First Post

Hello, whoever you are! This weblog is called "plunder the goods" in reference to Jesus' description of his actions in saving mankind in the Bible, in Matthew 12:29.

"Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, 'Could this be the son of David?' Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, 'This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.' But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: 'Every kingdom divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. 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.'" (Matthew 12:22-30, emphasis added)

The house is the world, the kingdom of Satan, or in other words, the place where Satan has authority. The strong man is Satan and the demons. The intruder breaking into the house is Jesus. The goods are the hearts of the people of the world. Jesus said that when he cast the demon out of the man and healed his body, he was plundering the devil's goods. From this we can infer that those who are not in the kingdom of God (i.e., they have not submitted themselves to the authority and rule of Jesus, the King) are under the authority and influence of Satan. They are part of his kingdom. Every one of us, before we came to Jesus, was a subject in the devil's kingdom, being deceived by his lies and under his authority. We were those whom the apostle Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4...

"But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." (emphasis added)

Note in the above passage that Paul refers to the devil with a title of authority, "the god of this age." In Ephesians 6:12, Satan and the demons are once again referred to with titles of authority, confirming Jesus' teaching that Satan has a kingdom of which the demon-possessed man was formerly a subject...

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (emphasis added)

In order to deliver a person from the kingdom of the devil into the kingdom of God, the power of the devil in that person's life must be bound by the power of God. The key to this happening is repentance from sin (sin is rebellion against God), and we know this by reading the passage quoted above from Matthew in the context of the chapter and a half of text that follows it.

The Pharisees, whose unbelief Jesus was addressing in the passage, were told by Jesus that they were "evil." ("Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." verse 34) So, he began by telling the Pharisees about Himself plundering the goods of the devil's kingdom in order to transfer them into God's kingdom, then he warned them about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and now he explains to them that they are essentially bad and cannot bear any good fruit even if they try. And they were definitely trying. Of all people, the Pharisees were the ones who prided themselves on knowing the truth of the Scripture and living righteous lives. Jesus pointed out their fatal and fundamental problem: they were evil and were still under the sway of the devil, under his authority which rendered futile all their attempts to understand God's truth and live holy lives.

So, how could the Pharisees have gotten themselves out of this terrible situation? The answer is that they couldn't have gotten themselves out, but only God could pull them out by His power. How then could God be moved to rescue them? What could they have done? Certainly, the answer is not what they did. They were still trying to use their minds which were deluded and their eyes which were blinded by Satan to reason through Jesus' claims.

"Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, 'Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.'" (verse 38)

Surely a miraculous sign would be significant evidence with which to back up Jesus' bold truth claims and the authority with which he presumed to speak, which had been irritating them so much.

Jesus answers these people who were "evil" and whose minds were captive to the devil's deception (just like every human being before they are saved from this state by Jesus) and tells them that no, He will not give them the miraculous evidence they were looking for in order to accept His claims. Is Jesus purposely trying to prevent them from being saved? On the contrary, He denies them the sign, because it wouldn't have done them any good. The mind that is imprisoned by Satan's deception is totally impervious to the reason and reality of God.

Jesus, the Great Physician, then gives them the heavenly presciption they so desperately needed: repentance!

"But He answered and said to them, 'An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.'"

Now we understand why Jesus began his preaching by saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17b)

Reading Matthew chapter 13 will give you a fuller understanding of how exhaustive explanation and evangelistic strategy are useless to reach an unrepentant heart. Only the power of God through Jesus Christ can restrain the devil, plunder his goods, and reveal the truth to the hearts of those rescued people. Let us preach the gospel, calling people to turn their hearts to God in humility.

This blog is open for exhortation and encouragement among those who are seeking to preach, share, and live this gospel of the kingdom of God to the whole world. This is a good place to share your experiences in evangelism, some wisdom that the Lord may have given you from the Scripture, or to ask a question.