Making the Invisible Visible: Jesus and the Spirit World

Well brethren, I would have loved to have been with you on this occasion. My heart was set, my mind was in South Africa until bad news got a hold of me that my passport was held up with an embassy where I am awaiting a visa to another country and I tried my best to try and retrieve the passport for this trip but as you know, there are situations out of one’s control – this was one of them.

And so, inevitably the second-best thing that I could do is that of recording my message and preaching it. I am nonetheless hoping that we can have our Q and A to be live so that I can hear you and I can speak to you through this channel. So, yes life is like that – isn’t it? But I’m glad that God’s word is not changed and therefore we can spend some time together listening to the gospel.

How the spirit world affects our thinking

I want to draw your attention to 1 Timothy 2, just the first few verses up to 1 Timothy 2:7. 1 Timothy 2 I’ll read from verse 1-7. And in doing so, I am mindful that we are together thinking about the whole spirit world as we understand it within the African context. It’s one that pervades all areas of our lives; the way in which we handle human birth, the way in which we handle the transition from being single to getting married, the way in which we handle someone’s illness and death.

Every aspect of our lives somehow as Africans we tend to think in a way that is fairly foreign to our Western friends. I would think also in terms of just prosperity or lack of prosperity we tend to think that it is somehow affected by the spirit world and these are deeply ingrained thoughts in us generally speaking. I trust that an earlier speaker has already handled that showing us a little more about the way in which we process such thoughts, such challenges and just enabling us to see this from a Biblical perspective. What has happened inevitably therefore is that even when people are converted, when they’ve come to Christ, somehow, we don’t completely break away from that psychological thinking about life.

You inevitably have individuals still thinking that the primary movers of even Christian life and living are still ancestral spirits, demonic spirits and that God to some extent is so far away from us that somehow, we must still find ways of dealing with and appeasing such spirits independent of God and his word.

The Spirit World and the Gospel

It is in order to address this that I want us to think in terms of the spiritual world and the gospel – the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, I’ll spend that time looking at this passage of scripture and then asking ourselves the question. “In the light of this, how should we be relating to the spirit world?” Especially as those who now know what Jesus Christ has done in order to save us from sin, to save us from destruction in the end.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Well, the passage that I’m reading from, 1 Timothy 2 is one that was written to Timothy who in many ways had been sent into Ephesus within Gentile territory in order to help the newly born Church. This is what Paul says in the passage that we’ll be looking at. He says this, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Prophet, Priest and King

Now, as we think in terms of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ which is what the gospel is all about, it is the good news concerning the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is helpful for us to think in terms of three categories. Theologians have broken it down for us in this way, that in Jesus Christ saving us from sin, from death and from hell, he functions as Prophet, Priest and King – Prophet, Priest and King. And I want to suggest that it is a failure to see this full opt nature of the work of Jesus that often robes us from declaring a gospel that liberates people from the fear of the unknown, from the fear of the spiritual world or spirit world for that matter. It’s because we tend to think only for instance that Jesus Christ died for our sins and therefore, we will go to heaven when we die. But between now and then we must somehow find other ways to deal with the spirit world.

I want to suggest to you that that is not the biblical gospel. The biblical gospel is fully formed to deal with all the areas of life and especially those areas in which the African traditional religious beliefs tend to often undermine what we are supposed to believe in. Let me try and also put it a little differently and it is this, that when we think of Jesus as Prophet Priest and King, actually in each one of those areas we are addressing an all-important aspect where ART’s (African Religion Traditions) tend to grip the minds of people and hardly ever let them go and I’ll prove that point in a moment as we look together at this gospel. In looking at this passage, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, I will be starting from the end going upwards. And it’s because the Apostle Paul deals first of all, with Jesus as king and then as priest, and finally as prophet. But I deliberately want to begin with prophet, then go on to priest and then to the king.

Brief History of Ephesus

I’ve already told you that this was to Timothy as he was sent in Ephesus in 1 Timothy 1:3, we read the words, “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine …” Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia and so although you will definitely in any capital have a mixture of people including Jews you were exposed to a lot of Gentile culture – Gentile religion. It is the kind of place where there was the great goddess of the Artemis which is again referred to in the book of Acts. And it’s in the midst of all those details that the gospel was brought, individuals were brought to repentance and faith. There were people like Apollos who ministered there no doubt, Paul himself ministered there as well and so many others because again, it was a capital that needed to be brought to its knees before the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ as Prophet

And what I want us to see especially from this passage that we are looking at is the prophetic element of the ministry, the saving ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see it towards the end of the words that we have just read. For instance, 1 Timothy 2:6 after speaking about Jesus as mediator, we are told, “… who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” Testimony given at the right time. In other words, there was a time when this testimony was held back and therefore people were groping around in darkness following their own cultures, following their own common sense but now there’s been a testimony that has been given that brings us into a completely different phase of belief and teaching. And the Apostle Paul says there, “For this I was appointed (I didn’t call myself to this work.) I was appointed as a preacher and an apostle ( And he says, I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles …” Now, I love that because he is saying, ‘I am now taking this testimony that has been given and I am going to a people who are outside the Jewish nation, to go and proclaim to them this testimony, this truth. It says there, “…a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

So, we need to grasp the fact that the Christian faith is one that goes to any peoples in the world with whatever the infrastructure of their belief system and goes in and says this is the truth of God. This is what you must now begin to believe concerning the God who is there and so on and so forth. And Jesus our great Savior came at the right time in order to bring the light of the knowledge of God into this world so that we may now know there is but one true prophet the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Deuteronomy 18 this is what we read. Deuteronomy 18 about the promise of God in the Old Testament about a prophet who was to come. Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers— (this is Moses speaking) it is to him you shall listen—” Let me say that again, “It is to him you shall listen.” And then later on I will read Deuteronomy 18:18, ” I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” The question there is, ‘Who is this who was now to be sent as a prophet?’

Let’s quickly go to Acts 3 because remember, we are dealing with a bringing in of a new phase. Acts 3:22, I will begin from Acts 3:17. “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.” And then I will just skip down to Acts 3:22, “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.” Who is this? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it’s vital that we should be persuaded about this because you see, one of the ways in which the world of teachings within the context of the African continent tends to thrive is by us thinking that there must be some truth somewhere that we have inherited or adopted that is a truth that might be divorced of Christian truth but it is truth nonetheless that we need to be listening to sort of mixing these two things together- hotchpotch. The Bible yes, it’s true but also this. And what we need to learn is this, that we now have the prophet – the Lord Jesus Christ who has brought truth, light into the world so that where that light comes it pushes away all darkness. Whatever it is we are to believe must be based squarely on the shoulder of this one prophet the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s why he then appoints preachers, he appoints Paul for instance and the others as Apostles to now go to the Gentiles and say to them all that ignorance that determined the way you were living, God has now overlooked he’s now commanding all of us to listen to his Son. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” I want to challenge you to stop trying to mix what you’re learning in the Bible with so many other things that you have been made to believe growing up as a Gentile. And it doesn’t matter whether the Gentile is African or Asian or European still Gentile. We need to base all our belief system on what this Prophet with a capital ‘P’ sent from heaven itself has come to educate us.

Jesus Christ as Priest

But let me hurry on to the second part. Remember we have said that he is Prophet, but he is also priest. A priest is one that was the opposite of a prophet. A prophet began with God getting God’s revelation and then going to the people and saying, ‘This is what God says.’ A priest began with God, rather began with the people and then went to God and said, ‘Here is the sacrifice; because when your word came to the people, they realized that they were messed up. They had sinned against you, they’ve broken your laws, they deserve to go to hell and they have listened to you that you have provided a sacrifice – a way to be reconciled to them. And this is the sacrifice that is now being brought at your feet.’

Well, what is that sacrifice? Thankfully our text tells us this once and for all sacrifice by which we are reconciled to God. We read there I’ll begin from verse 3 (1Timothy 2:3 ff) “… and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And then we are told, 1 Timothy 2:5-6, ” For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all …”. This whole issue of priesthood is covered very well in this phrase, “There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all.”

Intermediaries Between Man and God

You see, when people are thinking in terms of the spirit world often, they don’t deny the existence of God. They know that God is up there and we are below here. But as you may have already heard from the previous speaker, they then put in so many intermediaries in between God and ourselves. You have the angels and demons thrown in there, you also have the layer of ancestral spirits thrown in there as well. And consequently, the belief system is that, yes, although God is there, being so far away from us, we need to find a way through these layers to finally get to God. And hence we come up with another layer at the human level now; and it is often the witch doctor, the medicine man or in the context of the church these days, we throw in the man of God concept – that man who somehow is leaking with power and is able to make a breakthrough to finally get us to God.

Jesus Christ as the one mediator

That was not the view of the Apostle Paul here. He says, “There is one God and there is one mediator. Only one, between ourselves and this God.” And who is that mediator between God and men? The man Christ Jesus. He’s the only one. I don’t need to go to any medicine man. I don’t need to go to any charmers. I don’t need to go to any ancestral spirits and try and somehow appease them and so on. I don’t need all that. There’s only one mediator, one go between and it is the man Christ Jesus. What is it that qualifies him to be the one mediator?

Well, the Apostle Paul tells us here that, “He is the one who gave himself as a ransom for all.” In other words, he acknowledges the fact that we have a problem. And the problem necessitates a mediator. The problem necessitates a ransom – a payment. And what is that problem? In Adam and Eve, we sinned against God and therefore we are born already deserving the wrath and anger of God. We are born already separated from God. Maybe we can put it this way, separated in terms of height. We cannot reach out to God. God has reached down to us because the man Christ Jesus is also the God Christ Jesus. God Emmanuel has come down to us. But He’s not only come down as a teacher; we’ve seen him do that already – bring the truth. But He also comes down in order to take upon himself our sin in terms of the liability of our sin and to be punished in our place. Hence the phrase, ” … who gave himself as a ransom for all.”

Hebrews on the Priesthood of Jesus Christ

The book of Hebrews is particularly famous for bringing the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ so clear to our minds. He is spoken of as a priest in the order of Melchizedek and this is the way the Apostle who wrote this would have written to all of us. Listen to this, we read in Hebrews 7, Hebrews 7 and I just want to read Hebrews 7:27, we are told there, “He …” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe let me give from Hebrews 7:26, “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”

Once for all when he offered up himself. You see, we talked earlier about one of the ways in which the African traditional religion has had a grip on the popular mass and it being the spokesmen for God – the sangomas who seem to be the ones who know what is happening in the spiritual realm. And I’ve said, forget that, Jesus knows all things and he has spoken. He’s given us his mind and his word and we need to listen to him. “Here’s my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased, listen to him.” But the way in which we have this grip on the popular mind is in terms of the sacrifices, the blood sacrifices. And when you begin to dabble into the spirit realm often that’s what you are being told, to bring sacrifices to this sangoma, to this middle man so that he can use that to bring about appeasement.

Jesus as both Priest and Sacrifice

And so, people will go through these rituals that are meant to provide this connection and again what we’re being told here is, forget all that. They have been declared redundant. Why? Because there’s now been God himself of infinite value who has offered himself. He is both the priest and the sacrifice. So, when Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, that’s what he was doing. He was offering himself as a sufficient sacrifice and the evidence that God is pleased is that although he died, he is not dead. God raised him from the dead showing that now he’s completely satisfied, our sins have been completely paid for.

All we need to do now is to come just as we are in genuine repentance, trusting in the finished work of God’s own Son. Because on that cross, he bow our sins on his body on a tree. On that cross, God poured his wrath- the wrath that ought to sink us deeper than the grave into the flames of hell, it was poured out on God’s own Son to its very 29:57. Hence he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It was paying the price for sinners. Hence the Apostle Paul is able to say in our text here that, 1 Timothy 2:6, “… Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony that is given at this present time or the proper time.” May I therefore make this plea, you don’t need another mediator, you don’t need another saviour, you don’t need even secondary individuals to somehow be able to add their weight so that they can help you break through and get to God. No, no, it’s been fully done. Trust in Christ and in Christ alone.

This business of saying, “Well, maybe the reason why, you know, we are failing to have a child, maybe the reason why we are not prospering financially, maybe the reason why there is this chronic illness is because God is unable to help us because of all these layers – that’s, forget it all together because God is now your father. God through Christ is as close to you as anyone can ever be. God is able to hear your cry through Jesus Christ you need no other.

Jesus Christ as King

Let me hurry on to the third. We have said that he is Prophet; his truth is what we live by – the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the message. We’ve said he is Priest; he has acted through his own sacrifice to reconcile us to God. And then lastly, he is King. In other words, our Savior rules this world in order to bring in his people. And that’s the reason why we are able to supplicate to him, to pray to him, to intercede on behalf of all people because he is seated on the throne.

So let me quickly read 1 Timothy 2:1-4, back to our text 1Timothy 2:1, first of all there, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people …” So, we are pleading with somebody on behalf of everybody else. “… for kings (as well thrown in) and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” There’s somebody who is on the throne who is able to give us a life that is peaceful and quiet, Godly and dignified. Who is that? 1 Timothy 2:3, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior” That’s the agenda that he is on, an agenda of saving sinners. As it is put there; “… who desires all people…”

In other words, all sorts of people, kings and those who are in the right positions included in it – all. He desires that they be saved and they come to the knowledge of the truth. You know, I was thinking about the way in which the African traditional religions and indeed all forms of other religions tend to have a grip on people. We talked about the prophet, who seems to be the one who knows the spirit world. We talked about the sacrifices, especially blood sacrifices that are meant to give us access to the divine being. But thirdly, it is the power play, the power play. The thinking that there is somebody else other than the Savior who has the power and through that power is able to fight our enemies, through that power is able to break through strongholds, who through this power is able to finally get to God – this power.

May I suggest to you, that’s what we’re dealing with now when we’re thinking about Jesus Christ as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You see, according to the Bible, Jesus did not just die but he rose again from the dead. He did not just rise again from the dead; God seated him at his right hand and gave him all power in heaven and on earth so that he can now bring in his people into heaven. Bring them first of all into his kingdom, that’s the reason why throughout the New Testament you keep hearing about the kingdom, and the kingdom, and the kingdom. That’s nothing new because if you go back to the Old Testament then you go to Isaiah for instance, as Isaiah was speaking as a prophet; speaking into what was to come through the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what he said I’m reading Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me…” We know who has finally fulfilled these words, it’s not Isaiah – it’s Jesus. “… because the Lord has anointed me …” He’s given me this office and the authority and power that goes with it. “… to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, …” And listen to this, “… the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”

Well, that’s the role that Jesus goes on to play. That’s why we pray to him because he’s the one who is on the throne. He’s the one who is leading history. He is the one who is defeating all those chains of evil, and immorality, and darkness and so on, he’s breaking them by the power of his spirit and liberating us in this life and finally in the life to come when we will be rejoicing around this throne in excitement because he is our glorious Savior.

So, we need to grasp this concerning God’s own Son the Lord Jesus Christ that he is on one hand, the Prophet; he brings us the truth. He is on the other, the Priest who reconciles us to God. And then, on top of all that, he is the king. He is the deliverer. We don’t need some power plays whether they want to call themselves men of God but they’re claiming to have power that we must be falling over each other to get to them. No, no.

We have the Savior himself. By the power of his Spirit, he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him. This is the gospel we are preaching, isn’t it? Or are we preaching some truncated little message that makes God’s people to still be praying to the traditional views that they were brought up in concerning their own future happenings. Let’s make sure that we preach Christ as Prophet, Priest and King. And you can be sure we’ll be proclaiming that gospel that will enable God’s children to worship him in the midst of so many spirits that may be wreaking havoc in so many other people’s lives.

May God help us to rejoice in the unsearchable riches of Christ, amen