WEBVTT 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:12.240 You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holmes. 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:16.800 We get harassed by demonic powers all the time. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:24.239 Where you're just walking along and you get this crazy thought, this lustful thought, this desire to cheat, this desire to lie. 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:25.839 Where does that come from? 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:29.280 And I mean, all of us are up to no good in our flesh. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:39.039 But there's also demonic powers that are out there, and he says here, he dishonored the rulers and authorities. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:41.039 And he uses another metaphor. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:43.840 He has made a public disgrace of them. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:48.640 Triumphing over them, and we'll cover that in a moment. 00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:51.840 By the cross. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:57.840 At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ. 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:02.399 For more information on the road, visit theroad.org. 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:07.680 We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:14.879 The cross is the centerpiece of human history. 00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:18.480 It's the symbol of our faith. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:27.439 I wore a cross today, the foundation of everything we believe in. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:32.640 Literally, the world would be completely different. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:38.079 I don't even know if the world would still exist if it were not for the cross. 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:42.079 We don't have an empty tomb without a cross. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.680 It's been called the Crown Jewel of Hope. 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:57.200 And many years ago I had the privilege of going to the London Museum and seeing the Hope Diamond, this massive diamond. 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:04.239 And walking around the Hope Diamond and seeing the colors and the reflections of the Hope Diamond. 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:22.000 And I'm convinced, because of the size of the diamond, that you could go and look at the Hope Diamond every day for the rest of your life and see a different color and have a different viewpoint of the cuts and the reflections of light that flow through the Hope Diamond. 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:26.000 Well, the cross of Christ is like that. 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:28.719 There's so many angles. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:36.960 You can meditate on the cross for the rest of your days and see it differently every time. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:50.240 Well, I've chosen for this year to focus in on a phrase, Christus Victor, the victory of Christ. 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:58.000 And that's what I'm going to focus on here today is the victory that came through the cross. 00:02:58.240 --> 00:02:59.599 Let's pray. 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:11.759 Thank you, Lord, for being Christus Victor, our Christ, our victory through the cross. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:25.199 Thank you, Jesus, for winning the greatest victory the world has ever known through a rugged Roman cross on a hill called Calvary. 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:30.960 Thank you, Jesus, that we can live in victory because you are the victor. 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:32.560 In your name we pray. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:33.360 Amen. 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:38.479 Christ lived a life you could never live. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:44.719 And he died a death, you could never die, that you might have a life that you've always longed for. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:52.639 Look at Colossians 2, if you have a Bible with you, and if you don't, you might have some in front of you. 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:55.680 Colossians 2, 13. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:59.439 Colossians 2, 13. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:07.439 Might seem like a strange passage to read on Good Friday. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:13.599 But I believe it describes the Christus Victor so well. 00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:27.759 And even though you were dead in your sins, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, and all of you before you knew Christ, you were dead in your sins. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:29.680 There was no life in you. 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:31.680 There was no spiritual life in you. 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:38.000 There was physical life in you, but there was no spiritual life in any of us. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:50.000 But nevertheless, Christ made you alive with him, having forgiven all your sins. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:51.920 Amazing. 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:54.560 Greatest story ever told. 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:59.279 Greatest event ever known in the history of humankind. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:02.079 He has destroyed what was against us. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:04.800 So now he explains why you're alive. 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:06.560 First he says you're alive. 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:09.279 Now he's going to tell us why you're alive. 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:18.879 That's really good news. 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:23.759 I mean, that's like you gotta take that one to the bank. 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:33.759 Some of you are still letting the enemy just rip into you and accuse you and tell you you're a loser and tell you that you can't make it and tell you you can't conquer that particular sin. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:36.800 Memorize Colossians 2. 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:38.399 This passage. 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:41.680 He has destroyed what was against you. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.240 You can't destroy what's against you. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:47.040 He already destroyed what's against you. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:49.040 Past tense. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.079 Past tense event, present tense experience. 00:05:55.199 --> 00:06:00.959 It was a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to you. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:04.399 He has taken it away. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:11.839 Then he tells us even further, this is how he did it, by nailing it to the cross. 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:30.160 So he took a metaphor of the way debts were paid, wherein the debtor had been signed off as having paid the debt, and then he would destroy it. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:37.040 He uses that illustration to say it's been nailed to the old rugged cross. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:38.720 Verse 15. 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:49.759 Disarming, disarming the rulers and authorities, those are demonic powers. 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:54.160 He has disarmed demonic powers. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:59.920 We get harassed by demonic powers all the time. 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:03.439 We've talked about this at the road so many times. 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:08.879 We've been covering Revelation 12 and these the dark powers. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:16.480 Where you're just walking along and you get this crazy thought, this lustful thought, this desire to cheat, this desire to lie. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:18.160 Where does that come from? 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:24.720 And I mean, all of us are up to no good in our flesh, but there's also demonic powers that are out there. 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:31.199 And he says here, he disarmed the rulers and authorities. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:33.279 And he uses another metaphor. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:43.920 He has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them, and we'll cover that in a moment, by the cross. 00:07:44.879 --> 00:08:01.920 So twice he expresses here, the Apostle Paul expresses here what the cross did to enable us who were dead in our sins to be alive in Christ. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:04.879 That's Christus victor. 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:11.439 And the tomb means nothing without the cross. 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:16.399 And as you know, the cross means nothing without the empty tomb. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:32.720 Christ is our warrior who fought the greatest battle ever fought to take captivity captive, that you and I can walk in victory and freedom and joy and peace. 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:33.840 That's good news. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.519 And that's why this is called Good Friday. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:46.559 It's not sort of Good Friday, it's Good Friday because of what Jesus did. 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:54.159 Men and women, we have been made alive in Christ because of the cross. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:33.919 And in this war where principalities and powers come to render us ineffective, powerless, where we start listening to those accusations of the enemy, to wear us down with afflictions, addictions, and contradictions at the cross, that was rendered ineffective because Satan and those powers were crushed because of what Jesus did, taking on the wrath of God, taking on all the sins of the world, yours and mine and future generations, came upon him and he took it to the grave. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:36.399 And I believe he went to hell. 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:43.759 Not because of any sin in him, but because of sin in us, that he took on upon himself. 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:46.799 And he marched into hell. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:48.240 And he went up to Satan. 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:50.480 He says, I'll take those keys, please. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.200 And he opened the gates of hell. 00:09:53.440 --> 00:10:04.320 And we know in Scripture that the saints of old, many of them, rose from the grave that day when he said, It is finished. 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:08.799 They were free from the obvious. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:17.679 Because what Christ did that immediately when he died, he went into what we called at that time paradise, divided into two parts. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:23.840 He took the keys, he opened the gates, and you'll never go to that paradise because it is done now. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.000 It's over, it's a new dispensation. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:32.000 You will be with Christ immediately when you physically die, because you know him. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:33.360 That's good news. 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:35.279 That's Good Friday. 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:37.840 That's Christus Victor. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:50.000 We are alive in Christ because of the cross, because Jesus, in the song we just sang, one of the great hymns of the faith, says he crushed our pride. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:54.320 You see, Satan has a high self-esteem. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:11:01.120 It was his high self-esteem and his own pride that got him booted out of heaven. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.159 And he's a great marketer. 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:08.639 And so Satan's always wanting you to have a high self-esteem. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:14.720 From psychologists to educators to even many Christian preachers, it's about having a high self-esteem. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:20.879 But I believe the worst sin, and I'm not equating them exactly the same. 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:23.679 But let's talk about pride. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:30.480 Pride is always looking down on others. 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:33.120 I think it's a pretty good definition of pride, actually. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:39.679 Pride is always looking down on people or looking down on events from your vantage point, being above them. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:43.759 The problem with pride is when you're looking down, what are you not doing? 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:45.679 You're not looking up. 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:47.759 C.S. 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:52.159 Lewis said, pride is a spiritual cancer. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:12:01.840 It eats up the very possibilities of love, contentment, or even common sense. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:09.600 In our world today, humility is often seen as a vice and pride is a virtue. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:19.120 On Good Friday, the message of the cross is that pride is a vice and humility is a virtue. 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:24.000 So we say, well, Steve, are you saying I shouldn't have high self-esteem? 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:27.759 Are you saying I should have low self-esteem? 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:31.759 No, I'm saying you shouldn't have any self-esteem. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:34.399 You have to have God esteem. 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:38.559 There's this problem in the phrase, it's self. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:41.759 Does anybody here struggle with self? 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:53.840 It's the greatest enemy of the joy and the power and the personal, growing, dynamic, intimate relationship we can have with Jesus and with others. 00:12:54.080 --> 00:13:00.960 And so Christ crushed pride and self-esteem. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:08.000 And he's now given us the joy of humility, which is Christ's esteem. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:13.440 God made you with talents and gifts and dignity. 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:25.759 And we discover our talents and our gifts and our dignity creased us victor by God being esteemed more and more in your life. 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:29.600 I just got finished with jury duty. 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:36.480 Four days of jury duty. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:44.720 And I will say this at least in El Paso County, we have a good justice system. 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:47.279 We have a good justice system. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:50.960 That judge, man, he told us what to do. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:53.519 I mean, he told us everything to do. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:59.840 He read the law to us and he gave us the instructions and we did it and we did it and we did it. 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:07.919 And when we went into that jury room, every person in there, I don't know their religious background, I don't know where they're from, I still don't. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:17.039 We didn't talk too much about that, but everybody wanted what was right for that man who was on trial. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:18.399 It was cool. 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:20.000 It's like, wow. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:26.000 And we were ethnically different, I'm sure we were spiritually different, but we wanted justice. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:31.679 There's something in the human psych that knows right and wrong. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:44.720 That part of us, it's the God image that was created in each of us, has been lost, but now it's found at Calvary. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:46.399 It's alive now. 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:47.279 It was dead. 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:48.799 He said we were dead. 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.200 We were dead in our pride. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:15:04.399 We can be alive in Christ's humility because the most humble work that man has ever known was on Good Friday. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:11.919 Jesus humbled himself and he gave it all at Calvary. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:17.519 And what was against us has been destroyed. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:22.320 Jesus came and it says that he took this certificate of debt. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:27.600 This certificate, we owed something because of our pride. 00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:29.360 We owed something for our sin. 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:31.039 He took that. 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:34.559 You can never be good enough, church. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.440 We can never be good enough to earn it. 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:39.759 But we can be bad enough. 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:42.159 And guess what? 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:43.120 You are. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:45.600 You're bad enough. 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:48.240 But he's good enough. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:54.559 And we have to constantly esteem Christ in our life because we can't earn it. 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:55.679 We can't do it. 00:15:55.759 --> 00:16:01.279 And he did it all, and he took the certificate of debt of what you and I owe. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.679 And he nailed it to the cross. 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:27.519 Martin Luther said of this verse that we've read, because of the humility of Jesus, the cross appeared to be Christ's greatest defeat and Satan's greatest victory, but the opposite was true. 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:36.480 Charles Spurgeon said, To the eye of reason, the cross is the center of sorrow and the depth of shame. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:43.840 To the world, the cross must ever be an emblem of shame. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:56.080 And so Jesus died in between two criminals that you might not be a criminal ever again. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:05.119 He was stripped of all dignity, that you might be clothed with all dignity. 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:21.440 He was bloodied and torn apart with the bones and the metal that were within that scourging Roman whip that you and I might have health and healing. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:22.880 What an irony. 00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:25.839 We were dead. 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:32.559 We were dead, but now, men and women, we are alive. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:43.519 And to the extent that you and I believe that, is the extent to which we walk in the joy of the Lord, which becomes our strength. 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:46.480 Christus Victor did it all. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:49.279 It is finished. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:55.119 That term, it is finished, was a Roman term. 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:04.960 And that was a piece of paper that was handed to that person who had paid all their debts to say it's all paid for. 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:09.200 It'd be like kind of a stamp at the bank now, saying, you now own the car. 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:11.279 This is your certificate. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:14.720 And they said, and the wording was, it is finished. 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:20.400 Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them. 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:27.519 So Spurgeon says it's the greatest shame and disgrace the world has ever known. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:32.960 And the scriptures say he disarmed rulers and authorities and he made them a public shame. 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:37.920 He made them a public disgrace through his triumph at the cross. 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:45.119 And the picture is how the Romans would come into a village and they would have that the general would be on a chariot. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:56.720 And he had all behind him, all chained together and roped together those captives from that country or that province where he had won the great battle. 00:18:57.039 --> 00:19:16.960 John Calvin said of this passage, for as he had previously compared the cross to a signal trophy, or show the triumph in which Christ led about his enemies, so he now also compares it to a triumphal chariot in which he showed himself in great magnificence. 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:37.680 For there is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated as in the cross on which Christ has subdued death and the devil, the prince of death. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:41.920 He has trodden them under his feet. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:43.839 Christus Victor. 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:02.319 John, in writing of this victory, said it this way. 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:07.279 This is the victory that has overcome the world. 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:08.720 Our faith. 00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:12.480 Who is he who overcomes the world? 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:17.599 But he who believes that Jesus is a son of God. 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:23.759 We're going to take communion in a moment because you believe that Jesus is a son of God. 00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:26.160 And if you don't believe that, don't take communion. 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:27.359 Refrain. 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:31.759 Because communion is for believers, it's for disciples. 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:38.799 But do you realize by proclaiming that Jesus is a son of God, that's the victory. 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:45.119 It's not how much faith you have, it's who your faith is in. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:54.240 And so communion is the great hospitality of God for each of us. 00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:59.920 It's a foretaste of the prophetic word we have in Revelation 19. 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:04.880 Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:15.279 We're going to feast with the Lamb, just as Jesus did on what the religious calendars, the Christian calendars, call Monday Thursday. 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:21.519 Monday Thursday was last night when Jesus had the last supper with his disciples. 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.920 We're going to take communion now. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:35.599 If you're a Jesus follower, or you choose today to become a Jesus follower, we welcome you to the victory that is your faith. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:48.799 Your faith that Jesus died at Calvary for the sins of the world, that he was buried dead, that on the third day he rose again. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:53.359 He was seen by Peter. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.079 Circumstantial evidence. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:05.359 Eyewitness evidence? 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:08.720 In the courtroom of even a modern trial? 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:10.880 Eyewitnesses. 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:18.400 And then it he has a little comma in 1 Corinthians 15 to more than 500. 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:22.720 Who are most of which, most of whom are still alive. 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:40.559 So even by modern standards of a modern trial of how evidence is processed, over five hundred eyewitnesses saw him alive. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:44.160 Now you could do that and say, well, they're all dead. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:48.319 But he said, most of whom are still alive. 00:22:49.519 --> 00:23:10.240 And then we know, if we count Paul in the mix, that 12 of the 13, or 12 apostles, capital A apostles, Paul's considered one of the apostles, 12 of the 13 apostles died, martyrs' deaths, proclaiming Jesus had risen from the grave. 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:15.440 Actually, 12, 11 of the 12, not counting Judas and not counting John. 00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:17.839 That's good news, folks. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:20.960 That's Christus victory. 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:27.200 You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:30.240 We hope you have been blessed by today's message. 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:34.319 To connect with us further, visit theroad.org. 00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:38.400 If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you. 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:45.680 Go to theRode.org, click on the Ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:53.680 Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.