Headfirst Into Trouble | Spirit of Jesus | 3.15.26

Welcome to the Journey Christian Church podcast.

This week's episode is the third entry in the Spirit of Jesus sermon series.

It's called Head First into Trouble.

It's just so beautiful and uh such a great reminder.

Um we as as Christians we are not alone.

God is with us, He is for us, and He is fighting by our side every step of the way.

And the Holy Spirit wants to be as involved in our lives as we will allow it.

And He wants a part of everything that we're doing, and it's it's just it's just totally our receptiveness and our willingness that determines how how much of His activity we get to see in our lives.

And I'm just so thankful.

I'm so thankful to God that He gives us His continuous presence at all times.

Praise God.

So, you know, today is March 15th, and it's a Sunday, so I thought it'd be a pretty good time to talk about Indiana Jones.

Um I think once every month, I think he needs to be brought up.

Uh probably uh the best movie of all time, I think.

Um and one of the things I love about the character Indiana Jones is that he was willing to walk into one dangerous place after another, after another, and he would come out unscathed.

And that this is what a hero does.

A hero faces danger head on.

And of course, Jesus did this far more than anybody ever before or since.

Um, with Indiana Jones, he was able to and willing to go into a cave and poisonous snakes to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant.

He was willing to go to a cave to release kids from a cult.

He was willing to go to a cave to find uh the the Holy Grail.

Come to think of it, he went into a lot of caves.

And that's where a lot of his work was done.

Jesus, when he came here, he came to a dangerous world, and it showed its danger to him from the very start.

Herod tried to kill Jesus when he was just an infant.

And so his family escaped to Egypt.

In history, of course, between Israel and Egypt was not great.

There was a lot of conflict that had happened through the years, and so that wasn't necessarily a safe place for him to spend the first two years of his life, but God protected him.

Comes back to Nazareth, and his father dies apparently before his ministry starts, apparently fairly young, and so he has to fight that battle.

And then he starts his ministry, and I talked about last week how the Holy Spirit immediately led him in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and has that great confrontation.

And then throughout his ministry, it's one confrontation after another.

He is willing to go into a graveyard that is haunted by a man who has thousands of demons, and everybody else is scared to death to be around this guy.

And yet, this demon-possessed man comes and kneels before Jesus and pleads with Jesus: do not torture us.

Jesus was willing to go to places where he was hated.

He went to Samaria.

The Samaritans hated the Jews, and yet Jesus ministered in places like this.

He was willing to talk to Roman soldiers who would eventually torture him and crucify him.

He was willing to go to places where people were lying in wait to arrest him.

Over and over again, we see this in his ministry.

At one time in John chapter 7, verse 30, at the Great Feast, it says, at this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come.

John 7:30

And it reminds me of towards the beginning of Jesus' ministry when he's in his hometown, and he shares a message that is so controversial that the people in his hometown try to throw him off a cliff.

And I love the way that's portrayed in the chosen, that he just walks through the crowd and says, Not today.

I think that's awesome.

But Jesus, again, there's another time the Pharisees were furious with him, so much so they wanted to murder him.

And it was because he healed someone on the Sabbath day.

And I feel like this story is dripping with irony.

Where when it says in Matthew chapter 12, verse 13, then he said to the man, healing this man, stretch out your hand.

Matthew 12:13

So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.

But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

And so it's not lawful to heal on the Sabbath, but it's okay to plot murder on the Sabbath.

I mean, real nice Pharisees.

You might actually be hypocrites, like Jesus said.

And it wasn't just Jesus that went and faced one thing after another after another.

The disciples did the same.

The disciples went from one dangerous place to another, to another, to another.

And they faced that danger head-on.

God calls us, we who have the Spirit of God, like Jesus had the Spirit of God, and the disciples had the Spirit of God.

God calls us to dangerous situations, to situations where people are desperate, to bring his goodness and his truth.

And we can do it because the Holy Spirit gives us everything we need.

Pray with me, please.

Lord, thank you for the heroics of our Savior.

Who came in a dangerous world to rescue us.

Lord, I pray that you would give us the courage to take up the mantle.

That we would be willing to enter into difficult conversations.

We would be willing to insert your peace in places where there is conflict.

We would be willing to bring your love in goodness where hatred exists.

I pray that you would help us to be wise, not be foolish in the way that we do this, to do this with care and following your leading, not barging in of our own will, but following your will.

Lord, when you lead us to places where the devil has strongholds, give us courage to do what you've called us to do there.

We love you, Father, and I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So as we continue to study the way the Holy Spirit and Jesus interacted throughout his ministry, what we're going to find today is that Jesus constantly charged in headfirst to satanic strongholds.

Constantly.

And made a huge difference.

Number one, the Spirit led Jesus into Satan's strongholds.

So last week I talked about the temptation that Jesus faced right after he is baptized, he is anointed with the Holy Spirit.

Spirit leads him to come face to face with the devil.

He overcomes that temptation.

And immediately it's like the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit.

They've been waiting to kick off the ministry of Jesus for since the beginning of the world, before the world began.

And it's like all three are just like, let's do this.

We are ready.

And so we see his ministry being kicked off in Luke chapter 4, verse 14.

Luke 4:14

It says, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom, and he stood up to read.

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Now, look through this list and look at the people groups that Jesus was called to reach out to.

Jesus was called to go to desperate people.

And in places where people are desperate, you don't know what they're going to do.

When somebody has nothing to lose, they can be the most dangerous.

And yet this is who Jesus was called to minister to.

So Jesus was constantly charging into satanic strongholds and disrupting what the devil was trying to do, the pain that the devil was trying to cause people.

One of the first demonic strongholds that Mark lists is really interesting and unexpected.

So when Mark talks about Jesus going to a place that was under the influence of demons, he doesn't say he went into a brothel or a prison or a pagan temple.

It says he went to a house of worship.

Mark chapter 1, verse 21, says they came to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

Mark 1:21

The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as their teachers of the law.

Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

Be quiet, Jesus said sternly.

Come out of him.

The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

Now, isn't it interesting that this man was in the synagogue?

It didn't take much for a person to be kicked out of the synagogue.

Later on, if you believed in Jesus, you would be kicked out of the synagogue.

But here's a man who is possessed by a demon that is allowed to participate in synagogue worship.

How does this happen?

And how is it that he seems to be the spokesman for the people there?

What do you want with us?

In other words, you know, we've got this synagogue exactly where we want it.

It's ineffective, it's not accomplishing a whole lot, it's not making too much of a stir for the kingdom of God, you know, and we've got this synagogue just exactly where we want it.

Don't disturb the good thing that we've got going here.

And it is fascinating to me that this is the place that Jesus finds the demonic.

And it's a reminder, it should be a reminder to all of us that demons go to church, the devil goes to church.

And he will always try to disrupt.

And if a church is not being super effective at drawing lost people to Jesus, they have the church exactly where they want it.

So what the devil wants, and what this is what he wanted from the very beginning, was for the faith to die out in that generation.

What he wants is for the faith, the torch not to be passed.

And at the very beginning of the church, Saul of Tarsus came and tried to destroy the church.

He was trying to snuff it out so that the torch would not be passed to the next generation.

And he has been doing that every generation since.

And there are churches that pass the torch, and there are churches that die holding the torch in their hand.

And we have to be very careful that we don't allow our church to become the latter.

All it takes is one generation, one generation for the church to lose their torch.

The people came to church every Sunday and they were not expecting anything from God.

They weren't expecting God to do anything at all.

And so finally they decided to close the doors of the church, and they had a vote to decide what to do with the money that the church had in the treasury and whether or not just to split it among the current members.

And I think, wait a minute.

Whose church is this?

Well, it's our church! No.

It's Christ's church.

Whose money is this?

It's the Lord's.

It's the Lord's.

And it it is for him.

It is for his glory.

Now the Bible says that, of course, as Christians, none of us can be possessed by a demon, we who have the Holy Spirit.

But every single one of us can be influenced by demons.

In fact, Galatians says that there is an inner battle going on within every single one of us.

Every single one of us.

In Galatians chapter 5, verse 17 says, for the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature, they're in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want.

Galatians 5:17

And so we all have this inner conflict with us.

And how do we know if the sinful nature is winning or if the spirit is winning in us?

Well, the next few verses it says, you know, here are the acts of the sinful nature.

The Spirit's winning when these things are cropping us, or the sinful nature is winning when these things are cropping us up in us.

And here are the fruit of the Spirit.

The Spirit is winning when these things are cropping up.

For instance, that in Galatians 5, 19, 20, it says the acts of the sinful nature are obvious sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions.

And so in a church, when you see discord being stirred, the sinful nature is winning over the spirit.

When you see a spirit of dissent dissension, when you see factions, um, you know, this is something that probably has been said thousands and thousands of times in churches throughout the years.

You know, somebody will get upset about something and they'll say, well, if if this doesn't get changed, or if this doesn't happen the way that I'd like for it to happen, then I'm leaving and I'm taking a ton of people with me.

And that's the definition of a faction.

And this is the this is the sinful nature that is winning and not the spirit.

So Paul and Timothy, the fact that they work together is so fascinating to me because Paul was such a bold, outspoken defender of the faith, and and uh, you know, he would just say, This is right and this is wrong.

Timothy, on the other hand, seemed to be fairly timid, and uh Paul had to kind of press him a little bit to stand on the truth of God's word and and not be intimidated.

And uh he told Timothy, um, you've got the Holy Spirit living in you.

The Holy Spirit will make you bold, and he is a spirit of power, and and you don't need to give in to timidity anymore.

And apparently in the church of Ephesus, where Paul had installed Timothy as the preacher, in this church there were people that were opposing Timothy.

And so Paul wrote a letter to Timothy and says, Read this to the church.

And for somebody that struggled with timidity, can you imagine how awkward Timothy must have felt when he read these words?

In 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 24, it says, The Lord's servant must not quarrel.

2 Timothy 2:24

Instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and not resentful.

Those who oppose him, he must gently instruct in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will.

I imagine you just kind of faded off on that last part, you know.

I don't know if I want to say that.

A person can have the Holy Spirit and still fall for traps.

Traps of the devil.

I have fallen for traps of the devil in my life.

I mean, you know, there have been times I've said things I shouldn't have said, I've had an attitude I shouldn't have had, um, I've I've done things that I shouldn't have done.

I have fallen captive and been trapped.

I was suckered by the evil one.

And that can happen and does happen to all of us.

We have to be able to know when that's happening.

And how we know is we look at Galatians chapter 5, the acts of the sinful nature.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Here are the common traps that he uses.

And in the church, the common traps are dissension, discord, and uh factions.

And we got we just have to keep fighting.

Uh what the what the devil wants to do more than anything else is disrupt disrupt unity of the church, to distract from the mission that Jesus has set the church to accomplish.

And this is a message that every church of all time has needed to hear.

Because Satan never stops working, he never stops, and we can't be his co-workers.

We gotta make sure that we are not participating with him in any way, and in fact, we are passing the torch, and one of the most important things that we can do to disrupt the work of the devil is to go to a desperate and hurting world and attempt to bring the light of Jesus into every situation.

How many of you ever get bored at your work?

How many of you ever have trouble waking up and putting in another day?

I believe.

That it would change if we would see ourselves as missionaries wherever God has called us.

That today I can bring the light of Christ into demonic strongholds.

Today I can show the love of Jesus.

I can bring the peace of Christ.

I can exhibit the joy of Christ that is different from our world into places where the devil has people just where he wants them, hurting and and and just hard pressed.

Um a couple weeks ago I was at a gas station and um the gentleman across the pub started up a conversation with me, and and so we got talking for a while about things and and uh um state of the world and stuff like that, you know, a really positive conversation.

And uh I asked him uh if he had a church home, and and uh he said, Well, I'm a Christian, but I I just don't get involved in any churches.

I don't go to church, and and I felt like, you know, I need to say something, but I want my speech to be seasoned with salt and make the most of every opportunity.

And so I wanted to say something maybe in a way that he hadn't heard before, and and uh it it didn't it didn't work, so you don't don't use this.

He hasn't come, but it was an attempt.

And uh I just said, you know, our our church journey, we are the perfect church for people that don't like organized religion because we are extremely disorganized.

But it it it was disarming, you know, and and uh who knows, maybe God will work in that.

The point is, do something, say something, make an attempt, plant a seed, because we have the Spirit of God in us, and we can affect our world in ways that we couldn't possibly imagine.

Number two, the Spirit led Jesus to the last and the least.

Again, if you look back at Luke chapter 4, verse 18, the people that Jesus was to preach to, and you look at who's in this list, the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

Luke 4:18

He sent me proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to release the oppressed.

He's talking about ministry to the last and the least.

And the exciting thing about a ministry like that is that when we serve and care for and love the last and the least, Jesus said, You're actually doing that for me, personally for me.

In Matthew chapter 25, verse 35, it says, For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

Matthew 25:35

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me in.

I needed clothes and you clothed me.

I was sick and you looked after me.

I was in prison and you came to visit me.

And then down in verse 40 it says, The king will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

We've got an exciting new ministry starting up here at Journey, the Journey Care Team.

And this is a team that is going to go to the end.

Um and uh people that have just recently had hospital stays.

And and if you can make a meal for somebody, or or if you want to be a part of a team that goes and and visits people, um this is just a great opportunity to serve Jesus personally.

Whatever you did for the very least of my brothers, you have done for me.

And so June Hole, I believe God has raised her up to start this ministry.

And if you're interested, she needs lots of help.

And if you're interested in helping her, you can email her.

I sent you an email with her email address.

If you don't have that, um let me know or Dale know, and we will give you her email.

But again, this is a wonderful opportunity to go and care just the way that Jesus did.

Our mission statement at Journey, Journey, Journey's mission is to make disciples who make followers of Jesus, excuse me, who gather together, grow together, and go together.

And uh so this is one aspect of it.

We go together and we serve.

Number three, the spirit led Jesus to disable, disarm, and displace evil spirits.

Everywhere Jesus went, evil was dispersed, it was disturbed, it was disrupted, he was constantly frustrating demonic forces and all the forces of evil.

And uh he was disturbing them.

And we have been given the power to be overcomers in every situation like Jesus was.

In Romans chapter 8, verse 35, this this powerful verse, who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, a lot of these things are things that that we fear in life.

Romans 8:35

And then down in verse 37 it says about those things.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

And it gives us another list of things that we might fear.

Down in verse 38 it says, For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And we allow them to produce too much fear in us.

Death demons in the future.

What's gonna happen to me in the future?

What's gonna happen to my family in the future?

Powers of this earth, you know, rulers of this world, political forces in this world.

In all of these things, because we have the Holy Spirit living in us, we are not just barely conquerors, who will make it through by the skin of our teeth.

We are more than conquerors.

And all of it.

No weapon forged against you will prevail.

And you will refute every tongue that accuses you.

Are you ever afraid of talking to somebody about Christ because you might not say the right thing?

Or you might not have the answers to their questions.

What this says is that you will refute every tongue that accuses you.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord.

There is no attack that can overcome us, and there is no argument that can stand against the wisdom of the Spirit that He desires to speak through us.

In all these things, we are more than conquerors.

When we walk by the Spirit, when we ask the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us, there is no argument that can be made that we can't defend the faith.

There is no weapon that is formed against us that we prosper.