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    The Cross and the Crown
    The Cross and the Crown
    The Cross and the Crown
    Ebook243 pages3 hours

    The Cross and the Crown

    By Ken Chant

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    Having the peculiar benefit of living in a house placed between two tennis courts, Blaise Pascal was able to write -

    "Let no one maintain that I have said nothing new; my arrangement of the material is new. In a game of tennis we both play with the same ball, but one of us uses it to better advantage. I would as soon it were said that I have used well-worn words. The same thoughts, when differently arranged, form a new body of speech; just as the same words differently arranged express new thoughts"

    I hope that is how you will find these lessons. They traverse familiar ground; yet I pray they may still sparkle with freshness. Not because these pages contain stunning new ideas, but because of the personal colour I have sought to build into each paragraph. To paraphrase Pascal just a little: "I have said nothing new; but my arrangement of the material is new."

    This course is a close companion to the subject "Emmanuel". But whereas that series deals with the person of Christ, this deals with the work of Christ. Especially, with the historical work of Christ, and even more particularly with the events surrounding his passion - that is, the crucifixion and the resurrection.

    St. Bernard once said, "That which makes us better makes us worse, if we attribute the merit of it to ourselves." I have no illusions about this course making me any better merely because I am its author; but I would be a fool if I allowed it to make me worse, by imagining myself to be the source of any merit it might contain. I have made only a husk. The creator of the true bread is Christ.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVisionColleges
    Release dateSep 24, 2014
    ISBN9781310209581
    The Cross and the Crown
    Author

    Ken Chant

    Dr. Ken Chant (M.R.E. Th.D), is the President of Vision Christian College (Australia) and is on the International Board of Directors for Vision International University (USA). Dr Ken Chant is an Australian pentecostal pastor who was ordained in Melbourne in 1954. He has been actively involved in Christian ministry for over 50 years (ten of which he and his family spent in the USA). A brief summary of his ministry would include the following - He has pioneered eight churches and Pastored several others, including serving for five years as the associate pastor of what was then Australia's largest Pentecostal church (the Adelaide Crusade Centre). For several years he was the editor of two of Australia's most successful charismatic/Pentecostal journals. He has been the principal of four Bible colleges (in Australia and the USA), has taught at Christ for the Nations (Dallas), Oral Roberts University (Tulsa), Youth With a Mission (Hawaii), and spoken at crusades, conferences, and seminars in Australia, the UK, the USA, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, and New Zealand. Dr. Chant is the author of many of Vision's textbooks on Christian life, Doctrine and Theology.

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      Book preview

      The Cross and the Crown - Ken Chant

      The Cross and the Crown

      A Series of Studies on the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ

      By

      KEN CHANT

      Copyright © Vision Colleges

      This version 2012

      ISBN: 781310209581

      Published at Smashwords by Vision Colleges

      Vision Christian College

      PO Box 84 Macquarie Fields

      NSW 2564 Australia

      Ph 02 9603 2077

      Fx 02 9603 3277

      Email: contact@visioncolleges.net

      Web page: http://visioncolleges.net

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Preface: The New And The Old

      Lesson One: Conflict And Conquest

      Lesson Two: Saved To The Uttermost!

      Lesson Three: The Power Of The Cross

      Lesson Four: Alive From The Dead!

      Lesson Five:Witnesses Of The Resurrection

      Lesson Six: The Empty Tomb

      Lesson Seven: An Immortal Soul?

      Lesson Eight: Our Glorious Goal

      Lesson Nine: The Power Of His Resurrection

      Lesson Ten: Living Victoriously

      Adendum: Examples Of The Fairytale Principle

      Bibliography

      Endnotes

      More Books by Vision Colleges

      Vision Colleges

      A NOTE ON GENDER

      It is unfortunate that the English language does not contain an adequate generic pronoun (especially in the singular number) that includes without bias both male and female. So he, him, his, man, mankind, with their plurals, must do the work for both sexes. Accordingly, wherever it is appropriate to do so in the following pages, please include the feminine gender in the masculine, and vice versa.

      ENDNOTES

      A work once fully referenced will thereafter be noted either by ibid or op. cit.

      ABBREVIATIONS

      Abbreviations commonly used for the books of the Bible are found at the end of the book

      PREFACE

      THE NEW AND THE OLD

      (Return to Top)

      Having the peculiar benefit of living in a house placed between two tennis courts, Blaise Pascal1 was able to write -

      "Let no one maintain that I have said nothing new; my arrangement of the material is new. In a game of tennis we both play with the same ball, but one of us uses it to better advantage. I would as soon it were said that I have used well-worn words. The same thoughts, when differently arranged, form a new body of speech; just as the same words differently arranged express new thoughts."

      I hope that is how you will find these chapters. They traverse familiar ground; yet I pray they may still sparkle with freshness. Not because these pages contain stunning new ideas, but because of the personal colour I have sought to build into each paragraph. To paraphrase Pascal just a little: I have said nothing new; but my arrangement of the material is new.

      This course is a close companion to another VCC series, Emmanuel. But whereas that series deals with the person of Christ, this deals with the work of Christ. Especially, with the historical work of Christ, and even more particularly with the events surrounding his passion - that is, the crucifixion and the resurrection.

      St. Bernard once said, That which makes us better makes us worse, if we attribute the merit of it to ourselves. I have no illusions about this course making me any better merely because I am its author; but I would be a fool if I allowed it to make me worse, by imagining myself to be the source of any merit it might contain. I have made only a husk. The creator of the true bread is Christ.

      SECTION ONE

      -

      THE CROSS

      CHAPTER ONE

      CONFLICT AND CONQUEST

      (Return to Top)

      There is an ancient and apparently anonymous saying: "The three most beautiful things in the world are a full-rigged ship, a woman with child, and a full moon." I am not sure about the superlative beauty of the first and last things; but every devoted husband and father rejoices in the wondrous loveliness of a woman with child. And among all such, there has never been a mother so lovely as Mary. From her womb came the Christ, who is himself called

      "the Fairest of Ten Thousand… altogether desirable… the bright Morning Star" (Ca 5:10,16; Re 22:16).

      The first reference in history to that epochal event is found in God’s sentence upon Satan:

      "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Ge 3:15).

      That could be called the first and greatest gospel sermon (though it was addressed to the Serpent), for those vibrant words contain the essence of God’s great program of redemption. Right at the stricken hour of human failure the mercy of God blazons with a promise of salvation. Here, at the beginning of sin, in the moment of human alliance with evil, the Lord declares unending warfare between man and Satan, and he predicts the coming of Christ, and the final defeat of Satan.

      Notice how God promised that the Deliverer would be born of a woman, that he would suffer, but that his triumph would be inevitable.

      There indeed was a remarkable sermon!

      That first announcement, made by the Lord God to Adam and Eve, in the already decaying Garden-cathedral of Eden, forms the best place to begin a study of the passion of Christ -

      (I) THE FIRST GOSPEL SERMON

      The Father both warned Satan and promised fallen man that

      (A) A CONFLICT WOULD BEGIN

      Satan had hoped to have man as his full ally in a rebellion against God. But that evil design was foiled by God’s declaration of war between the devil and man: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers.

      Satan is held bound by that eternal decree. Because of it, mankind can never become a partner with Satan and his fallen angels in their rebellion, but must ever remain under pitiless onslaught by the powers of darkness, ever writhing under a burden of sin and sorrow, able to find release only by the saving hand of God.

      It is strange but true: every time the devil attacks a man or woman he is displaying his absolute subjection to heaven’s command!

      The wise purpose of the Lord in declaring unending conflict between the powers of evil and the human race was, at the very beginning, to establish a basis of victory for man.

      That basis is to loathe the devil and all his ways.

      Men fall when they like and listen to Satan, when they put foolish trust in the blandishments of their most bitter enemy. Satan appears to be an ally; but his one aim is always to steal, to kill, to destroy (Jn 10:10). Satan is man’s foulest foe, and will never be his friend.

      The devil even sought to enlist Jesus into his service, only so he might destroy him; but Christ, hating iniquity and loving righteousness (He 1:9), trounced the Evil One.

      Just so, that same Serpent entices us; but like Christ, we must spurn him. An abhorrence of everything to do with Satan and his wicked machinations is the soundest basis upon which to build continuing victory over all the malignant works of darkness.

      Satan conquers us when he cunningly causes us to love him (or his works), while all the time he hates us and is striving to do us every possible injury. So let us hate him; let us wage undaunted warfare against all of his works; then we shall easily triumph (Ja 4:7).

      So, by decreeing truceless warfare between Satan and man, God intended to make us sick of sin, and by this to bring us to repentance, calling upon him for pardon and freedom.

      (B) A CHAMPION WOULD BE SENT

      This Champion would be of the seed of the woman, and in the fullness of time he was born in Bethlehem, and was called Jesus of Nazareth. In him men and women were to find a mighty ally, one who would lead them to full triumph over sickness and sin.

      Satan mustered all his forces, trying to prevent Christ from being born, and to stop him from fulfilling his mission: thus Mary was compelled to give birth to her son among the disease-ridden squalor of a cattle stall; he barely escaped the relentless hatred of King Herod; his parents had to take him on the long and perilous journey to Egypt.

      Later came the temptation in the wilderness - a fierce onslaught of hunger and desire extending through 40 days and nights.

      Leaving the desert, he several times had to flee the murderous howling mob; then at the end, despite his own earnest plea, he could not evade the agony of Gethsemane, nor the horror of the Roman iron-laced lash, the mockery of his own people, and, finally, the ignominy and torment of the cross.

      Yet despite this frenzy of hatred and violence, Satan failed.

      A Minor Wound

      All of those hurts on top of one another left Christ, in the outcome, with nothing worse than a bruised heel - which is a graphic way of saying Satan was incapable of dealing a mortal blow to Christ. The devil’s most awful weapons were finally helpless to inflict on Christ anything more than a superficial wound!

      Whatever greater depths of suffering Christ endured at Calvary were pains that he himself willingly embraced. They were not imposed on him. Satan tried to snatch away the life of Jesus, but he failed miserably. Jesus himself laid his life down, by an act of his own will, and by his own power; it was not taken from him. He declared:

      "No one can take my life. I lay it down by myself. And I shall take it up again" (Jn 10:17-18).

      It is important to remember that Jesus did all this as the seed of the woman - he lived, suffered, and died, as a man. He laid aside his equality with God, and came to conquer sin and death as a man (Ph 2:6-11). Jesus therefore became the first person in history whom death could not forcibly grasp. By the act of compelling death to take hold of him, Jesus nullified its power and removed its sting.

      A Glorious Triumph

      Furthermore, by deliberately yielding himself to death and then, after three days, shaking himself free of it, Christ brought into brilliant reality a new concept of God’s power. For centuries the Exodus of Israel from Egypt had been spoken of as the crowning feat of God among men. But in Christ a new standard has been achieved: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is now the supreme demonstration of Divine might.

      If, in answer to the faith of his Son, God was able to raise him from the dead, how can there by any limit to what he can do for us, if we believe as Jesus did?

      No wonder Paul shouted -

      How immeasurably great is his power in us who believe! It is according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead! (Ep 1:18-21).

      So Jesus was born that he might become our Champion by winning a representative victory for us, and then by leading us on to personal triumph over Satan. He did this by gladly yielding his life on our behalf (He 2:14-15). Death was the devil’s most powerful, most feared weapon. But Christ tore that weapon right out of the enemy’s hand - like Benaiah, who slew an Egyptian with his own spear (2 Sa 23:21), so Jesus took hold of the cross, that instrument of death, and by it annihilated Satan’s power of death.

      Jesus has now become the conquering Captain of our salvation; and as we link ourselves with him in this triumph, we have his promise that he will lead us irresistibly home to eternal glory!

      (C) A CONQUEST WOULD BE GAINED

      While the Serpent could do no more than bruise Jesus’ heel, it was said of the Lord, He shall bruise (Satan’s) head!

      The contrast is between a superficial wound and a mortal one.

      The idea is that the heel of the Saviour would be scratched, whereas the head of the Serpent would be crushed.

      What is meant by the devil’s head? Surely his most dread weapons - those things that comprise his chief power, and that spearhead his every attack: sin, the law, death -

      Sin, Christ conquered by being made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Co 5:21).

      The law, he conquered by fulfilling on our behalf its every demand, bearing the full weight of its fury upon his own body at Calvary, and so removing its penalty from us for ever (Ro 10:4; Ga 3:13).

      Death, he conquered by righteously surrendering himself to it, and then shaking himself free from its awful enshrouding darkness, rising radiantly into God’s light.

      For three terrible days death held him a chained prisoner, but then, just as he had once loudly commanded the dead Lazarus to walk out of his tomb, so now again heaven rang with his shout, and the echo trembled in hell, as with a voice of thunder he cried, I LIVE! (Jn 11:25). Death shuddered. The bands began to break. Suddenly, resurrection and life broke through; Christ arose; the huge stone rumbled back - and gave Satan such a crack on the head as to leave him a dying cripple from that day to this!

      Jesus has won!

      And by his victory we too are made more than conquerors.

      To those who believe in this Child of the woman comes the same promise our first parents received in the Garden. God did not cast Adam and Eve away; rather, he killed an animal and provided clothing for them. Likewise, the Father, through the death of his Son, has provided for us a glorious garment of righteousness.

      God did not condemn that first couple - neither will he condemn you, if you cling to Christ.

      God bruised Satan - thus creating a legal basis upon which he can ensure your conquest of every temptation, and restore to you all of the delights of Paradise.

      God was with Christ in the darkness of Gethsemane and during the anguish of the cross - he will surely be with you in every time of trouble, in every long night.

      God raised Christ in mighty power from the dead - so he is now able to lift you out of sickness and defeat, and to give you abundant life and perfect liberty.

      The challenge is before us to believe this gospel fully, and to know that the Serpent’s power is utterly broken - he bears a ghastly wound that is dragging him, sick and ruined, down to the pit. Let us no longer fear sin, or sickness, or death. See your enemy as God sees him, dejected and broken. Then, like the mighty war-horse when the trumpet of battle sounds, you too will laugh at fear, and your voice will eagerly shout, Ha! Ha! (Jb 39:22,25).

      (II) WHY CHRIST CAME

      There is an arresting sentence in the first letter of John -

      "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" (3:8)

      Language could not be plainer. We are here told exactly why Christ came. For this one powerful reason Christ was born: to destroy the works of the devil. Not for three reasons did Jesus come, nor even two. But for this one purpose he appeared among us: to destroy the works of the devil!

      He came into this world to take up battle against the kingdom of darkness so that once and for all the question about whether iniquity or righteousness would prevail would be answered. He established the absolute supremacy of righteousness, and along with this opened up for fallen man a glorious new hope of freedom and happiness.

      Now before examining just what Christ has achieved for us, it is necessary to understand what has not been achieved -

      (A) SATAN IS NOT DESTROYED

      Notice that Jesus appeared among us to destroy the works of the devil; but Satan himself will not be destroyed until the King returns in power and glory to establish his magnificent kingdom. Only then will the devil finally be caught and bound in the bottomless pit (Re 20:1-3). Until then, he remains free to roam the earth seeking someone to devour (1 Pe 5:8).

      Therefore, whatever destruction Christ has wreaked upon the works of Satan falls short of actually purging those works from the face of the earth. That too will one day be fully done. But for the time being, the havoc wrought by Satan remains evident everywhere. In fact, scripture indicates, not only that evil will continue among men, but that it will reach a peak of frenzied virulence just prior to Christ’s return -

      "Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!" (Re 12:12).

      In what sense, then, have the works of the devil been destroyed? Simply this: Christ has achieved for all who accept his great salvation a marvellous release from Satan’s strength and authority. Thus we declare that in Christ we are -

      (B) LOOSED FROM ALL BONDAGE

      Those who have put their faith in Christ, who acknowledge him as their Lord and Saviour, can claim deliverance from, and victory over, every work of Satan in their lives. They can shake themselves free from every imprisoning bond. The key has been turned in the lock, the knots have been loosened, the links have been weakened.

      The Greek word translated destroy (luo, from which our word loose is derived) means to loose the grip of something, or to render something not binding - as ropes might be loosened, so that a prisoner can easily cast them aside; or as a father might loosen the bolts and nuts of a toy construction set, so that his small son can readily dismantle the model.

      It is not so

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