When Jesus Embarrassed Hell

WHEN JESUS EMBARRASSED HELL

Col. 2:15

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: THE BATHTUB TEST.........

1. During a visit to the mental asylum, I asked the Director how do You determine whether or not a patient should be institutional-ized.

2. 'Well,' said the Director, 'we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.'

3. 'Oh, I understand,' I said. 'A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.'

4. 'No.' said the Director, 'A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?'

B. TEXT

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” Col. 2:15, NIV.

C. THESIS

1. As far back as the patriarch Job, the devil accused God of waging a lopsided fight; he claimed that God had an unfair advantage, and that if God leveled the playing field to give the devil an equal chance, the devil would beat God in the contest for human hearts and minds. This argument is echoed in Job 1:9-12 and 2:3-6.

2. God acceded to the devil's challenge and proved, through the life of Job, that God is not just superior because of his power or omnipresence, but because He is right. God is not only able to defeat his enemies using his strength, but He can even defeat them with His weakness!

3. This was not only a statement of theory, but was God's operating policy; He chose to humble the enemy by triumphing using the weakest and most unlikely people and circumstances.

4. Title: “When Jesus Embarrassed Hell.”

I. PAUL’S GREAT DISCOVERY

A. GOD CHOSE WEAK THINGS TO DEFEAT STRONG

1. Paul’s great revelation was “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him,” 1 Cor. 1:27-29.

2. During the first century, when other ministers were calling themselves "super-apostles," depending on their ability to speak, their noble appearance, their charismatic personalities, and boasting of their supposed spiritual experiences (that made them superior to others), Paul promoted a quite different truth: that the weaker we are and the more dependent upon God, the stronger we are in the Holy Spirit.

3. “[God] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Cor. 12:9-10.

B. OUR WEAKNESS REDOUNDS TO GOD’S GLORY

1. It turns out that God's not looking for your abilities, your money, your looks, your brilliance, or any of the other qualities that we associate with success. If you have all those, then God probably won’t get the credit for what He does through you.

2. That’s why God told Gideon, “You have too many men (32,000->300)...that Israel may not boast...that her own strength has saved her” Judg. 7:2.

3. So what’s God looking for? He’s looking for the weak, the unlikely, even the backward kind of people; people who make lots of mistakes and blunders, because His light shining out of a rustic vessel is more clear than out of a golden one! So you are God’s favorite kind of vessel to work through!

II. CHRIST’S VICTORY THROUGH WEAKNESS

A. PAUL’S RECORD ABOUT CHRIST

1. This idea of God defeating the devil through weakness wasn't a new idea, but was God's plan from the very beginning of time. As the book of Revelation (13:8) says, "... the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." God using weakness was no after-thought; it would be God’s manner of redemption of the human race.

2. Christ, at His weakest, was stronger than the devil's strength. 2 Cor.13:4, “For to be sure, He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you.”; 1 Cor. 15:43, “…it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.”

B. JESUS ANSWERS THE CHALLENGE

1. Imagine two fighters who seem equal. One talks trash to the other about how he is going to whip him. The other says, "I could tie both of my hands behind my back and still beat you." We would be amazed if he would actually do it!