Corona Chronicles 2: (Ep.17) The Strong Man Tied Up
91 sermons
Welcome back to Corona Chronicles. We are reading 1 verse today. But it's a fantastic verse. It's such an amazing picture. It's 1 of my favorite parables of Jesus.
But it's 1 that I never really got grown up. And, you know, but Jesus does this. He he has the best the best stories, the best pictures. So we're gonna we're just gonna read Mark chapter 4 verses verse 27. And here it goes.
Jesus, it says, in fact, no 1 can enter a strong man's house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house. Yeah. So so we're we're we're in the middle of this meat within the sandwich. Yeah.
The pet the the the fast second bit of bacon. Yeah. Well, that's a Jewish con. Not sure bacon's best there. But it could be sort of Do you participate in all things all things clean?
Yeah. First. So you've got the family thinking he's out of his mind. Yes. The religious leaders going that 1 step further and saying he's of Satan.
Yeah. And there's just no reason for that. Right. And Jesus is carrying on layer upon layer, and here's this other layer. Yeah.
And he gives this amazing illustration. Yeah. Of a strong man needing to be tied up before you can plump for his house. Right. Right.
And as you say And he's just he's just said if a house is divided against itself, how can their house stand. Yeah. Yeah. So so, you know, he's saying, look, I can't be I can't be the lord of death. Yeah.
You know, I'm the lord of life. Yeah. And so, you know And I've come to plunder. Yes. And I that blew me away the first time I ever I have when I first became a question, this was 1 of the first things I did get.
Right. Right. It I mean, honestly, yeah, genuinely. And it it blew me away. Yeah.
Yeah. I said because it's so as you say, it's just 1 little verse. But why? It's more I mean, the stuff in there is that's why we have to do -- Yeah. -- you know.
Well, 1 1 coronavirus. Jesus is a strong yeah. It's saying Jesus is stronger than the strong man. Yeah. You know?
Yeah. And I just thought, oh my goodness. Yeah. That's that's a massive claim, isn't it? Yeah.
He he's come in to bind Satan. Yeah. The strong man. Yeah. So let's let's get this clear.
So the strong man in this verse -- Mhmm. -- is is Satan. Right. His house is his kingdom. Yeah.
And the the stuff that's plundered is us. Yeah. That that So we are tied up -- Yeah. -- we are we are in the kingdom of Satan. Yeah.
And he and like Jesus, he he's shown this, hasn't he? And you're trying to get up and he's gonna the strong Yeah. He's stronger than you. Well, he's shown this in the first few chapters of Mark's Gospel. Jesus has come into the world.
He has come into Satan's domain, satan's house. And he has absolutely, you know, tied up the strong members. Yeah. Yeah. And and you see that.
Again, we said the other day, like, he's He's teaching with authority. He's he's casting. He's confronting people with demons. Yeah. And he's and he's you know, telling them you may not speak.
You've no You know, you don't you don't have any authority here anymore. The the strong man is here. Yeah. I I honestly just like so imagine, you know, you go home today because you're away from home. Yeah.
And there's a burglar in your house. Yeah. Yeah. And you come in and he's a flipping strong burglar and he just grabs you and he ties you down while he's just just, you know, doing what he likes in your home. Yeah.
You know, some oral stuff he's doing in your and you cannot move. But somehow, you're able to get your mobile phone on, dial 9 9 9 and ask for some stronger men to come, and those stronger men come in, they not only release your bounds. They arrest the bloke -- Yeah. -- because they've got all the gear, you know. Yeah.
And and that is the image, isn't it? That we are in Satan's kingdom. You can't get out by yourself. Mhmm. You it doesn't matter how religious you are.
It doesn't matter. Even if you pray -- Yeah. -- in 1 sense -- Yeah. -- you've got to have a strong man, and Jesus is the superhero of strong man, isn't it? Yeah.
Strong. Yeah. But chin -- Yeah. -- and drags you. And that's the thing.
I I think I was when I was you know, when I used to read this, I just thought I I used to think, oh, that can't be Jesus because he's burglar. You know? He's making some stuff, but yeah. That's not the point. No.
No. No? He it it the point of view just enters in the long story. Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. And and just that that word Satan is the burglar. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah. And in the actually, he's he's the he's the guy that's sort of taken up residence in the house, and he does it doesn't belong to it. Yeah. And and he and he binds us with lies.
Yeah. Yeah. That's that's how he does it. He's a liar. He he causes us to fall into habits that destroy us and sins that take us away from the living god where we're meant to be.
Yeah. You know, we are plucked from the if the apple pulled off the tree -- Yes. -- as soon as it's pulled off the tree, it starts to die. Right. Because the tree is where it gets its life.
And that's And we're dying and decaying and Satan's got that power. He's he's the lord of he's beelzebul, isn't he? Yeah. Yeah. He's the lord of death and flies.
And and that's why, you know, I keep going back to the the start of this book, the start of of the of of Mark. It's the gospel. Yeah. Gospel is the good news. It's good news.
Yeah. It's amazing news because it's It's it's it's the the the news that you can be rescued. Yeah. Well, we had a house fire. I know it's a slightly different direction.
The it was a pretty big fire. Last week. And I was trying to put it out with my little host, and it was a joy to hear in the distance. Yeah. Coming up the road.
And about 30 firemen she threw the door with a dirty great hose and got Do you remember me? I That is Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I've heard I heard Dan say that the different the difference in size between their hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we don't talk about that. But it was it is interesting.
And and that is Jesus. He is a rescue He rescues us from ourselves because we're so bound. He rescues us from our flesh. You know, the things that we fall into, that we can't sort of almost control. Yeah.
He rescues us from satan. Yeah. And that's why we need Jesus the rescuer. What's that superhero song? Super savior.
Super. To the rest To the rest Well, have you been rescued or are you still bound? Yeah. That's the question. See you next time.