John 12:23-33

23 But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

27 "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." 29 Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to Him." 30 Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.31 "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

Rev. Dan Rogers

In John 12, when Jesus announced that the hour of the cross had arrived (vs. 27), He also called on the Father to glorify His name. The Father's reply was that He had and would do so again. Yet, in what way? The answer we find in verses 31 and 32 is threefold. God would glorify His name through the judgment of the world, the casting out of the world's ruler, and the drawing of all peoples to Himself. Our focus for the moment will be the second item, the casting out of the ruler of this world.

Before we ponder how the ruler of this world has been cast out, we need to be clear as to the identity of this ruler. With a basic understanding of Scripture it is clear that the ruler of this world is the Devil or Satan. In Luke 11, a passage to be considered more carefully later, Jesus describes the Devil as having a kingdom (vs. 18). Later in Luke 22, Jesus describes Satan's kingdom authority when He warns Peter  "...Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat." (Lk. 22:31b) In 2 Corinthians 4:4, the Devil is called the "god of this age," and in Ephesians 6:12, he is referred to as the "prince of the power of the air.@

Yet perhaps the ruler of this world's identity is best understood from the Devil's temptation of Jesus. We read in Matthew 4, "...the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.'" (Matthew 4:8-9) By these verses we can be confident that Jesus was declaring that through His death and resurrection it was the Devil or Satan who was cast out.

And so having established the identity we can move on to the next question, "What did Jesus mean?" To begin with I believe we need to consider what it does not mean. The casting out of Satan does not mean that Satan has been completely destroyed. We know this from 1 Peter 5:8 where Peter writes, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Pet. 5:8) From this we understand that Satan still has power, remains active on the earth, and still seeks to kill and destroy. And so the casting out of the ruler of this world does not mean his complete destruction. Yet what does it mean?

To understand this more fully we will consider three aspects to the dethronement of the ruler of this world. First we will seek to provide support for the fact that it was through Christ's work on the cross and subsequent resurrection that Satan was cast out. Second we will consider the past, present, and future aspects of Christ's work. And finally we will consider the power necessary to continue His work.

Our first point centers on the source of Satan's dethronement. As we see in our text, Jesus declares that His cross is the source or cause of Satan's being cast out as ruler of this world. By the cross Satan was cast off the throne he held until that hour. Jesus makes it clear from our text that this is the case, but we see this in other parts of Scripture as well. Paul writes this about what Jesus did at the cross, He "... disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." (Col. 2:15) The powers and principalities, including the Devil, were publicly dethroned and disarmed through the work of Jesus on the cross. Satan and all his legions were cast out of their positions of strength.

Another passage and perhaps the most descriptive passage of the casting out of Satan is found in Revelation 20. John wrote, "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while." (Rev. 20:1-3)

Now some may ask, "Doesn't this passage describe the end times, a time in the future?" A time when there will be a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth when Satan will be bound? In response we would say that there are those who certainly think it does and many, especially within dispensational circles who teach that it does. But when we look closely at Scripture the clear message that is presented is that Christ is reigning today and that Satan has been cast out and bound so that he cannot deceive the nations.

Recall what Jesus said about His second coming when He warned about false prophets. He said in Matthew 24, "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." (Matt. 24:24) False prophets would arise and seek to deceive God's elect but it would not happen, why? Because Satan has been cast out and bound and is unable to ultimately deceive God's people. Deceive the world? Yes! Deceive God's people sometimes? Yes! But ultimately and decisively deceive God's people and stop the spread of the gospel? Absolutely not! And we see the same in our text where Jesus says that if He is lifted up, Satan will be cast out and He will draw all peoples to Himself. People of all nations, races, tribes and tongues. And Satan cannot stop it!

And so through the cross Jesus has dethroned Satan and bound him during this age until the end, when he will be cast out forever. Yes, there is a coming day, a short period before the return of Christ, when Satan will be released to deceive the nations again-a day when he will gather all his forces for a final battle with God and His people. "...when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea." Yet that short period will end this way: "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." (Rev. 20:7-10) Yes, a day is coming when Satan will be cast out, but not just from his throne of power, but from the earth all together-cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Hopefully then it is clear that it is the Devil, Satan, who has been cast out and bound as the ruler of this world. Yet what has he been cast out from? The answer to that is found in Revelation 12. "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.'" Satan has lost a position before God that was his source of power. And what was that position? A position in which he was able to accuse God's people day and night, yet through the cross, He has been cast off that throne of power. The power that came from a real and valid accusation, the accusation that God allowed believers to enter His presence without atonement for their sins. Yes, the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to it but they were unable to accomplish it, and Satan had a valid accusation, "How can a Holy God allow sinners to enter His presence?" Yet through the cross it was finally accomplished and atonement was made. And through it Satan lost his power, because his accusation was no longer valid.

And so it should be a great comfort to God's people to know that their enemy, the Devil, has been dethroned, dethroned because he can no longer accuse them of sin. And it's especially important to know this as we live out what that means. What then does it mean that Satan has lost his power? Does it mean we are no longer tempted and afflicted by him? Does it mean that he no longer seeks our destruction and deception? Or does it mean that we are no longer opposed and oppressed? No, it doesn't. In fact, because Satan is defeated and knows that his days are numbered he is even more determined to destroy us. Recall again what we read earlier in 1 Peter 5, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Pet. 5:8)

That's the first part, but what does Peter go on to say? He says; "Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world." (1 Pet. 5:9) Even though Satan has been dethroned and cast out, he still causes what? The people of God to suffer! Yes, Peter says to resist him, to stand fast in the faith, but he also says that children of God will suffer. Yet Peter also tells us how to suffer, suffer knowing that all your brothers and sisters in Christ around the world suffer as well.

And so our defeated enemy, the cast out one, the one who is bound and unable to accuse God's children, is still able to cause God's people trouble and tribulation, pain and suffering. Real pain! Real suffering! Real hardship! But even still, he cannot stop the work of God's kingdom! He cannot stop the spread of the gospel! He cannot thwart for one moment God's gathering of His church! Yet still, God's people suffer.

This then leads to the question of suffering, "Why do God's people suffer if the ruler of this world has been cast out and bound?" The answer is found in taking a closer look at the words of Jesus. What we see is that even in our English translations we can hear the future aspect of Christ's work as Jesus said, "now the ruler of this world will be cast out." Of course we should understand that Jesus was primarily referring to the cross when He said this, but we should also understand that it carried with it the idea of an ongoing work, a work to be carried by the people of God. This then, should help us to better understand suffering.

In a weak and imperfect analogy we might think of Saddam Hussein's execution. His execution was the defeat of a wicked ruler, yet, as we know, even though he was cast out of power and eventually executed, his evil still haunts Iraq through his former influence. And now those who do battle with what's left of his kingdom do so knowing in the back of their mind that the purveyor of this evil has already been defeated.

So now today, Christians do the work of Christ's kingdom with the full knowledge that in so doing they too are casting out the remnants of Satan's kingdom We see this in our text, where Jesus says that He will draw all people's to Himself. By this we are to understand that not only was Satan cast out at the cross, but also today as Jesus continues to draw people to Himself, converting those who live in darkness, He continues to overthrow Satan's kingdom. And He calls all believers to join that work.

We find evidence to support this in two events that took place before the cross, through the work of the disciples and Jesus. In Luke 10, beginning at verse 17, we read of the outcome of Jesus sending out seventy of His followers. "Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.' And He said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.'" (Lk. 10:17-18) Jesus sent out seventy of His disciples and gave them His authority and power. They returned and what did they report? They were amazed because even the demons obeyed them because of the name of Jesus-the demons recognized the power of Christ. But even more amazing is what Jesus said in response. He said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." So what did Jesus mean? What did He mean that He saw Satan fall from heaven? The answer is that He saw Satan being cast out. As His disciples went out with His power, they demonstrated and had the power of the cross even before it happened. They anticipated and foreshadowed the fall of Satan's kingdom and his ability to accuse God's people.

And just as before the cross, the continual building of the church and the establishment of Christ's kingdom is an ongoing overthrow and casting out of Satan's kingdom and power. A passage that makes this very clear is Matthew 12:24-30, where Jesus was accused of casting out demons in the name of Satan (Beelzebub). Yet Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." (Matt. 12:24-30)

What are we to understand by this? We are to understand that when Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, forgave sins, and cast out demons He was overthrowing the kingdom of Satan and establishing His own. But notice that He says that it was only possible because He had first bound the strongman, He had bound Satan, even before the cross. Understanding this, we might say that Jesus throughout His earthly ministry was in the process of binding Satan, not just because of His power as the Son of God, but because He too looked forward to the cross, the cross where Satan's accusations would be silenced.

And so today as we live and work on behalf of Christ's kingdom we continue to overthrow and cast out the kingdom of Satan. And not just when people are converted to Christ, but every moment that a believer lives in obedience to Christ and His word. Every time Christ's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, it is an overthrow of the kingdom and power of Satan. We see this clearly in the life of the Apostle Paul when he was converted.

In Acts 26 the Lord Jesus told Saul that his work would be a work unto the Gentiles "to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me." (Acts 26:18) In other words, God was using Paul to overthrow the kingdom and power of Satan. How? By opening the eyes of unbelievers and turning them from the darkness to the light.

Today we can say that every time a person is born again, the kingdom of Satan crumbles a little more. Every time a person submits himself to live in obedience to Christ, Satan's kingdom diminishes. And we can be confident that it will continue to shrink until that day when Christ puts His and our last enemy, death, under His feet (1 Cor. 15:26). Romans 16 says, "For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly...." (Rom. 16:19-20) What's the promise? That soon God will crush Satan, once and for all, under the feet of Christ and all who belong to Him. Yet again, what is the context in which this is being brought about? Through the obedience of God's people as they become "wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil.

We have seen so far that the source for Satan being cast out and binding was the work of Christ on the cross, but hopefully we have also seen that it is a continuing work being completed by us, God's people.

In closing we also need to see the power to do such work. In fact apart from this power we will not be useful in building God's kingdom and we will not be able to overthrow the power of Satan's kingdom. If we neglect this power, we will fail. So what is it? Two sources.

The first, as you may have guessed, is the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His followers in John 16 that when the Holy Spirit came that He would do a number of things, one of those was to make clear the judgment of God. Judgment concerning what, "... judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged." (Jn. 16:11) And now we can add to it, judged, cast out, and bound. And so in our dependence upon the Holy Spirit we can expect that the Holy Spirit will use God's people to show this as they participate in building Christ's kingdom. We should have confidence because of what John wrote "... little children, you have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (1 Jn. 4:4)

The second power given to God's children for overthrowing the kingdom of Satan takes us back to where we started-the cross, the cross by which Satan was cast off his throne of power. We read of it again in Revelation 12. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." (Rev. 12:11)

The kingdom of Christ has come, Satan has been cast out, and those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb have now overcome him. What power do believers have to overthrow the kingdom of Satan? They have the knowledge and reality of the Lamb's blood, blood more precious than their own lives, a power which now silences the accusations of the ruler of this world and glorifies God's name.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

By looking at the above definition of faith we see that it involves both belief and conviction. That is to say there is something to believe in, and that belief is real. We can turn to the Heidelberg Catechism Q/A #21 for a further definition. The catechism, in speaking of true faith, speaks of Aa sure knowledge" and "a hearty trust." This reflects the fact that to have faith is to have something to believe in. There is a body of information. And there is a conviction about this information. One cannot believe in nothing, and one cannot believe and be totally unsure of what he believes.

So what do we believe? The Apostle Paul says in Romans 10:9 "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." That is not very complicated. It gets right at the heart of what the gospel is. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by His sacrifice paid for your sins and rose again. By His death and resurrection your sins are paid for and you have new life in Christ. This simple truth is reality for those who have faith. This is what we believe.

It would seem that this should be quite easy. Anybody should be able to figure this out. The problem is that due to man's fall into sin it is impossible for anyone to see this simple truth by themselves. The apostle Paul says in Romans 1, that man is born with a knowledge of God, but because of sin "their foolish hearts were darkened." It is impossible for the natural man to come to faith in Jesus Christ by himself.

The good news of the gospel is that faith is part of the gift that we have in Christ. In the book of Ephesians the apostle Paul again says this about faith: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." (Eph. 2:8) It is through the Holy Spirit working in the heart of man by means of the Word of God that God's people come to faith.

That does not relieve anyone from the responsibility of believing. God calls all to hear and receive the gospel. We must really believe. We must seek the help of the Holy Spirit in our belief.

It is indeed a great joy to know that we are not left to our own ability. God does call us to faith and he does provide for the eyes of our hearts to be opened so that we are able to believe. That is why the Heidelberg Catechism says that we have a "hearty trust.@. Certainly there are times when the temptations of the world cause us to have some questions about what we believe in, but Jesus has promised that the work which the Father sent Him to do will be accomplished. He will not fail to provide a sacrifice for sin and will work saving faith in the hearts of anyone whom the Father gave Him to save.

Not only does this provide assurance for us who believe, but it is important to know that when we witness the truth of salvation to the lost we do not have to depend on them to come to faith on their own. We know that the Word of God will cause faith in the hearts of those whom God seeks to save by the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot talk anyone into believing or even force them, but when the Holy Spirit is at work, the message of the gospel is effective.

How great it is that we can know Jesus Christ as our Savior and believe that His work on the cross has accomplished salvation for us.