Luke 9:1-17

"The war to end all wars" was an idealistic phrase coined during World War I (1914–1918) to describe the belief that the conflict's unprecedented destruction would compel humanity to end all future conflicts. Popularized by British author H.G. Wells, it became a rallying cry for the Allied forces, though its promise failed to materialize when World War II began roughly 20 years later. War is the history of mankind.

Yesterday was ANZAC Day. During the Gallipoli campaign alone more than 130,000 men died. This total includes at least 87,000 Ottoman soldiers and approximately 44,000 Allied soldiers. 

About 1 in 6 New Zealand men didn’t come home.

Total casualties—including those killed, wounded, missing, or taken prisoner—were far higher, with both sides suffering more than 250,000 casualties each. 

What a tragedy war is. If you visit Wellington, go to the Te Papa Museum and the ANZAC display, it is very moving. 

War on Earth is a real illustration of Spiritual War that is in the heavenlies and here on Earth. As Christians we need to be careful about proclaiming God is on our side when it comes to war though at times it is obvious he is as it was when we fought against the Nazis in World War II. Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Our primary focus is the spiritual war which is not against flesh and blood as we read a couple of weeks ago.

Ephesians 6:10-13

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

We went over 6 main ways that can open the door to demons. It is a subject that requires a lot of discernment because we noted that not all, such as severe trauma, are the persons fault. So it should not be assumed the person has a demon or is even an evil person but may be just a victim and be suffering mentally. 

It is part of the Lord’s Prayer to deliver us from evil, so this is something we should all be praying for and the Lord will answer our prayers.

I’m currently reading a book called « Deliver us from Evil » by Pastor Don Basham who was thrown in the deep end of spiritual warfare when he was called from Toronto in Canada to go to a small church in Pennsylvania in the 60’s.

He soon came to realise that the turmoil in his church and lack of success in his ministry there was because he was coming up against spiritual opposition that had found it’s way into the church.

We can see that even more today with the progressive church which has abandoned the Bible and embraced the world’s philosophy. I read this week of one minister, Bishop Yvette Flunder, a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister and presiding bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries in the US, who has called for a "Third Testament," arguing that the Old and New Testaments have become "problematic" in their traditional interpretation. 

Sadly that is exactly what opens the Church to apostasy to follow the doctrines of demons as prophesied for the end times;

1 Timothy 4:1

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,

I’ve been very aware of that spiritual war this week and I do believe in the times we are living in with so much works of the devil going on with the occult, pornography, drugs, immorality and other darkness being pushed through into law like that we will need to be more prepared than ever as individuals and a church to engage in spiritual warfare. We are going to encounter people who have become victims to the demonic and need prayer to be set free.

The enemy attack can come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes its our response that allows it to become a spiritual attack. It’s not that we should blame the devil for everything that goes wrong in our lives but we need to be on guard and praying. 

For example something minor happened this week to do with our preparations to go to Sean’s wedding. On the very day we decided to book train tickets to get from France to England, the train app. stopped working, so alternative means to book the tickets had to be used and the affect was to cast doubt on whether the tickets paid for had actually been reserved. My response was to get stressed which opened the door to spiritual attack. We prayed about it and thankfully that was resolved within 24 hours so the Lord won that one quickly.

There is more demonic activity in New Zealand today. Family First regularly encounter irrational responses to our work which reminds the team of the war we’re in which is front line in New Zealand. I just want to acknowledge too that South Auckland Christian Foodbank who Tanya works for are also frontline in spiritual warfare and I’m sure she would have testimonies of that. As our Family First audio and video technician Gordon Clark says, we need to cover ourselves in prayer because you don’t turn up to the frontline in your t-shirt, shorts and jandals.

In the last few months I was contacted by a girl who used to be in our youth group. Through things that happened to her and by her own choices, she finds herself in deep difficulty today. Her struggles with mental health are partly the physical affect of drugs and alcohol but not all. She can switch very quickly from sweetness to cursing Jesus in a moment and that is the most obvious sign that something evil is present trying to harm her.

Without doubt, she needs prayer to be set free but all attempts so far to get her to that point have failed and I’m sure this is because these principalities and powers in her life evade any chance of confrontation. So please pray for her because she really wants to find hope and wellness.

Jesus has authority over all demons, whether they are more the nuisance type or the more serious.

In our series on Luke, up until chapter 9 we have heard of what Jesus had been doing - the messages, the miracles, the healings. It’s so entertaining to sit in the grandstands and watch a game, shouting out what the players and ref should be doing but it’s not so easy when you’re the one on the pitch. Today the tables are flipped and it’s the disciples who have to deliver the goods.

Luke 9:1-6

Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece. “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. 

When any of us go away on a holiday we spend a lot of time preparing, packing all the things we think we’ll need. But on God’s mission, we’re not to rely on our own resources. Jesus said to the disciples to take nothing with them, not even food, just the clothes on their backs. The Lord’s mission is done by inadequate people who depend on Jesus. Spiritual warfare requires us to rely 100% on God, the authority of Jesus and on the goodwill of others. It is counter to all we have learned from our life in the world to be self-reliant. Some situations we face are going to be very difficult. Some demons are very powerful as we can read in Mark where the disciples could not cast out one of the demons they encountered out.

Mark 9:28-29

And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

In this particular case in Mark, the boy had a mute spirit and would fall to the ground, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, gnashing teeth and becoming rigid. The boy had been possessed since childhood and the demon would cause him to jump into fire or water to kill himself. So the demon had total control. Obviously in such a serious case as this, you must be prepared. It was this kind of demon that would only come out with prayer and fasting. Fasting is an additional weapon to the spiritual armour found in Ephesians 6.

In some cases, the disciples were rejected by the townspeople just as Jesus had been by the Gadarenes as we heard a couple of weeks ago, so we have to be prepared for failure on God’s mission. Some people accepted Jesus while others rejected him. That will always be the case. And we could beat ourselves up when we don’t have success on a mission Jesus sent us on. What we have to do is remember that they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Jesus. The fault is with the people not with us, that’s why Jesus said to shake the dust from your feet when you leave. Literally shake it off. Don’t take it to heart. Move on to the next town.

But know this, when you do have success in this war, you will get a hostile reaction from the Kingdom of Darkness sometimes from the very top.

Luke 9:7-9

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. Herod said, “John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?” So he sought to see Him. And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 

The successful ministry of Jesus and his disciples came to the attention of Herod, the one who cut off John the Baptist’s head, whose father had murdered all the young infant boys in Bethlehem. This was not Herod becoming interested in following Jesus. This was Herod who saw a threat to his power and was prepared to kill to maintain it. 

Knowing this, when the disciples came back from their mission, Jesus wisely retreated the group to a deserted and safer place outside of Bethsaida, away from discovery by Herod.

It is a fact that when we engage in Gospel Mission it is spiritual warfare and we need to be wise at times. 

Luke 9:10-17

But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

As soon as the disciples came back from their mission, they reverted to a place of comfort letting Jesus do the ministry for the day. They had been empowered to do healing and cast our demons but they let Jesus do all the work and the day was long because of it. When it came to the end of the day, they came to Jesus telling him to send the crowds away. They hadn’t done any work up to that point ! But Jesus hadn’t finished training them. He told them to go and give the multitude something to eat. The disciples should have had the faith to do it, given that they just experienced  success in mission with no resources of their own. Instead they saw that the fact that they could only find 5 loaves and 2 small fish as a major problem. Aren’t we just like that. God does give things to do that seem impossible with our own resources, will we have the faith to carry out the task. We can if we remember it’s Jesus who has the authority and the resources.

What they could offer was broken and multiplied and fed more than 5,000 that day. What we have to offer may be broken as well but it can be used to multiply the Kingdom of God.

Twelve full baskets at the end for twelve disciples. Just a little offering from us can go a long way and will be more than enough.

Our experience in France feels similar. We don’t have much to offer either. We are inadequate, we have very little that seems useful. 

Jesus has promised that though he is not with us physically to do his work (which would be a lot easier for us by the way!), he will be with us as we go into all the World to make disciples. We will see great miracles and experience his presence if we go where he sends us.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.