and then he immediately went into the wilderness fastest forty days. At

the end of that time, he hungers, he faces the enemy, he

undergoes major temptations from the enemy. Then Luke chapter four fourteen, Jesus returned

to Galilee from overcoming Satan, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside,

and he was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He

went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath

day went into the synagogue, and one his custom he stood up to read,

and the scroll of the proper Isaiah was handed to him. He unrolled

it. He found the place that I'm about to read out of chapter sixty

one. The spear of the Lord is upon me, because He's anointed me

to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for

prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppress free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll,

gave it back to the attendant, and then he said, and he

began to say, And it isn't recorded all that he said. It just

says that he began to say, this scripture is fulfilled today in your hearing

that's the first day of his ministry. That's the beginning of his ministry.

He returns from the wilderness in the power of this Holy Spirit, and he

begins his ministry, and he quotes this because it's all about what Isaiah foresaw.

It's all about avenging the children of Adam of their enemies. It's about

avenging the children of Adam of their enemies. I mean, this is the

amazing thing about Jesus is that he's come. Now. Remember I don't know

if you remember, but you know, months ago we talked about how the

nations in the Table of Nations in Genesis ten eleven two Bible Table of Nations,

we talked about how that God divided up the nations into seventy nations,

sixty nine were given over to unclean Elohim. And these unclean Elohim spiritual princes

of the spirit realm. They were given lordship or dominion over the nations because

the nations had chosen to rebel against God, and so God turns them over

to what we hear Daniel talk about in chapter ten. Daniel says he's praying

in Daniel chapter ten, remember this, Remember that Israel was under Babylon and

then also under Persia, and this is the time of judgment for Israel,

and so he's praying. And at that time, though Daniel is a Jewish

young man and a leader in what was Babylon also now Persia, he's still

devoted to God, he still knows Jehovah, he's still one of Abraham's kids.

And so he's praying. Remember that. I don't know if you remember,

but he's praying because he had the same revelation that Niemiah had when Niamayah

was interceding. So Niemiyah interceded before God on behalf of the children of Israel.

Also because there had been a proclamation by God through Jeremiah that there would

be a seventy year period where Israel would be under judgment for their sin and

their rebellion toward God, and that at the end of that seventy years they

would be restored. So we find the Amaya starting chapter one, he's interceding.

When we turned to Daniel, we see Daniel interceding. And if you

remember, right, because we're coming into that season ourselves, right, I

know, we've been feasting, but we're about ready to go into fasting.

And so our twenty one day Daniel fast is coming up shortly, and so

he's praying, he's interceding, and it says that like the skies were like

brass, and there was no answer. But at the end of the twenty

one day period, it says that he has an angelic visitation and the angel

that appears to him says that the Prince of Persia was standing against your answer

coming through. Remember that. Let me you remember that Daniel chapter ten,

the Prince of Persia was actually resisting the answer of your prayer having a breakthrough.

And so Michael, by the way, is the elohem, the prince

that was given lordship from an angelic perspective over the children of Israel. And

so it says that Michael is the one that came to Daniel and they needed

assistance. It says there was a war in the spirit realm, and then

they broke through the resistance that the Prince of Persia had put up against their

answer, and now they had come with the answer to Daniel's prayer, Daniel's

prayer of intercession on behalf of the children of Israel. So there's this there's

warfare going on in the spirit realm all the time. There's things going on

in the spirit rum all the time. And you've got these sixty nine Elohim,

unclean angelic beings that have had dominion over the nations since the division of

the Nations, and now those unclean ones have been conquered by Jesus. But

Paul says, we still have a wrestling match going on. There's still a

wrestling match going on, and the wrestling match, the victory of the wrestling

match over the nations is very much determined the winner, the victory the plunder

of the nations, that bringing in of the nations into the Gospel. It's

very much determined by those who rise up in intercession, as Nearby did,

as Daniel did, and as Jesus modeled force as the ultimate intercessor. So

when we think about Jesus as this intercessor, we think about him, we

have to see that it's not just somebody who stands between us and God,

but he is a defender. He is an avenger that on behalf of the

sons of Adam still to this day, because he ever lives to make intercession

on our behalf. That means that up until this day and still that he

is releasing over the body of Christ, the believers, those who are one

with Him in the spirit, the spirit of intercession, the ministry of intercession,

the spirit of a defender, the spirit of an avenger. That we

are the ultimate expression of how this whole victory is going to play out.

And I'm just saying this because sometimes we need a refreshing on this, because

this whole mindset has a tendency to leak because what our flesh knows and what

our flesh understands, what carnality understands, we understand it works, we understand

legalism, we understand self righteousness. So we have a tendency to see people

through that lens as well. So that's part of what has to be conquered,

is seeing people through the wrong lens. Isaiahk you one, let me

just finish it real quick. You know, if what Father has is bad

news, right, because I mean if he's if he's if he's if he's

about crushing people and beating people up, if this whole thing is like like

he's mad with people, Like if Father is really mad with people, if

Jesus is the one assigned to the earth because he's because Father is mad at

people. Then even this passage about him which he quoted is being fulfilled through

him, wouldn't make sense? Like, why would he be bringing good news

to the poor. The Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the

poor. Wouldn't you want to bring like a rebuke to the poor, right,

wouldn't that make more sense? He has sent me to bind up the

broken hearted, But didn't they get Aren't they broken hearted because they had something

to do with it? Aren't they just stupid? And he's sent me to

release from darkness prisoners? But why are they hanging out in darkness? Don't

you know that they're the problem? And they're white? Are in darkness because

they're so dark? And to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. But

he goes on to define the year of the Lord's favor it's favor for humans

and its vengeance on Satan. We have to understand the context. It's favor

for humans. He is the livings. You believe he is the living fiftieth

year, he is the living embodiment. And that's what intercession is all about.

What intercession is all about is about confronting those that would devour and harm

our friends. Our relatives and our enemies, to proclaim the year Lord's favor

and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

to provide for those who grieve in Zion, and bestow upon them a crown

of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a

garment of praise instead of despair. Oh, and didn't you know they're actually

royalty and they're going to be called oaks of righteousness. The planting of the

Lord for the display of his splendor, isn't that crazy? I love it

that the Lord, that this spirit of intercession, that in the ministry of

the Lord, the Lord doesn't wait for people to manifest hunger. The Lord

doesn't wait for people to come to him. That an intercessor or a defender

or an avenger is observant. The Lord was observant, and so he's not

waiting. And this is Isaiah sixty five, which is kind of crazy Isaiah

sixty five. And I kind of thought of it during worship, so I

looked it up. And so if you see me messing with my phone most

of the time up here, I'm not on Facebook. I'm actually like having

a download of something from the Holy Spirit. So Isaiah sixty five, I

revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. I was found by

those who did not seek me, to a nation that did not call on

my name. I said, here am I. This is kind of crazy.

There goes my water. This is kind of crazy. But don't worry

about it. But the heart of Father. See, we have a tendency

to think. If they move toward me, I'll move toward them. If

they appear hungry, I'll make myself available if they seem to if they seem

to want prayer, then I'll pray for them. But if they don't seem

to be open, I don't want to infringe on their personal space. Jesus

infringed. God is an infringer. The spirit of defending and a is a

spirit from God that infringes that. It gets into your personal space, it

gets into your grill. And this is what he's modeling for us. Everything

that he's doing, he's modeling for us. It's like, you know,

he goes into the synagogue. Look chapter four. After he this is the

first day of his ministry. He goes into the synagogue. He goes to

Nazareth on the Sabbath Day verse sixteen, and the prophet the scrolls handed to

him. But then he goes down to Capernaum verse thirty one, into a

town in Galilee, and he teaches a little bit there. And then in

the synagogue there's a man with an impure spirit. He cries out at the

top of his voice, going away, to what do we have to do

with you, Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy us? I

know who you are, the Holy One of God? He says, be

quiet and come out of him, And immediately the guy's delivered. And then

it just goes on, you know, the ministry just goes on. Jesus

leaves the synagogue. He goes to the home of Simon and his mother in

law who's suffering from a high fever. They asked Jesus to help her.

He've been over and rebuke the fever. They've never seen a fever rebuked.

At sunset, people were brought to Jesus and had all kinds of various sicknesses

and diseases, and he lays his hands on them and he heals them.

This is we're still in Looke four. We haven't even gotten I mean,

like this is just the beginning of stuff that he's doing, and what he's

doing all the way through. He's showing us what an intercessor does. He's

showing us what an advenger does. He's showing us what a defender does.

Now, I know, around here we talk about deliverance and we talk about

how you're deputized. But most of the time when we talk about deliverance and

we talk about how you're deputized, it's most of the time it's like in

a private session, Roman says, you know, uh, Pastor Dwine,

could you pray with me? I got something really bugging me or something kind

of been you know, just kind of harming me or my family, or

you know, somebody comes to me, mister Craig, or you know,

somebody comes mad Or Roger one's prayer and you sat down with them, and

at that moment you clothe yourself with intercessor, defender, avenger. And it's

not at that moment, you know what, It's not about confronting them,

is it. No, it's not about confronting them. Oh, well,

I'm glad you have a we're going to have this session together. So you've

got some vulnerabilities, eh, so you've been having some rough times. I

learned you something. No. I sat down across from the table from them,

deputized in the authority of Jesus, as an avenger, as a defender,

as an intercessor. I'm going to get between them and Father, and

I'm going to get between them and the enemy. Now, Father, this

is your son down here, and I know. I know that they deserve

mercy not judgment, because of what Jesus done on their behalf. Well,

you can't say that about non Christians. Oh yeah, you're messed up.

Yes you can, Yes you can, And yes Jesus did. And everywhere

he went. Nobody had to get qualified to get healed. Everywhere Jesus went,

nobody had to get qualified to get healed. Everywhere he went. Nobody

had to get qualified to get healed. Nobody had to get qualified religiously to

get healed or ministered to or loved or forgiven. Nobody had to get qualified.

Nobody had to measure up. Nobody had to come through a few hoops.

Nobody had to Nobody had to do things before he was prophesying over Nathaniel

or over Levi or over the Centurion. Nobody had to do anything to measure

up mark five. You know the story in mark five. Mark five comes

right after mark four. This is where they're going across the water in the

boat and the big storm rows and a big storm rose. Maybe the storm

arose because they knew who was on the other side. So when they got

to the other side, after he rebuked the wind and the waves, maybe

he knew what was on the other side. And so when they got to

the other side, here's the madman from the gatherings, And here's this guy

naked, and he's up on the beach a little bit. And if you

came up in your little bayliner boat with your evn rude motor and you saw

a naked guy running around, you might be like, we're at the wrong

beach. Honey, turned around, put the boat in reverse. Please don't

put down the anchor. We're not going in. But no, Jesus.

From a distance, he starts commanding the spirit to leave him alone. He's

not speaking to the man. We don't even know that the man could hear

him. The spirits in the man heard him, but at a distance he's

commanding get out of him, leave him alone. This is the spirit of

the Avenger. This is what we're called to church. This is what we're

anointed for Church. We are the embodiment of the Avenger. This is March.

This guy didn't ask for it. The guy didn't ask for it.

In fact is if you would have listened to the voice that came out of

the man, it would have been exactly the opposite of being asked. It

would have been the opposite. He yelled, what have we to do with

you? Right like they are resisting Mark five one through ten. They're resisting.

If Jesus would have paid attention to the voice that he heard, he

would have said, oh wrong, beach, guys, back it up.

This guy wants nothing to do with us. But he knew that it was

not the spirit of the man speaking. He knew his spirit was speaking through

the man, and so he continues in his advancement of attacking the spirit that

was speaking through the man. We have to realize Ephesian six ten through eighteen

that our intercession over people is so effective that we're not fighting with flesh and

blood. We're not fighting with flesh and blood. We're not fighting with flesh

and blood. We're not fighting with flesh and blood. We're not fighting with

flesh and blood. We are at war with principalities and powers He's unclean egelo

Him that have been loosed, and we're loosed to assert their will through the

people of their nations, holding them in captivity. But now they have been

put under the feet of Jesus, and what's left for us to do is

to confront them in our authority and be an intercessor, like a defender and

an avenger. Because if we begin to do that in the spirit, then

our activity, our behavior, what we walk out in the natural will reflect

the open doors that have been created in the spirit realm, because as Paul

instructs us to do, we've entered in the intercession. Intercession first in the

spirit over people, over tribes, over kindreds, over tongues, over nations.

And then we've lived as an intercessor, dispensing love, dispensing healing,

dispensing kindness to those who aren't worthy. But we're not so worthy ourselves,

are we? Let's sad this morning John twenty verse twenty. After he said

this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed

when they saw the Lord. This is when he breathed on them, and

they received the Holy Spirit. And again Jesus said, peace be with you,

as the Father has sent me. I am sending you as the Father

has sent me. I am sending you. This is the This is the

prepare the way of the Lord. Cry of John the Baptist to a people

despoiled, It says, a people despoiled, the people that were under the

influence of darkness. And he came announcing the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

And he came opening the door for the Lord. And I'm telling you

today that our intercession opens the door. Our intercession pairs the way of the

Lord in the hearts of the people around us. And it might be the

greatest expression of love, for no greater love has a person. Then they

would lay down their life for a friend. If you spend yourself in prayer

for somebody, a friend or an enemy, that is an expression of love,

and your attraction to them in prayer will draw the love out of you.

So in person, the most powerful weapon that we have, the love

of God, will pierce through the vulnerability of their heart and open them up

to be prepared for the Lord, and his visit will be welcomed and not

refused, because we prepared the way of the Lord in their own heart through

the spirit of intercession in prayer and the lifestyle of a defender and an avenger

against their enemies. And God cares about every person that much the sons of

Adam, the sons of Adam. Jesus has come that the enemies of the

sons of Adam would be put under their feet, and that they would be

redeemed restored to God. Father, we just welcome you right now. Com

on, would you put up your hands with me all across this auditorium,

and just welcome the revelation of love through intercession, Holy Spirit. We welcome

the revelation of love through intercession. Not just the intercession of standing between one

who is suffering or lost, or poor, or broken or held captive and

you, Father, but standing as an avenger, standing as Isaiah saw Jesus,

as a defender and an avenger, standing on their behalf against the enemy,

standing on their behalf against darkness and against the spirits that hold them captive.

Only Spirit quicken our understanding and quicken the ministry of love through us,

that while they are yet unworthy, we join with him who died for them,

that the Love of God would be awakened within them. We thank you

for today receive it in this Christmas season. We receive it now in Jesus'

name. And everybody said, God, bless your church. Let's worship as

we go.