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(uplifting orchestral music)
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- [Michael] God gives us a new identity as his children.
We belong with him as he intended.
The Bible says we will one day replace
the rebellious sons of God in his Divine Council.
He also gives us a mission.
We're here to grow God's family.
- We're gonna go on a fascinating journey.
We'll explore some strange passages.
We'll reexamine some familiar ones
with meanings hidden in plain sight.
We'll look at the Bible through the supernatural
worldview of its writers.
By the time we're done,
you'll never be able to look at your Bible
the same way again.
There's a lot to be seen when it comes to the unseen realm.
(etheric music)
- The Bible asks us to believe a lot of strange things
about the spiritual world.
At first, we might be tempted to ignore them,
but if we say we believe the Bible,
we can't avoid these concepts.
Much of what we think we know
about the spirit world isn't true.
It's been filtered down through centuries
of church tradition.
Angels do not have wings. Demons don't have horns or tails.
And for the biblical writers,
the unseen realm was home to more than angels and demons.
There were other bigger players.
So do you believe what's in your Bible?
(mysterious music)
- The rock at Caesarea Philippi
might be the most imposing rock face in Israel.
Imagine standing in front of the 500-foot wide face
and hearing Jesus' words,
"Upon this rock, I will build my church."
This is the place where Jesus and his disciple stood,
the scene of Peter's confession.
And when Jesus added, "And the gates of hell
will not be able to withstand the church,"
he knew what he was talking about.
- Gates to hell, really?
The authors of scripture believe the gods
of the nations were real.
Look at Psalm 82 carefully.
- [Announcer] "God stands in the divine assembly.
He administers judgment in the midst of the gods."
- When you really look at Psalm 82:1, it's kind of shocking,
but there it is plain as day.
God presides over an assembly of gods
that he calls his sons.
We're just not used to thinking of the heavenly host
in those terms, but that's what the Hebrew text says.
Psalm 89 says the same thing
about God's council in the heavens.
- [Announcer] "A God feared greatly
in the council of the holy ones."
- The Hebrew word translated Gods in Psalm 82 is Elohim.
Now, most of the time it should be translated
as capital G God, but sometimes it's plural,
and Psalm 82:1 has both.
The problem for us is that we think this is a problem
for monotheism, but it's not.
We're taught to associate the letters G, O and D
with a specific set of unique attributes.
That's why putting an S on the end makes us queasy.
But the word Elohim is not about a set of unique attributes.
The Bible itself tells us that.
(heavenly orchestral music)
- Elohim is simply a word used
to describe a supernatural being.
It says nothing, nothing about attributes.
That's why the biblical writers used Elohim
for other spirit beings besides God.
It's used for the gods of the nations.
It's used for demons, it's used for angels,
even the disembodied human dead.
However, Yahweh is one of those Elohim,
and no other Elohim is like him.
I repeat, no other Elohim is like him.
The Bible describes him in unique ways.
There is only one of him,
one of him existing as three persons:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and he is the creator of all other Elohim.
(soothing music)
- Psalm 82 places the heavenly host in a council.
That term is appropriate because these beings participate
in God's rule of the world.
Now, certainly God doesn't need their help,
but he lets them participate.
Consider the strange story that the prophet Micaiah
gave to the wicked Israel like king, Ahab.
- [Announcer] "Therefore hear the word of Yahweh."
I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne
with all the hosts of heaven standing beside him
from his right hand and from his left hand.
And Yahweh said, 'Who will entice Ahab
so that he will go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?'
Then this one was saying one thing,
and the other one was saying another.
Then a spirit came out and stood before Yahweh and said,
'I will entice him, ' and Yahweh said to him, 'How?'
He said, 'I will go out and I will be a false spirit
in the mouth of all his prophets.'
And he said, 'You shall entice and succeed.
Go out and do so.
So then see that Yahweh has placed a false spirit
in the mouth of all these, your prophets,
"and Yahweh has spoken disaster concerning you.'"
- Did you catch where the Bible asked you to believe?
God meets with his heavenly host to decide
what happens on Earth?
These beings, the gods of the council are spirits,
not people or idols.
(pensive music)
- Remember, Yahweh, the God of Israel is an Elohim,
a spirit being, but no other Elohim is him.
He is one of a kind. He is the true God with a capital G.
He alone is the perfect sovereign creator.
He is the most high God.
Now, Psalm 82:6 says God has sons.
"Sons of the Most High," is the phrase.
- [Announcer] "I have said, you are gods
and sons of the Most High, all of you."
- Who are these sons of God? It sounds odd.
What about Jesus?
How can there be all these other sons of God?
The answer is found in verses like John 3:16,
where Jesus is described as the unique son of God.
Now, some translations say only begotten,
but the word actually means unique, one of a kind.
How is Jesus unique?
The New Testament says he is God,
the one uncreated God in the flesh.
None of the other sons of God fit that description.
- The sons of God language made sense to ancient people.
God was king, and kings assigned their sons
high-ranking jobs in their government.
So it is in the unseen realm.
It's important because the sonship language
reminds us that God wants a family.
His family extends to both the unseen world and to Earth,
and those two families come together in Eden.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- God addressed His council when He created
the first man and woman, the council was already there.
- [Announcer] "So God created humankind in his image,
in the likeness of God, He created him.
Male and female, He created them."
- God told his heavenly family he wanted to create humanity.
Now, people often think God addressed
the other members of the Trinity, but that is not the case.
The other members of the Trinity
are co-equal and co-omniscient.
God wouldn't need to tell them anything.
God speaks to his heavenly host here.
Job 38 tells us the sons of God were present
at the creation. (pensive music)
- [Announcer] "Where were you at my laying"
the foundation of the earth, when the morning stars
were singing together and all of the sons of God
shouted for joy?
(etheric vocalization music)
- The image of God concept helps us to understand
how humans and the heavenly host are both like God.
Both of God's families represent him.
The supernatural sons of God represent Him
in the unseen realm and we represent God on Earth.
- But how do we represent God?
We saw how divine beings participate in God's rule.
God created humans to participate in his plan
to make the earth all He envisioned
and to enjoy it with Him.
- Imaging God is a status we have on Earth,
not a specific ability.
We bear that status from the moment of conception
until death.
To be human is to image God,
but God also shares His attributes with us.
Beginning with Adam and Eve,
we were supposed to take care of Creation and develop it.
God wanted the whole earth to be like Eden.
- The knowledge that all humans are representatives of God
prompts us to see all human life as sacred.
It leaves no room for racism.
Injustice has no place, and the abuse of power at home,
at work or in government cannot be justified.
(ominous music)
- Obviously, the world isn't like Eden.
People don't treat each other as equal imagers of God,
not even close.
What happened?
The answer lies in God's decision to share His attributes
with both His supernatural and human children.
And one of those attributes is freedom or free will.
It is freedom, not mere intelligence,
that allows for meaningful choices.
God didn't program his children like robots.
If He did, we wouldn't truly be like Him.
Having freedom meant God's children might choose to rebel.
That's what happened.
(ominous music)
- Remember, we don't have God's perfect nature,
even though both humans and the heavenly sons of God
represent Him in their respective realm.
God tells us in Job 15 that He doesn't trust His holy ones.
He knows they can fail.
- [Announcer] "Look, He does not trust His holy ones,
and the heavens are not clean in His eyes."
- Eden was the home and headquarters of God.
His supernatural and earthly families resided there.
God wanted them to image him in their own ways,
heaven and earth blended together into one family.
But, one family member didn't like that idea.
(instrument hissing)
- We've all heard about the serpent in Eden,
but why a serpent, what's that supposed to tell us?
Ancient people knew how to take this scene, but we don't.
We assume the serpent is merely an animal.
His form is important, but the story is not about zoology.
The story is about a supernatural rebellion.
Isaiah alludes to that rebellion.
- [Announcer] "I will raise up my throne above the stars
of God, and I will sit on the mountain of assembly.
I will make myself like the Most High."
- Isaiah is talking about the sons of God in the assembly.
Just like Job, he refers to them as stars.
They were present before Eden.
Ezekiel 28 mentions the rebellion in Eden as well.
In Ezekiel's case, a guardian cherub
gets kicked out of Eden.
- [Announcer] "You were an anointed guardian cherub,
and I placed you on God's holy mountain.
You walked in the midst of stones of fire."
- Ancient Mesopotamian tablets talk about
cherub throne guardians and describe them
as snakes and dragons.
The serpent of Eden was actually a supernatural being
whose job was to guard God's throne.
An ancient person would've known the scene
was about a rebel in the Divine Council.
- Like the supernatural rebel, Adam and Eve rebel too.
Eden was lost, the rebel security guard was cast down.
He brought death to earth, and now everyone would die.
He became Lord of the dead.
Since everyone would die, humanity would be his.
(orchestral music rises)
Now most people know the basics of that story.
Christians believe it's why the world is the way it is,
but that's actually incomplete.
What happened in Eden was just the first of three reasons
why there's so much evil and death in the world.
There were actually two more supernatural rebellions.
(ominous music)
- Genesis 6 describes the second supernatural rebellion.
Some of the sons of God, members of the heavenly council,
transgressed the boundary between heaven and earth.
(mystical flute music)
- [Announcer] "The sons of God saw the daughters"
of humankind, that they were beautiful.
The Nephilim were upon the earth in those days
and also afterward when the sons of God
went into the daughters of humankind
"and they bore children to them."
- Both Peter and Jude references story in the New Testament.
- [Announcer] "God did not spare the angels who sinned,
but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness,
and handed them over to be kept for judgment
and did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah."
- Jude also tells us about the judgment of these angels.
- [Announcer] "The angels who did not keep
to their own domain but deserted
their proper dwelling place, he has kept in eternal bonds
under deep gloom for the judgment of the great day."
- Both of these writers understood that Genesis 6
recorded the second supernatural rebellion.
The fallen sons of God were sent to Tartarus
for their transgression.
Tartarus is a Greek word for the realm of the dead,
what we think of as hell.
They'd stay there until the Day of the Lord
at the end of days.
A term like fallen angels makes us think of demons,
like the ones Jesus cast out,
but the rebels of Genesis 6 are imprisoned,
so they can't be the demons Jesus encountered.
So where did they come from?
The answer lies in the offspring produced
by the forbidden union between the sons of God
and the women in Genesis 6.
Those offspring were known as the Nephilim.
They were giants.
Their descendants became the giant clans
Moses and Joshua battled.
- [Announcer] "The Nephilim were upon the earth
in those days and also afterward."
- In the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy,
we learned about the giants Moses and Joshua ran into.
They not only descended from the Nephilim,
but they are called by other names like Anakim
and the Rephaim.
That last name stands out.
Several Bible passages described the dead spirits
of the Rephaim in the realm of the dead,
again, what we would think of as hell.
(ominous music)
- Extra-biblical Jewish writers believe the demons,
like those described in the gospels,
were disembodied spirits of the giants.
They base this on the Bible's mention of dead Rephaim
in the underworld.
Jewish books like 1 Enoch and the Book of the Giants
from the Dead Sea Scrolls make that point explicitly.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- If demons come from dead giants,
what happened to the giants?
Believe it or not,
the answer comes from a very familiar story.
(ominous, bassy music)
God told Joshua to destroy entire populations
in the land of Gannon,
but if you read the conquest account closely,
you'll also see places where God told Joshua
only drive them out, not kill them.
Now this seems inconsistent.
However, when you understand the supernatural rationale
for what God wanted Joshua to do, things become more clear.
- It's fascinating to discover that the conquest
actually began with the giants.
Moses initially sent 12 spies into the land.
They reported about the places they had visited
and where they saw the giant Anakim.
10 of the 12 spies convinced the rest of the people
they could not win against the Anakim.
God judged Israel with 40 years of wandering.
Notice that the giants were a focal point
from the very beginning of the conquest effort.
- At the end of the 40 years,
God took Israel up through the east side of the Jordan.
He told them not to bother the people of Moab and Ammon,
since the giant clans in those lands
had already been removed by the people of Esau,
relatives of the Israelites.
(etheric music)
God sent Moses and Joshua to Bashan, the realm of Og,
king of the Amorites.
Og was a giant the last of the Rephaim.
The prophet Amos described them.
- [Announcer] "I destroyed the Amorite before them
who was as tall as cedars and was as strong as the oaks."
- The point is that once all the giants from the other side
of the Jordan were removed,
Joshua could take the people into Canaan.
Joshua took the Israelites into the land.
It's important to notice that the places
that were designated for total destruction
correspond to the places where the giants were seen.
The giant descendants of the Nephilim
were the real targets of the killing.
Many people died because the Anakim lived among them,
but the descendants of the Nephilim were the lethal threat.
(uplifting drumming music)
- The Nephilim and their descendants
were from the divine rebellion of Genesis 6.
They had been raised up by supernatural rebels
to oppose God and destroy his people.
Now in this light, the conquest,
the spiritual warfare laid out on earth,
either God's people Israel would survive or be annihilated.
The story is cast as an epic battle of good and evil,
in both the spiritual and earthly sense.
Joshua could drive out people,
but the descendants of the Nephilim had to be eliminated.
(triumphant music)
This is why when Joshua defined victory in the conquest,
he said there are no more Anakim in the land.
The only ones left went to the Philistine cities.
One of those cities was Gath,
the home of Goliath and his brothers.
And eventually David would complete the task of eliminating
the descendants of the Nephilim.
- The conquest is ultimately about God
protecting his own children against a cosmically
empowered threat bent on stopping Yahweh
from reestablishing Eden.
- God's original program was for Adam and Eve
to spread Eden throughout the Earth.
All people were to be God's people.
The whole earth was to be God's domain,
but that gets ruined and destroyed,
but God never gives up on his original plan,
God called a people to himself, the nation of Israel.
Yahweh wanted a land to restart a new Eden,
and the Anakim, descendants of rival gods,
would stop at nothing to prevent that.
(ominous music)
- The first two spiritual rebellions produced Satan,
the giants, and the demons who came from them.
But there was one more ancient rebellion looming ahead.
This one would produce another set of bad guys
and change the entire landscape of God's relationship
with humanity, but ultimately they would become
the catalyst of God's redemption plan.
(uplifting music)
- [Announcer] "Come, let us build ourselves a city"
and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens.
And Yahweh said, 'Come, let us go down
and confuse their language there so that they
will not understand each other's language.'
"Therefore its name was called Babel."
- Now this is a really familiar story.
Less familiar is how the story is told in Deuteronomy.
(pensive digitized music)
- [Announcer] "When the most high a portion the nations"
at his dividing up the sons of humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God,
for Yahweh's portion was his people,
"Jacob, the share of his inheritance."
- When was humanity divided into nations?
That was at Babel.
Got a lot of the nations to the members
of his Divine Council.
The Bible says this is why the ancient nations
worshiped other gods.
God decided to let the members of his Divine Council
govern the other nations in response
to humanity's rebellion at Babel.
- But the gods of the nations failed to rule justly.
God chastises them in Psalm 82.
- [Announcer] "God stands in the divine assembly.
He administers judgment in the midst of the gods.
'How long will you judge unjustly
and show favoritism to the wicked?'"
- Then God pronounces a judgment on them.
- [Announcer] "I have said you are gods and sons
of the Most High, all of you.
However, you will die like men
and you will fall like one of the princes."
- The gods will be judged, punished and will die.
It's startling to read these things.
God is so angry with his corrupt heavenly sons
that he condemns them.
Some passages in the prophets place the fulfillment
of this punishment in the end times at the Day of the Lord.
- [Announcer] "For the anger of Yahweh is against all"
the nations, and his wrath is against all their host.
All the host of heaven shall rot,
all their host shall wither.
On that day, Yahweh will punish the host of heaven in heaven
"and the kings of the earth on the earth."
- This situation is at the heart of what scholars
call cosmic geography.
It's the idea that the nations around Israel
were under the dominion of other hostile gods.
Those nations and their gods surrounded
the holy ground of Israel, Yahweh's portion of the earth.
(pensive digitized music)
The Book of Daniel picks up on that idea.
It discloses that supernatural beings
govern individual nations.
In other words, evil intelligences influence
the geopolitics of those nations.
- [Announcer] "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
stood before me for 21 days.
And look, Michael, one of the chief princes,
came to assist me."
- Each of these nations has a supernatural prince,
a term that means ruler.
- [Announcer] "Now I return to fight against"
the prince of Persia.
And look, the prince of Javan will come,
and there is not one who contends with me
"against these beings, except Michael, your prince."
- Michael is the guardian of Israel.
The big picture reveals that there is an unseen
spiritual conflict behind the empires of the Earth.
- 2 Kings 5 illustrates the idea of holy ground well.
In that story, Naaman, a military commander from Syria,
visits Israel in search of the prophet Elisha.
To a surprise and joy, Elisha heals him of leprosy.
But afterward, he makes a really
interesting request of Elisha.
- "Then Naaman said, 'If not, then please let a load of soil
on a pair of mules be given to your servants,
for your servants will never again bring a burnt offering
and sacrifice to other gods, but only to Yahweh.'"
- Naaman asked Elisha for dirt from Israel.
Why? Because now he worshiped Yahweh.
He wanted holy ground to worship on.
(pensive orchestral music)
Cosmic geography is something we see a lot of in the Bible.
It's about holy ground, a place for Yahweh to dwell
with his people, just like Eden.
Do we realize how dramatic the judgment at Babel really was?
When it was over, God had no relationship with humanity,
but God still wanted a family,
and he already had a plan to fix that problem.
He'd begin with one man named Abraham.
- The Bible recounts many stories
of God speaking from heaven,
but God did something more dramatic
when it came to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He appeared as a man.
Both Genesis and Acts will tell us God came to Abraham
in a vision.
Visions are things you see.
The Old Testament often describes God in visible terms:
standing, sitting, walking.
Invisible voices don't stand, sit and walk, do they?
God appears as a man in the Old Testament,
most often as the angel of the Lord.
Jacob first encountered Yahweh at Bethel,
a man who was more than what he appeared to be
wrestled him there.
That man was described by the prophet Hosea
as an angel and an Elohim.
That's why the angel of the Lord could say,
"I am the God of Bethel."
That's amazing. An angel refers to himself as God.
But even more startling is the quote in Genesis 48
where Jacob blesses Joseph's children before he dies.
- [Announcer] "The God before whom my fathers",
Abraham and Isaac, walked,
the God who shepherded me all my life onto this day,
the angel who redeemed me from all evil,
"may he bless the boys."
- Jacob's prayer has three lines.
"May the God before who my father's walked,
may the God who shepherded me,"
and in the third line where we expect him
to mention God again, he swaps in.
"May the angel who redeemed me from harm."
And then he asks, "May he bless the boys."
Not may they bless the boys, but may he bless the boys.
That's what the Hebrew text says.
Jacob identified the angel with God.
Genesis intentionally draws a parallel
between the identity of the angel of the Lord and Yahweh,
but it goes even deeper.
Two other concepts are associated with the angel.
They're the word and the name.
- [Announcer] "Look, I'm about to send an angel before you"
to guard you on the way to bring you to the place
that I have prepared.
Do not rebel against him because he will not forgive
"your transgression, for my name is in him."
- When God tells Moses His name is in the angel,
He's telling Moses that He is in the angel.
The angel here possesses the power to forgive sin,
something only God can do.
When Yahweh says He put his name in the angel,
He's referring to His own presence.
It sounds odd, but sometimes the name
is actually described as a person.
(uplifting music)
- [Announcer] "Look, the name of Yahweh comes from afar,
burning with his anger and heaviness of cloud."
- The Bible does that because the name can be a person.
Even today, observant Jews who don't want to pronounce.
God's name will refer to God himself as Hashem.
That's Hebrew for the name.
This reminds us of the burning bush
where God reveals His name.
Exodus 3 says both God and the angel were in that bush.
(uplifting music)
- [Announcer] "And Moses came to the mountain",
and the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire
from the midst of a bush.
And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see,
"and God called to him from the midst of the bush."
- Yahweh reveals His name to Moses at the burning bush.
Jesus revealed it as well.
- [Announcer] "I have revealed your name."
- Of course, the Jews already knew God's name.
It was in their Bible.
Jesus was saying He had manifested God to them.
If they had seen Him, they had seen God.
God's appearance as a man in the Old Testament
prepared people to receive God as man in Jesus.
- On their way to the promised land,
God gave Israel the law, but obedience to the law
wasn't how Israelites obtained salvation.
It was how they showed loyalty to Yahweh.
It would help them to live in harmony with God
and each other.
Salvation in the Bible is the same in either testament.
Israelites had to believe God was the God of all Gods.
He made them to be with Him as His family
because He loved them.
They needed to refuse to worship any other God.
- Salvation today and in the New Testament
makes the same demand in a different way.
We must believe that the God of all Gods
came to earth as a man in Jesus Christ.
We must believe that He loved us enough to die on the cross
so that we could be in God's family forever.
And we must put our faith in Christ alone and no other God.
(pensive music)
- The law taught people how to approach God.
God is holy and the space He occupies is sacred.
Sacred space is physical space,
set apart and dedicated to the use and service of God.
- [Announcer] The Mosaic Law comprises 613 laws.
Many of them sound quite strange.
You couldn't eat shellfish
or combine different kinds of material and clothing.
There was an entire litany of clean
and unclean animals and behaviors.
- These laws were about ritual purity.
They taught people the space occupied by God's presence
was different than their living space.
- [Announcer] Cosmic geography encompasses sacred space.
The most holy part of the land was where God's presence was.
Certain laws alerted an Israelite to the idea
that Yahweh's living space was special.
Sacrifices reminded the Israelites of this
and also purified sacred space and objects
so God's people could worship Him.
- Sacred space encompasses more than the purification
of physical things.
It distinguishes between the holy and the normal.
It even marked the unholy territory
outside of Yahweh's land. (ominous music)
- In Israel's world,
sacred space reminded Israelites of Eden.
It was the place where God lived
and where he desired humans to live.
(pensive windpipe music)
The design of the golden lampstand and the holy place
of the tabernacle was a reminder of the Tree of Life,
God's throne room, the holy of holies,
where the Ark of the Covenant was marked off by a veil.
The Ark's lid functioned as a throne for God.
This echoes God's presence in Eden.
- Over the Ark, sat two cherubim,
just as cherubim guarded the entrance to Eden.
Lush decorations of vegetation, flowers, palm trees,
lions and pomegranates filled the tabernacle.
They reminded the Israelites of God's first abode on Earth,
the Garden of Eden. (etheric music)
- You might wonder how cosmic geography
worked before Israel got into the land.
The Israelite camp was holy ground.
Outside the camp was the domain
of the lesser gods from Babel.
(slow, dramatic music)
- Think about it, while Israel was traveling
to the promised land,
they were not yet in Yahweh's portion of the Earth.
Laws about sacred space taught Israelites
that Yahweh's people were sacred, their home was sacred
and that other nations were estranged from God.
- If the Israelite camp in the wilderness
was considered holy, outside the camp was unholy ground.
The annual Day of Atonement ceremony illustrated this point.
- Two goats were involved in the ceremony.
One goat was sacrificed but one was not.
The one sacrificed was for the Lord.
The one left alive was for Azazel.
- [Announcer] "Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats",
one lot for Yahweh and one for Azazel,
but he must present alive before Yahweh
the goat on which the lot for Azazel fell
to make atonement for himself,
"to send it away into the desert to Azazel."
- The crucifixion of Jesus paralleled
the Day of Atonement ceremony.
His cross was placed outside the city,
away from the temple area which was holy ground.
Jesus bore the sins of the world outside holy ground.
(dramatic music rises)
- Why didn't the powers of darkness
understand what would happen at the cross?
Well, Paul gives us some insight into the way.
God shrouded his plan for redemption in mystery.
- [Announcer] "We speak the hidden wisdom of God"
in a mystery which God predestined
before the ages for our glory,
which none of the rulers of this age knew,
for if they had known it,
"they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
- Do you realize what Paul is saying here?
If the forces of spiritual darkness had understood
Jesus was coming to give his life as a sacrifice for sin,
they never would've had him killed.
- Even the disciples didn't understand why Jesus had come.
Consider how they responded to Jesus when he told them
he was going to Jerusalem to die.
They were shocked. Peter even rebuked Jesus.
- [Announcer] "And Peter took him aside"
and began to rebuke him saying, 'God forbid, Lord,
this will never happen to you.'
But he turned around and said to Peter,
"'Get behind me, Satan.'"
- Jesus would have none of it.
Jesus was on a divine secret mission.
- The Old Testament leaves clues scattered
throughout dozens of places about God's plan,
but it doesn't spell it all out in one place.
God didn't want the powers of darkness to know the plan.
The intelligent, supernatural, evil beings knew
that the prophesied son of David had arrived.
Matthew records an encounter.
- [Announcer] "Two demon-possessed men coming from among"
the tombs met him.
They cried out saying, 'What do you have to do with us,
son of God?
"Have you come here to torment us before the time?'"
- They recognize Jesus, but their words never indicate
that they understood what Jesus was up to.
(heavenly vocalizing music)
The forces of darkness were duped into conspiring
to kill Jesus.
It was a divinely-designed misdirection.
- Intelligent evil, Satan, demons,
the lesser gods do not know everything.
Only God is all knowing, and He is on our side.
- Why did Jesus have to die?
Why would God plan such a thing?
So that His children would have eternal life.
That's what Eden was supposed to be.
The first supernatural rebellion in Eden
brought death into God's world.
Everyone was destined to end up in the realm of the dead
where the serpent was cast down.
- Death had to be overcome. That means resurrection.
But you can't have a resurrection without a death.
- Now, Jesus knew what had to be done.
He volunteered for that role.
He would die in our place, rise again and overcome death.
God wants us to believe in His plan.
He never gave up on including humans in His family.
That's why Jesus came.
There was no plan B.
- [Announcer] "But as many as received him,
to those who believe in his name, he gave to them authority
to become children of God."
(pensive music)
- It's easy to get the impression that Jesus's ministry
leading up to the cross was somewhat random,
but there's an important subtext to what Jesus was doing.
He was outwitting the evil one.
Jesus drew the battle lines when he declared.
- [Announcer] "Now is the judgment of this world.
Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out.
And I, when I'm lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to myself."
- Satan is the ruler of this world.
He's also very clever.
Satan knew that Jesus wanted as many people
as possible to be part of God's family and kingdom,
so he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.
There was just one catch.
- [Announcer] "The devil took him to a very high mountain
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.
And he said to him, 'I will give to you all these things
if you will fall down and worship me.'"
- There's no clearer example of cosmic conflict.
Satan's offer to Jesus was real.
The thought of Jesus, Yahweh in the flesh,
prostrate, worshiping at his feet is his dream.
He's the ultimate megalomaniac.
Jesus told Satan to get lost.
He knew something Satan didn't,
that he was going to die and then rise again to liberate
anyone who believes in Him from death.
God and His son already had a plan
to bring people into God's family,
one that didn't involve worshiping Satan.
- When Jesus had His confrontation with Satan,
He didn't reveal God's plan.
That plan was to reclaim the nations of the world
allotted to lesser gods at Babel.
Jesus didn't even tell His disciples
until a very specific incident.
You remember that huge rock we saw earlier?
It's time to talk about what happened there.
(heavenly vocalizing music)
- Jesus brought us disciples to a place
called Caesarea Philippi,
named after Caesar and Herod Philip.
That was the Roman name.
It's in an area known in the Old Testament as Bashan.
Canaanites believe Bashan contained gateways
to the underworld, the gates of hell.
But in New Testament times,
it had been the city of Pan, Panias,
one of the Decapolis cities.
And Pan's Cave was also known as a gateway
to the underworld, but why did Jesus bring them there?
Because the implicit message when Peter confessed Jesus
to be the Messiah, the son of God was,
Jesus is the real Messiah, the son of God,
and these statues and that emperor
are so not the sons of God.
- Caesarea Philippi was also located
at the base of Mount Hermon.
In some of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Jesus' day,
Mount Hermon was the place where the fallen sons of God
descended to earth before the flood.
Bashan and Hermon were ground zero
for the cosmic evil powers.
Jesus was standing at Satan's front door
when he announced the gates of hell
would not withstand the church.
- In this place, Jesus asked Peter,
"Who do you say I am?"
And Peter answered.
- [Announcer] "You're the Christ,
the Son of the living God."
- Jesus commended Peter and declared.
- [Announcer] "I also say to you that you are, Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of Hades will not overpower it."
- The identification of this rock
has been debated for a very long time.
The area's geography is the key
to understanding this passage. (ominous music)
- Eventually this place became known as Pan's Grotto.
The god Pan was represented with horns, a goat's beard,
a crooked nose, pointed ears, a tail and goats feet.
That's why the early church described the devil
in those ways.
In a few days, Jesus would take three disciples with him
up into Mount Hermon and put the entire spiritual world
on notice with the Transfiguration.
- [Announcer] "Jesus took along Peter and James and John",
and led them to a high mountain by themselves alone,
and he was transfigured before them.
And a cloud came overshadowing them,
and a voice came from the cloud.
"'This is my beloved son. Listen to him.'"
- Right after Jesus did these things at the gates of hell
in Mount Hermon, He began to teach His disciples
that he needed to go to Jerusalem to die.
The thought panicked them. They didn't understand.
But Jesus knew it was time to fulfill God's plan.
(slow, heavenly music)
- A week later, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem
for his triumphal entry.
Jesus's provocations of the supernatural powers
led to the devil striking back.
Satan entered Judas whose betrayal in the garden
led to Jesus' trial.
He stood accused before the high priest, Caiaphas,
who demanded that he defend himself.
- [Announcer] "The high priest said to him,
'I put you under oath by the living God,
that you tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God.'"
- Jesus' answer sounds evasive to us, even cryptic.
He replied.
- [Announcer] "You have said it, but I tell you from now on,
you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand
of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven."
- Caiaphas burst into a rage.
He tore his robe saying, "He has blasphemed."
But why did Caiaphas think the reply was blasphemy?
Jesus had quoted an Old Testament passage
that Caiaphas knew very well.
- [Announcer] "Ancient of Days sat",
his clothing was like a white snow
and the hair of his head was like pure wool.
And look, with the clouds of heaven,
one like a son of man was coming,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him,
"and to him was given dominion and glory and kingship."
- Why was it so shocking to hear Jesus claim
that He was the one coming on the clouds?
Because everywhere else in the Old Testament,
that expression was used only of God himself.
For instance in Psalm 104, Yahweh, the God of Israel,
makes the clouds his chariot.
(pensive music continues)
But Daniel 7 is an exception.
God was already in the scene.
He's the Ancient of Days seated on His throne.
That means the one coming on the clouds
was a different person.
The scene has God in human form twice.
He is the seated Ancient of Days,
and you would also expect God to be the one
coming on the clouds because that is a title for Him.
Because of this scene, ancient Jewish theology
had a doctrine called the Two Powers in Heaven.
They actually identified two Yahweh figures in this scene.
Jesus claimed to be one of them,
the son of man riding on the clouds.
- Jesus claimed to be God was enough for the priest
to declare that He should die, and die He did.
Psalm 22 gives us a glimpse
of the suffering Messiah on the cross.
- [Announcer] "All who see me mock me."
They open wide their lips,
they shake the head saying, 'He trusts Yahweh,
let him rescue him.'
Many bulls have encircled me.
Mighty bulls of Bashan have surrounded me.
They opened their mouth against me,
like a lion tearing and roaring.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax.
"It is melted within me."
(eerie vocalizing music)
- The creepy part is the description
of the mighty bulls of Bashan.
Remember that Bashan was known as ground zero
to demonic gods and the realm of the dead.
The area was a leading center for the worship of Baal,
symbolized by bulls and cows.
Mighty bulls of bichon refers to demons
and the powers of darkness.
- C.S. Lewis captured the force of the psalm
in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
No one can forget when Aslan surrenders his life
to the hordes of the White Witch
and dies on the stone table.
But just as Aslan outsmarted the White Witch,
so too Jesus turned this apparent defeat
into the greatest triumph of all time.
- Jesus triumphed over death.
He was granted authority over all things.
Satan has no claim over God's people.
Jesus conquered death through his resurrection.
(triumphant music)
(slow, pensive music)
- In the Book of Acts,
the Holy Spirit explodes under the scene
with his arrival at Pentecost.
It's a familiar story to Christians.
There's more there than you first realize.
(uplifting orchestral music)
- [Announcer] "Suddenly a sound like a violent rushing wind"
came from heaven and filled the whole house
where they were sitting, and divided tongues
like fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
"and began to speak in other languages."
- The Old Testament associates the rival of God
with fire in a violent wind.
Ezekiel 1 is a good example.
- [Announcer] "The heavens were opened,
and I saw visions of God.
A storm wind was coming from the north,
a great cloud, and fire flashing back and forth."
- The spirit of God enabled the Jewish followers of Jesus
to speak in the languages of the surrounding nations
enslaved by enemy gods.
(etheric vocalizing music)
- God was reversing the judgment at Babel.
Part of that judgment had been the confusion of languages
to divide nations.
The Spirit was supernaturally overcoming that obstacle,
but there's more going on.
Pentecost was a slap in the face to the gods of the nations.
Their authority had been nullified.
God was going to take the nations back.
God gave the risen Jesus all the authority
he had once given to them.
This is why the Great Commission begins the way it does.
- [Announcer] "All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations."
- The nation's listed in Acts 2 cover all of the geography
associated with the disinherited nations from Babel.
Pentecost sent the message that God
was reclaiming those nations.
They could once again be included in His family.
(ominous, bassy music)
- The Apostle Paul often talked
about the evil entities whose domains he violated
in the wake of Pentecost.
He understood the Old Testament's cosmic geography.
- Paul lists rulers and principalities,
authorities, powers, dominions, lords and thrones.
All of these terms indicate geographical rulership.
They reflect how the Old Testament depicts the relationship
of the unseen and the seen worlds.
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.
He knew that he was up against the old gods of the nations
allotted to people,
excluded from God's family back at Babel.
- Paul says something in the book of Romans
that helps us see that what happened at Babel
influenced the way he thought about his mission.
- [Announcer] "Therefore, after I have accomplished this
and sealed this fruit for delivery to them,
I will depart by way of you for Spain."
- Why did Paul care about getting to Spain?
On the one hand, some think it's the only
disinherited nation not mentioned in the Book of Acts,
the land of Tarshish.
Clement, the early church father from the end
of the 1st century AD says that Paul went to the limits
of the West in order to reach the full scope of Gentiles
in the Roman empire.
- [Announcer] "Having taught righteousness
to the whole world and having come to the limits
of the West."
- In other words, Jonah went to Tarshish
to get away from proclaiming to Gentiles in Nineveh.
Paul went to Spain to reach the Gentiles
at the end of the earth called the Roman Empire.
(slow, pensive music)
- God knew that the Great Commission was bigger
than just Paul could imagine.
It falls to us to bring the gospel
to the uttermost parts of the Earth.
- Paul had a supernatural view of his own life.
He viewed himself as set apart
as an instrument for God's use.
We have the same task of invading the demonic strongholds
of this world with the message of the love of Jesus Christ.
(pensive music)
- Remember our discussion of holy and unholy ground.
You might wonder where God's presence is today.
And sure, the Bible teaches us God is everywhere,
but it actually marks His presence more specifically.
- Paul writes that God is specifically present
within each believer.
In other words, every believer is sacred space.
(heavenly vocalizing music)
- God was present in the temple today.
The same is true wherever believers gather as a group.
The Bible says the people of God
are collectively God's temple.
- [Announcer] "You are fellow citizens of the saints"
and members of the household of God,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
You also are built up together
"into a dwelling place of God in the spirit."
- Together, we are God's temple,
the special place where God's spirit resides.
Wherever believers gather, the spiritual ground we occupy
is sanctified amid the powers of darkness.
- Believe it or not,
baptism is a declaration of spiritual warfare.
Peter explains that idea in a perplexing passage.
It's odd to us, but people in Peter's day
would've known just what to do with it.
- [Announcer] "For Christ also suffered once for sins",
being put to death in the flesh,
but made alive in the spirit in which also
he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison
were formerly disobedient.
When the patience of God waited in the days of Noah,
corresponding to this baptism now saves you,
an appeal to God for a good conscience
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who was at the right hand of God,
with angels and authorities and powers
"having been subjected to him."
- At first glance, Noah, a good conscience.
Spirits in prison, baptism, angels, authorities,
and powers seem to have little to do with each other,
and baptism can't save us.
Believing in Jesus saves us.
What's going on here? (pensive music)
- To understand what Peter wants to say here,
we have to understand that, like Paul used Adam
as an analogy for Jesus in some of his teaching,
Peter uses Enoch.
- [Announcer] "And Enoch walked with God,
and he was no more, for God took him."
- We don't learn much about Enoch in the Old Testament,
just three verses.
He walked with God after living 365 years,
and God took him to heaven.
That makes it hard to see much of an analogy,
but we have to remember that New Testament writers
read other books besides the Old Testament,
and one of those books is called 1 Enoch.
1 Enoch isn't inspired, but biblical writers
quote from some uninspired books
they knew their readers were familiar with.
Those familiar books helped them make their points.
That's what Peter is doing in 1 Peter 3.
- The book of 1 Enoch says the fallen sons of God
were imprisoned after they rebelled.
Peter's Second Epistle mentions those rebels
being held in chains of gloomy darkness.
In 1 Enoch, the fallen sons of God asked Enoch
to see if God would forgive them.
Since Enoch had God's favor,
they thought it was worth a try.
In 1 Enoch, God rejects the plea of the fallen angels
after Enoch reports to him.
He sends Enoch down into the abyss.
He descends to the spirits in prison to announce their doom.
That's the point of analogy for Peter.
Just as Enoch descended to the fallen spirits,
so Jesus descended into the same realm
to proclaim something to them.
What did he proclaim?
They thought that since Jesus was in the realm of the dead,
they had won.
Jesus told them they were wrong,
and he rose on the third day to prove it.
They were still doomed.
- But how does this connect to baptism
and a good conscience?
- An appeal to God for a good conscience in 1 Peter 3
means a sincere pledge.
In essence, baptism was a loyalty oath
and repeated the message Enoch and then Jesus
gave to the demonic powers and anyone present
of just whose side of the spiritual war you were on.
(water whooshes dramatically) (triumphant, heavenly music)
- That's why baptism is an instrument of spiritual warfare.
Whether we realize it or not,
we're being watched by both sides of this supernatural war.
(etheric, pensive music)
- [Announcer] "That through these you may become sharers
of the divine nature after escaping from the corruption
that is in the world."
- Being partakers of the divine nature
means we will be like God.
We will have a body like Jesus did after the resurrection.
We will have eternal life,
and with the loyal members of the heavenly host,
we will be in God's family and worship Him forever.
God will succeed in uniting His divine
and human family for eternity.
But the most amazing part of being in God's family
is how Jesus, the unique son of God, sees us.
When Jesus became a man, He was made, for a short time
a little lower than the angels.
Listen to the writer to the Hebrews.
- [Announcer] "But now we do not yet see all things"
subjected to him, but we see Jesus,
for a short time made lower than the angels,
so that apart from God he might taste death
"on behalf of everyone."
- Because God became man in Jesus,
his mortal followers will become like Him
and members of God's family.
We are Jesus' siblings and the fruit of His ministry.
- [Announcer] "He is not ashamed to call them brothers,
saying, 'I will proclaim your name to my brothers.
In the midst of the assembly, I will sing in praise of you.'
And again, 'Behold, I am the children God has given me.'"
- It's stunning that Jesus is not ashamed
to call mere mortals his brothers and sisters.
In fact, in the presence of the Divine Council,
he revels in introducing God to us and us to God.
- [Michael] Consider the reason that Paul gives
for our glorification.
- [Announcer] "Because those whom he foreknew,
he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son
so that he should be the first born among many brothers."
- The exultation of Jesus is the reason
for our glorification.
He is the firstborn or the head,
the one who receives the inheritance among many brothers.
John puts this even more succinctly.
- [Announcer] "We will be like him."
- That's our future, but what about now?
Sometimes when we hear that we'll be like Jesus,
we process it only in terms of being less bad,
but our eternal destiny doesn't hinge on merit.
That turns grace into duty. That's just bad theology.
The Bible teaches salvation is not of works but of grace.
God loves us and wants to give us everlasting life,
if we will only believe in it.
- Until that day, God wants us to tell the epic story
of His war against supernatural rebellion
to help Him release those still held captive
by unseen powers of darkness.
(uplifting orchestral music)
- Well, it's pretty obvious we're not living in Eden today.
The world is full of darkness,
but supernatural evil has no claim on us.
Jesus is ruling at the right hand of God.
We are sacred space, since God's spirit dwells in us,
but we await the Lord's return to transform the Earth.
As theologians like to say,
"The kingdom is here already, but not yet."
- The already-but-not-yet paradox
is an important biblical idea.
On the already side of things,
God gives us a new identity as His children.
We belong with Him as He intended.
He also gives us a mission.
We're here to grow God's family.
The not yet part of our mission is what we often miss.
The Bible says we will one day replace
the rebellious sons of God in His Divine Council.
Consider what Paul says.
- [Announcer] "Do you not know that we will judge angels?"
- The book of Revelation promises believers
a future where we will rule with Christ over the nations.
- [Announcer] "Hold fast to what you have until I come.
And the one who conquers and who keeps my works
until the end, I will give him authority over the nations,
and I will give him the morning star."
- Think about it.
Believers will be granted authority over the nations.
Who rules the nations now? The fallen sons of God.
We're going to replace them and rule with our father
in a new world.
But what do we make of the gift of the morning star?
In the ancient, world stars were associated
with divine beings.
The morning star is symbolic of the reign of the Messiah.
- Jesus is the morning star.
That's a title for the ruling Messiah.
- [Announcer] I, Jesus, am the root and the descendant
"of David, the bright morning star."
- Incredibly, we share the morning star.
We share the Messiah's rule in the New Earth.
Elsewhere in the book of Revelation,
Jesus shares His throne with us.
- [Announcer] "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
indeed, I will come into him and dine with him
and he with me.
The one who conquers, I will grant to him
to sit down with me on my throne,
as I also have conquered and I've sat down with my father
"on his throne." (triumphant music)
- God and man will be reunited in fellowship.
The dominion of the world will return
to its proper sovereign.
Heaven will return to Earth.
Eden will be restored.
God created us to be in His family
and to enjoy His world with Him.
Despite all the darkness in the world, we still can.
We need only to turn to Him and believe His plan.
(triumphant orchestral music)
(heavenly vocalizing music)