Sermon Quotes: "The Aftermath of Christmas"

“The rest of chapter 12 and of the book reveals that Christ’s death and resurrection have resulted in drastically curtailing the devil’s role of deception and nullifying his role of slanderer…The ‘place’ which the devil lost was his hitherto privileged place of accusation
formerly granted him by God as a temporary privilege.” - Greg Beale

 

“The imagery of v9, as v10 explicitly states, indicates that Satan can no longer fulfill his function of falsely accusing the saints before God since Christ has secured their acquittal and reconciled them to God through his redemption.” - George Beasley-Murray

 

“As a great voice in heaven makes clear, the battle symbolizes the truth that Satan has been disbarred from his status as prosecutor in the court of divine justice-‘for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.’” - Dennis Johnson

 

“And in the midst of our battle on earth, we now have all the resources of heaven open to us, the same resources that hurled the enemy down to earth in the first place.” - Greg Beale

 

“When all his accusations are brought before us-so many of them entirely justified, if we gauge things only by the quality of our faithfulness-Satan is silenced when we insist that our acceptance before God is grounded not in ourselves but in the death of Jesus
Christ. ‘Who is he that condemns?’ Paul exultantly asks. ‘Christ Jesus, who died, more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us’ (Rom. 8:34). We neither have nor need another ground for our acquittal.” - D.A. Carson

 

“When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus, ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.” - Martin Luther

 

“It does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” - J.R.R Tolkien