Palm Sunday 2025
Prayer: God our Father, we have all sinned in our father Adam, who failed to protect his wife from the dragon and disobeyed Your clear word. But You sent Your only Son into this dark world in order to kill that dragon and rescue us. Please pour out Your Spirit on this Word now so that no one in this room would leave without clearly understanding how this has been accomplished and having the peace of knowing they have been set free. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
You could summarize the story of the whole Bible as “Kill the Dragon; Get the Girl.” This is what Adam failed to do, and it is what our Jesus has done. In a garden long ago, Adam was commanded to guard the garden to not eat of one tree and to lead his wife in fruitful obedience, but a crafty serpent-dragon was allowed into the garden and Adam failed the test. He listened to the voice of his wife rather than listening to the voice of God. But God promised a seed of the woman, a descendant of Eve who would come as a new Adam, who would listen to the voice of God and crush the head of the serpent and take back his spoil, take back all his captives. We remember and celebrate Palm Sunday as the beginning of that great combat, when our hero, Jesus Christ, rode into Jerusalem to face down our mortal foe, strip his armor, set us free.
The Text: “… When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils” (Lk. 11:14-22).
Summary of the Text
One of the highlights of Jesus’ earthly ministry was casting out demons – demons that deformed the image of God, as we see here with someone who could not speak (Lk. 11:14). But some accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of some greater demon, the “chief of the devils” Beelzebub and demanded a sign to prove otherwise (Lk. 11:15-16). But Jesus pointed out the folly of such an accusation, since that would mean that Satan was divided against himself and was fighting against himself (Lk. 11:17-19). But rather, if Jesus casts out demons, it proves that the Kingdom of God has come; if Jesus is casting out demons, an invasion as begun (Lk. 11:20). For when an armed strong man is secure in his palace, everything is calm, but when a Stronger Man comes and kills him, He strips his armor and divides the spoils – and that is what Jesus was doing (Lk. 11:21-22). And that’s why we need to talk about dragons and giants.
Dragons & Giants
The Bible clearly teaches that there have been dragons in this world, and they are frequently associated with evil powers. In the beginning, God created great sea monsters (Gen. 1:21), and the same word is translated “dragon” in Isaiah: “In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Is. 27:1, cf. Job 41). In the wilderness, Israel was attacked by “fiery serpents,” literally “serpent-seraphs,” suggesting that Satan is a fallen “seraph,” which Revelation seems to confirm: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:9) – which also explains why he showed up as a dragon-serpent in the garden (Gen. 3:1).
The Bible suggests a similar typology with giants: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…” (Gen. 6:4-5). The word for giants is “nephilim,” which is what the spies saw in Canaan, which was likewise full of wickedness (Num. 13:33, Gen. 15:16). Some believe that the “sons of God” were fallen angels that intermarried with human women, which might account for where giants came from and their great wickedness, and Jude suggests that something like that has happened, as also suggested by the perversions of the men in Sodom (Jude 6-7, Gen. 19:5). I think “sons of God” more naturally refers to the descendants of Seth in Genesis 6, but I also think weird demon-human relations likely happened at some point in history, given what Jude says and ancient mythology (e.g. Ovid’s Metamorphosis).
Regardless, a great deal of the conquest of Canaan included giant-slaying, and these were vile, wicked men (Dt. 2:11, 20, 3:13). Chief among the wicked giants was Og king of Bashan, whose iron bedstead was 13.5-15 feet long and around 6 feet wide (Dt. 3:11), suggesting that he was perhaps 12-13 feet tall. If AI is to be trusted, Og might have weighed between 900-1000lbs. Of course the most famous giant was Goliath, probably descended from those same Canaanite giants, but who lived a few centuries later, the champion of the Philistines: he was over nine feet tall (1 Sam. 17:4). “And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him” (1 Sam. 17:5-7). He was clearly a gigantic man, and the word for coat of “mail” is literally “scales,” like a dragon – He was a dragon of a man, part of the “seed of the serpent.” David and his “mighty men” were giant-dragon slayers (cf. 2 Sam. 23). And therefore it is no accident that when David struck him down, he cut off his head (1 Sam. 17:51).
Binding the Strong Man
There really were dragons and giants on the earth in those days, and they were often the instruments of the Devil, the dragon of old and his “giant” power in the earth. As with the men of Israel who cowered before the Philistine “strong man,” his greatest power was fear. The greatest power of dragons and giants has always been their ability to instill fear, which is the greatest power of Satan. And this is why Jesus came, to destroy that power: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15).
The power of the Devil, and all his demonic seed, is fear of death, and men fear death because of their sin. For sinners, death is a judgment: “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Sinners know that they are guilty before God and deserve death, and it imprisons them. It is like chains. And you cannot stop sinning, no matter how hard you try. So this is why Jesus had to come and die: “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:13-15). So this is how Jesus bound Satan, stripped his armor, and divided his spoil. He took the death that we deserve, forgiving all our sins, blotting out all the laws we have broken, nailing it all to His Cross, and rose from the dead to set us free from the tyranny of the Devil.
Applications
The name “Satan” literally means “accuser.” In Revelation 12, right after it says that the Dragon, the serpent of old, has been cast out of Heaven, it says, “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (Rev. 12:10). The Dragon as the Accuser (Satan). His power was in accusation.
The Dragon says, you lied, you cheated, you stole, you lusted, you were bitter, you fornicated, you committed adultery, you hated, you betrayed, you cursed.
So then, when was the accuser cast down? Jesus said: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This He said, signifying what death He should die” (Jn. 12:31-33). Jesus said that when He died, He would cast the prince of this world out. How did the death of Jesus cast the Dragon out so that he cannot accuse us anymore?
What kind of death did Jesus die? Jesus said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:14-15). Jesus cast the Accuser out by His death because He died the death of a poisonous serpent/dragon because that is what our sin is. The Dragon only has the power of fear and accusation. But when Jesus died in our place, for our sin, He paid the wages of our sin completely.
“For He [God] hath made Him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Your sin is a dragon. Your sin is a giant. But Jesus became the giant-dragon of your sin on the Cross, and so when Jesus died, your Giant-Dragon died. Your sin is a Giant of Accusation. Your guilt and shame is a Dragon of Accusation. But when Jesus died, your Giant-Dragon died. Your sin was nailed to His cross, and completely paid for. When He died, you died, and your sins died in Him, and when He rose, you rose, and the Giant-Dragon is still dead. He has no more power.
This is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday: our Jesus riding into Jerusalem as our Great David, our New Adam, our Stronger Man come to strike down that dragon of old, our Goliath-Accuser and set us completely free. Are you still haunted by your sin? Are you still accused by the Great Accuser? Do you have trouble believing that you are really forgiven? That you are really clean?
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Whoever believes in Him cannot perish but has eternal life. Jesus is Stronger.
Prayer: Almighty God, do not let us get off this point. Assure us of Your great power over our sins. Assure us of the victory of Christ. And I pray that those words, “No Condemnation” would ring in our ears and in our hearts and fill us with great peace and joy. We ask for this in the name of our Stronger Man, Jesus Christ, the righteous…
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