The MESSAGE for November 19, 2023

Christ’s Triumph over Satan

Colossians 2:15

Live Broadcast

By: Pastor, Rev. Dr. Cullian W. Hill

Greater Concord Missionary Baptist Church

 

Through the death of His Son, God has triumphed over sin and death and the devil. Having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a [public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross] (Col. 2:13-15).

 

Christ triumphed over Satan and all of his principalities and powers. They were drawn to Calvary. There, they added to His torment on the tree, gloating for a brief moment in His death. But it was all premature. When His suffering was over the Lord of Glory bowed His head and dismissed His spirit. Down He went to the underworld, and the foundations of Hades shook to the tread of His feet. There, He preached to the spirits in prison. There, Satan and his minions learned the full extent of their defeat and doom. The keys of death and of Hades were wrenched from the hands of Satan, who until then, had held in his hands the power of death. The tiding ran back and forth across the underworld.

 

His body was asleep in a virgin tomb, untouched by taint or decay, awaiting resurrection ascension, and enthronement at the right hand of the majesty on high! He Himself was Lord of these “things under the earth” as well as everywhere else. Ahead for Him was more! The Holy Spirit was coming! The church was coming! Eternity was coming! The lake of fire was coming! Those evil spirits who had taunted Him would be spared, but they would be chained to His chariot wheels. The Cross was their greatest mistake. The cross was a historical and a theological fact. Now that cross has triumphed!

 

Satan and his host fiercely attacked the Lord Jesus as He hung on the tree, as well, He knew they would. “This is your hour, and the power of darkness,” He told His enemy (Luke 22:53). They pressed Him sorely.

 

Now He has “spoiled” them. The Cross says it all. As He hung on the Cross He even blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against it, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His tree (Col. 2:14).

 

The Cross effectively deals with not only the question of “self” but also the question of sin. On the Cross, the Lord Jesus, made atonement or what we are, as well as for what we do. The vast reaches of the Cross. Our debt is cancelled, and we have peace with God. He took the handwriting of ordinance that was against us and nailed it to His Cross. The Cross was God’s field of victory. When we were dead in our sins, God made us alive with Christ. The triumph of the Cross becomes a personal victory in our lives when by faith in Christ we accept what He has done for us on the Cross.

 

The handwriting of ordinances that were against us were personal sin and public sin. In Lev. 16:1-4 was personal sin and Lev. 16:15-26 was public sin; and Lev. 16:27-31 deals with persisting sin. Such was” the handwriting of ordinances”. They had to be repeated year after year. But Jesus nailed them to His Cross. He took them out of our way. Thank God for Christ. There was the burnet offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, was a yearly thing. The handwriting blotted out by Christ on the cross.

 

The shadows of the Cross have been swallowed up by the cross itself. Thank God for the cross! No one could keep these ordinances, so Christ came, He fulfilled to the letter all of the requirements of the ritual law in His sinless life, and then He fulfilled all of man’s needs to be saved. O’ Praise His Holy Name!

 

So, today we celebrate Calvary! He was born, He grew up, He went to school, and He worked as a carpenter; He became tired, hungry, and thirsty. He experienced all of the emotions of the human heart apart from sin. He asked questions. He enjoyed companionship. He was wholesome, delightful, and perfectly balanced at all times. He was a wonderful and attractive human being to whom all kinds of people were drawn. The demons recognized Him and were terrified of Him. He had power to turn water into wine. He had power to multiply a few loaves and fish of a little lad’s lunch into a banquet for a multitude. He could walk upon the waves and still the storm. He could cleanse lepers, heal all kinds of sickness, and raise the dead. He could do all these things as a matter of course. His enemies could plot against Him but could not harm Him until He voluntarily allowed them to do so. Even then, although they nailed Him to a cross, they could not kill Him. “No man taketh my life from me,” “I lay it down of myself (John 10:18), nor could they keep Him in the grave. On the very day He had foretold, He rose from the dead. We know He was eternal, uncreated, self-existing, the second person of the Godhead and we see Him at the tomb of Lazarus crying with Mary and Martha. This is the Christ that hung on Calvary for the world.

 

Pastor, Rev. Dr. Cullian W. Hill