Angelic Conflict part 234: The victory of the Christ – Col 2:15; Mat 27:50-53; Eph 4:8-10; Psa 68:16-18; Luk 16:19-31.
length: 79:43 - taught on Jan, 12 2014
Class Outline:
Title: Angelic Conflict part 234: The victory of the Christ - COL 2:15; MAT 27:50-53; EPH 4:8-10; PSA 68:16-18; LUK 16:19-31.
When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
Jesus had three great victories on the cross mentioned in this verse. He stripped satan and his army of whatever weapons they held. Satan cannot harm the believer who will not harm himself. He exposed satan's deceit and vileness and his ultimate judgment. He won a complete victory in triumph, released the captives, and thoroughly disgraced and defeated satan and his evil kingdom.
His third victory is found in the word triumph, which we now emphasize.
Whenever a Roman general won a great victory on foreign soil, took many captives and much loot, and gained new territory for Rome, he was honored by an official parade known as "the Roman Procession."
Paul alluded to this practice in his Second Letter to the Corinthians as we have recently studied.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
Jesus Christ won a complete victory, and He returned to glory at the right hand of God in a great triumphal procession of all OT saints released from Hades. In this, He disgraced and defeated Satan.
Upon arrival in the third heaven, our Lord was seated at the right hand of God the Father; this is the doctrine of the Session. Then He received His third royal patent and the title “King of kings, Lord of lords, the Bright Morning Star.” Because His third royal warrant had no accompanying royal family, the Church Age was inserted for the calling out of a royal family.
The ascension and session are the guarantee of Christ’s victory over all of God’s foes:
But to which of the angels has He ever said,
"SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES
A FOOTSTOOL FOR THY FEET"?
who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
The triumphant procession of the OT saints has already occurred, at the ascension of Christ.
When Christ died on the cross the veil before the holy of holies was torn in two and the way open for all the OT saints to proceed with Christ from Hades to heaven. However, many of them made one short stop on the way.
MAT 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
MAT 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split,
MAT 27:52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
MAT 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
One can imagine satan’s fiery anger over the fact that those who were once his prisoners are now walking around Jerusalem proclaiming the victory of Christ.
EPH 4:8 Therefore it says,
"When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
And He gave gifts to men."
As the Roman general gave gifts to the soldiers our Lord has given us gifts through God the Holy Spirit. These gifts are given so that we can minister to other members of the body of Christ.
But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
EPH 4:9 (Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?
There He made a victorious proclamation to the incarcerated demons and He also used the keys of Hades to release the captives of the OT, all the OT believers.
He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison
EPH 4:10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
EPH 4:8 is quoted from PSA 68:18 which had been composed on the occasion that David assembled 30,000 men and removed the ark of the covenant from Kirjath-jerim, where it sat for 20 years in the house of Abinadab, to Mount Zion in Jerusalem [2Sa 6].
The typology concerning the movement of the ark of the covenant is as amazing as so many types of Christ in the NT.
When Christ came to earth, entered enemy territory, He crushed the enemy. In like fashion, or typology, when the ark entered enemy territory, it did the same.
Psa 68 is a song of triumph, celebrating the victories of YAHWEH, and particularly the victories which had been achieved when the ark was at the head of the army.
PSA 68:16 Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, At the mountain which God has desired for His abode?
Surely, the Lord will dwell there forever.
God is then introduced as ascending that hill, encompassed with thousands of angels, as in Mount Sinai.
PSA 68:17 The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands; The Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness.
But Mt. Sinai was a place of fear for Israel, a dread, and the place of delivering the Mosaic Law. The Law was condemnation to Israel and to all men who could not make themselves righteous.
And then the poet says that, in doing it, he had triumphed over his enemies, and had led captivity captive; verse 18.
PSA 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captive Thy captives; Thou hast received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there.
We are to live in this triumph, for the Ark's ascent to and dwelling on Zion is a type of our Lord's ascent to and session at the right hand of God, which is the very place that every believer is placed at salvation, HEB 12:21-24.
The ark of the covenant had made everything captive. It had subdued every foe; and by its ascent there would be the means of obtaining invaluable gifts for people; Mercy and truth would go forth from that mountain; and the true faith would spread abroad, even to the rebellious, as the results of the triumph of God, whose symbol was over the tabernacle and the ark.
The placing the ark there was the proof of permanent victory, and would be connected with most important benefits to people.
PSA 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captive Thy captives; Thou hast received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there.
This act of ascending up the hill of Zion bears strong points of resemblance to the ascent of our Lord after His cross and resurrection.
He also ascended on high. His ascent was the proof of victory over his foes. He went there for a permanent abode. And his ascension was connected with the bestow merit of important blessings to people.
Therefore it says,
"When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
And He gave gifts to men."
[He led captivity captive] The meaning of this in the Psalm is, that he triumphed over his foes. The margin is, "a multitude of captives." But this is not quite the idea.
"captivity captive" is language derived from a conqueror, who not only makes captives, but who makes captives of those who were then prisoners, and who conducts them as a part of his triumphal procession.
He not only subdues his enemy, but he leads the captives or prisoners of his enemy in triumph. The allusion is to the public triumphs of conquerors, especially as celebrated among the Romans, in which captives were led in chains (Tacitus, Ann. xii. 38).
The custom of the Roman Procession was distributing presents among the soldiers:
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
When Christ ascended to heaven, he triumphed ever all his foes. It was a complete victory over the malice of the great enemy of God, and over those who had sought his life. But he did more.
He rescued those who were the captives of Satan, and led them in triumph.
PSA 68:5 A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
PSA 68:6 God makes a home for the lonely;
He leads out the prisoners into prosperity,
Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
PSA 68:7 O God, when Thou didst go forth before Thy people,
When Thou didst march through the wilderness,
Man was held by Satan as a prisoner. His chains were around him.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Christ rescued the captive prisoner, and designed to make him a part of his triumphal procession into heaven, that thus the victory might be complete-triumphing not only over the great foe himself, but swelling his procession with the attending hosts of those who "had been" the captives of Satan, now rescued and redeemed.
Yet, the OT saints could not justifiably be face to face with God in heaven until the cross became an historical reality. Christ is the one who referenced the place where they were held in the earth.
LUK 16:19 "Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day.
LUK 16:20 "And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
LUK 16:21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
LUK 16:22 "Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
LUK 16:23 "And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.
LUK 16:24 "And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.'
LUK 16:25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
LUK 16:26 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'
LUK 16:27 "And he said, 'Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house -
LUK 16:28 for I have five brothers - that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'
LUK 16:29 "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them,'
'I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
LUK 16:30 "But he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!"
LUK 16:31 "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'"
This place were the OT saints waited was called Paradise by our Lord:
And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
EPH 4:8 Therefore it says,
"When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
And He gave gifts to men."
EPH 4:9 (Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?
EPH 4:10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
You and I share in His victory over the devil. The OT saints have had their procession and so will we in the Church.
The Church’s triumphal procession will occur at the Rapture of the Church, 1TH 4:16-18.
1TH 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
1TH 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.
1TH 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
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