Slides: Defeating Demons (Part 1)

Defeating Demons

Colossians 2:15

Why was Jesus born?
To destroy the devil.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. (1 John 4:8)

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Defeating Demons

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:15)

In context, “rulers and authorities” = “elemental spirits of the world” (2:8,20) = demons = devils = evil spirits = bad angels who rebelled against God.

Dragon Devil

• Deadly Dragon: The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. (Revelation 12:4)
• Defeated Dragon: She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. (Revelation 12:5)
• Destroyed Dragon: The devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:10).

Demonic accusers use the law against us like crooked cops working for a criminal cartel that smuggles foreigners into a country and gets them to commit crimes. These crooked cops use the law to intimidate their slaves, even though the crooked cops are even worse lawbreakers than their minions. Demons use the law to drive us deeper into bondage, like crooked cops who threaten to expose  illegal immigrants and turn them over to the government. But in Christ we are no longer foreigners, we no longer have charges pending against us, and so we no longer need to fear the demons’ accusations.

In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, why did the great lion Aslan come to Narnia? To save Edmund, to destroy the witch and her endless winter, and to confront and defeat evil forces. Aslan's death appeared to be a shameful defeat, but Aslan came back to life. Aslan took Edmund's punishment, forgave him, and saved him. Aslan defeated death, defeated evil forces, and reigned supreme.

Jesus had won important skirmishes with Satan on other occasions:  he resisted the devil's temptations, he did miracles and drove out demons, and these were all blows to Satan.  But it was when Jesus hung on the cross and then rose from the dead that he won the decisive battle.

Defeating Demons

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:15)