Life of Christ #3 – Jesus Bound the Strong Man | Understanding Christ’s Authority

Alright, I want you to see the Lord step out of this realm. He has never yet cast out a demon in this realm, but He’s going to. Before He does, He must go through the door out of the physical realm into the non-physical realm; out of the seen realm into the unseen realm, and He goes to a special place in realms unseen. Whether it’s in the sky immediately above us or in an ether world, where it is, I do not know. But He goes down a road and the area, or a path, or a way. He comes to a dark place in the realm of the unseen until finally He stands before a vast, enormous fortress. A dark place. A foreboding place. Well-fortified. A fearful place. A drawbridge; gargoyles are in the battlements. Dark, mysterious turrets, strange symbols on the walls, and above the gate is written, “The order and the house of Beelzebub, ruler and prince of the darkness, God of all the non-gods.” Under it is a symbol of this order and this house.

Jesus Christ walks boldly up to this fortress, crosses over the bridge, and takes hold of the door, pulls it open, and He walks in, and He sees rooms filled with all kinds of tools and equipment, some of it very lavish, much of it costly, some of it worthless trinkets. He hears screams in the dungeons beneath the fortress. There are many rooms. He hears laughter, hideous, heinous, jackals’ laughter, screams of delirious pleasure, swearing and cursing, foreboding noises. He goes into huge rooms – banquet rooms. He goes down the dark passages, and He hears the moans and the groans of the captives within the dungeons.

All around is evidence of how well guarded this place is. He knows that any effort on His part to destroy the tools or the equipment, to do battle with the demons, the dark forces there, or to pull open any of the dungeon doors will elicit an alarm, and He will be forced into a battle. He pays no attention to these things. He walks to the very center and heart of the fortress. He goes up the stairs to the second floor, to the third floor. There is obviously the very heart and center – the nerve center of this vast fortification, so filled with so many tools and so many dark spirits.

He comes to a door, and again He boldly opens it. He stands there and stares at the very ruler, the very seat of power, the very throne of the creature who rules this dark fortress. He says very quietly and very calmly, “I am going to plunder your kingdom. I am going to ravage your household. I will steal you blind.” The adversary rises and says, “No, you will not, no, you will not,” and the Lord says, “Yes, I will.” And the adversary says, “I will stop you,” and the Lord says, “No, you will not stop Me.” The adversary says again, “Make one move toward plundering this place, and you will have a battle on your hands, and I will be your battle,” and the Lord comes over to where the adversary stands, and they are facing one another. And the Lord says, “Now will your kingdom be plundered and robbed.”

What happens? The adversary, the ruler, this prince of darkness, this god of the non-gods, this non-god himself, who nonetheless has great power, a very powerful, very strong being. What does the Lord do? Tell me what He does. We always think that He ties him up. We always think He ties him up. He doesn’t tie him up. I do not see this adversary physically bound with a rope. I see him bound with a word: “You are bound.” And with that word, the adversary is bound.

The Lord turns around and walks out of the very center of the citadel, and as He walks from this dark and evil place, He takes a door; He opens it. He takes another door; He opens it. He walks past other doors; He opens them up. He walks out of the fortress and leaves open the door of the fortress. Goes back out of this dank, dark place and walks back into that part of that world that is bathed in light. He steps through the door back into the real world…our world. He has done battle with no one. He has plundered nothing. But He goes on a tour.

Someone brings a little child to Him who is screaming and babbling and falling on the floor and having fits and banging his head against the stones on the ground while he claws at his face. And the Lord simply reaches through time and space and thrusts His hand back into that dark realm, and He grabs a demon and throws him out of the realm of darkness. No one there can protect the demon because the protector is bound. The house of darkness is laid open to pillage because the one who guards it, the strong one, is bound.

The next day, one comes up to Him crying in hideous language. The Lord reaches through this realm into the other realm and casts another demon out of the strong man’s citadel. The strong man can do nothing because he is bound. And every day the Lord in this realm is reaching into the realm of the powers of darkness and pillaging it. He’s delivering men not only from demons, but He is delivering them from the glitter of this world and the powers of this world and the prince of this world, and He is pillaging that fortress. He is reaching back into the spirituals and casting out the glitter and the beauty that are the tools and equipment in the fortress’s storehouse. The prince of the powers of the air, the prince of the power of darkness, the prince of darkness, the head god of the non-gods, can do nothing because he is bound.

Before the Lord ever started on this earth, is my point, before the Lord ever started to pillage the kingdom of darkness in our realm, He stepped into the other realm and bound His enemy, bound the one and only one who could protect that fortress. Now, would you keep that image before you always, brothers?

Sometimes you’ll hear Christians who are into this, and someone’s preached a glowing and wonderful message on it, and they’re up against a problem, and they say, “We bind the strong man. We bind the strong man.” No, we don’t bind the strong man. Brothers, don’t bind the strong man. See him bound. See his kingdom open for pillage. If you want to make a declaration to him, remind him he is bound, and in pillage and rob and steal. His kingdom is open to pillage. His demons are defenseless because their guardian, the one who might be stronger than you or me, has been bound, and he cannot protect his own kingdom.

His kingdom is without protection. He has been bound. His house, the house and order of the Prince of Baal, is left open and naked, defenseless to pillage. Pillage it, rob from it. Our Lord has bound the man in unseen realms. Praise the Lord. I don’t really know any more to say about this passage than this. I think sometimes we almost feel like we have to become hysterical and get all worked up over something that is there for the taking.

Well, they make their way into this very crowded house where the Lord is, and all the people are seated around Him. No, I’m sorry, they make their way up to the house, and someone goes in and says, “Lord, Your mother’s here, and Your brothers are here, and they’d like to have a word with You.” They are very worried about Him. They are really worried about their brother and their son. I think the key to this passage is “He looked around.” I don’t think He just looked around. I think He looked back to a time before the foundation of the ages.