In His last commission to His disciples, Jesus said: Mt. 28:19…

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… teaching (didaskale) them to observe everything that I have commanded you…..”

Introduction

C.S. Lewis once wrote that there are two equal and opposite errors into which we can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and feel an unhealthy interest in them. Both these perspectives can be dangerous. But Scott Hubbard says it is important to articulate that the church of Jesus, near and far, at home and abroad, is in a global war against the gates of hell. There is a battle for Christian minds, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6. Satan has “blinded the minds of the unbelieving” (v. 4), and he tries to put Christians in the “fog” whenever he can. I believe this fog begins to disappear significantly through our teaching when our students and their communities are transformed out of the spiritual darkness into the light of the new creation.

1. What is the outcome of our teaching?

We may ask if there are any outcomes of our teaching? In short, I think that with our teaching:

Under Christ, and by the power of the Spirit (Matthew 28:18), we raid the “domain of darkness” and carry captives to safety (Colossians 1:13). We go to spiritual sleepwalkers and say, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14) and we break into the house of the strong man, still bound by the Stronger One, and “plunder his goods” (Mark 3:27).

On a question about the Resurrection of Jesus, in his first year New Testament assignment at ATS, the BTh student Solly N Mankga wrote: “Personal reflection on the resurrection of Christ Jesus’ resurrection marked a complete and eternal victory over death, sin and hopelessness. As someone who spend 15 years behind bars, I see this truth not only as a matter of theology, but as a reflection of my own transformation. Prison for me was more than a physical sentence, it was a place of death to the old me. I had to face the weight of my choices, my brokenness, and my identity. But it was in that dark place that I encountered the risen Christ. Accepting Him meant that I died with Him and rose with Him as a new being. Accepting Him not only gave me comfort, but it also gave me a second chance, a new life. As Jesus emerged from the tomb into glory, I began to rise from my own grave of despair. After receiving Christ, I went back to school inside prison and completed my grade 10 through to grade 12. That resurrection power did not stop there; I went to earn several tertiary qualifications. This is why I believe the resurrection of Christ is unique. It is not only a passed event to be studied, but a present power to be lived. It raised me, not just spiritually, but mentally, emotionally and socially. Christ’s resurrection is my daily hope and my living example that no situation is beyond redemption.”

2. The arms of God

We might think that in such a war against the powers of darkness, God would arm us with some spectacular weapons. But surprisingly, we join Jesus in destroying the devil’s works, not mainly by casting out demons, or working miracles, or engaging in power encounters, but by teaching the truth. Our arm to tackle the evil one is by teaching the truth. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations…. and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you”.

3. Teaching as a war with Satan

We may think that teaching seem like a weak weapon to wield against the devil. But in the hands of God, faithful teaching blots out one of the devil’s favourite schemes. His favourite subtle scheme is as old as Eden, namely false teaching (the name Beelzebub, literally means the lord of flies). Sometimes the devil, the lord of flies, acts with obvious, spectacular opposition. Other times with hidden, unspectacular craft. Or, he acts sometimes like a dragon, and sometimes like a serpent. His greatest trick is convincing the world that he doesn’t exist. Martin Luther warned us not to fall asleep in the headquarters of Satan, the great accuser.

4. Two important names for Satan in Revelation 12:9 – dragon and serpent (die slang van ouds)

In Revelation 12:9, we read of the two names for Satan, the dragon and the serpent. As red dragon, he devours (verslint), as the serpent, he misleads. As the dragon, he persecutes and oppresses, and there is no limit when it comes to the brutal persecution of Christians. Think of the 21 Egyptian Christian men who were beheaded by ISIS on a Libyan beach; the 45 worshipers killed by ISIS in July 2025 in a church in the DRC. Prof. Klippies Kritzener told me that never before in history were so many Christians persecuted as in the present. Yes, the dragon persecutes. As the dragon, he breathes fire; as the serpent, he whispers falsehood.

5. The serpent is deadlier

Between the two, the serpent may be the deadlier. In Eden, Satan could have terrified Eve with his poison/fangs. Instead, he lured and lied with his tongue and with his teaching (Genesis 3:4–5). And so, he still does (Jh. 8:44). False teaching is all over the world and in the church, and false teaching keeps evil thriving (and can even kill Christianity).

6. The lie dies by teaching the truth

Yet, at every stage of the kingdom’s advance, the lie of the garden of Eden dies by teaching the truth of the gospel. At every stage of the kingdom’s advance from Jesus to his apostles, to the church and to Auckland Park Theological Seminary, the lie of the garden dies by the truth of the gospel. Didaskalos, faithful teaching wins back the world.

Paul is not saying that faith in itself has remarkable defensive power against Satan. Rather, he is saying that faith protects us from Satan’s attacks because faith takes hold of the power and protection of God himself. With faith, we have a stick of dynamite in our lives.

7. Teaching launches the Kingdom

It is important to see that Jesus healed, worked wonders, and cast out legions of demons. He attacked the devil’s domain with both his right and left hands. But teaching was the central assault. Following his baptism and wilderness temptations, his public ministry began when he came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God (Mk. 1:15).

8. Indeed, teaching was at the front of Jesus’ mind

Jesus said that the Spirit anointed him to proclaim the good news to the poor (Lk. 4:18). It was a mission that ever rested at the front of his mind. He told his disciples, “You call me Teacher…and you are right, for so I am” ( Jh. 13:13). Throughout all the cities and villages, preaching and teaching were his custom ((Mt. 9:35; Mk. 10:1). Jesus’ healings, wonders, and His spiritual authority were all signposts to his kingdom-teaching, gospel-giving words. In fact, without embracing his teaching, the souls of former devil-possessed were merely emptied, and would invite worse darkness to enter (Mt. 12:45). Jesus told his disciples, and so He taught, that only the truth will set you free (Jh. 8:31–32).

9. The teaching of the apostles

The apostles were not confused about what it meant to carry on their risen Teacher’s mission. The book of Acts records that many demons were cast out, wonders were worked, and diseases were healed, but the emphasis again lands on teaching. In Luke’s broad vocabulary, we read, proclaiming (Acts 4:2), preaching (Acts 8:4), disputing (Acts 9:29), speaking (Acts 16:13), reasoning (Acts 7:2), proving (Acts 17:3), persuading (Acts 18:4), explaining (Acts 18:26).

The apostles, like Jesus, demonstrated the kingdom in both word and deed (Acts 3:11–16). Ultimately, it was the apostles’ Holy Spirit-empowered teaching that turned hearts, toppled idols, saved sinners, and founded churches. And so, it was to the devil’s shame, but to the apostles’ glory, to hear the Jerusalem council complain, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching (Acts 5:28).

And more than Jerusalem. At the end of the Book of Acts, the teaching of the apostles had broken out of Judea, run through Samaria, and begun to reach the end of the earth, Rome (Acts 1:8), liberating captives all along the way. The last verse pictures Paul in Rome before his execution (± 65 years old). Doing what? Teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 28:31).

10. The mission against spiritual powers did not end

As the age of the apostles ended, the teaching against spiritual darkness did not. And unsurprisingly, the apostle Paul placed teaching at the centre of the church’s ongoing advance. Not only did he charge Timothy, his spiritual son, to devote himself to teaching (1 Tim. 4:2,11, 13; 6:2;), but he laboured to create a legacy of teachers: He said, What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:2). He actually said, whatever happens, Timothy, make sure the church keeps teaching.

11. Through teaching, God will grow and guard his kingdom

The Bible says that through teaching, God will grow and guard his kingdom in lands once ruled by lies. By teaching the truth, Paul says in Colossians 3:16 that the elders and teachers protect the gospel and guard believers from the ever-present threat of serpentine deception.

And in our day, Paul’s teachings of demons are relevant (1 Tim. 4:1). Such teachings in our day are, for example:

  • Creation worship: According to Paul (Rom 1:25b) there are only two religions in the world. You worship the Creator God (Creator, Ruler, Sustainer) or you worship creation.
  • In our days, the worship of creation is making huge progress.
  • Think of the terms Mother Earth, prostitution, child molesting, tattooing, gender violence, alcoholism, gambling, etc.
  • The creation worshippers try to get their spiritual power from the material, the creation.
  • Oneism: everything is one.
  • All religions and all sexualities are one; god is in everything.
  • Post Secularism: People seeking salvation in the Eastern Religions (Yoga, Buddhism).

But all these are always false and always deadly.

And so, the church teaches and trusts that through teaching, God will grow and guard his kingdom in places once ruled by lies.

To summarise…

On the surface, Christian teaching may look unremarkable, as unremarkable as Jesus telling parables beside the sea, or Paul reasoning with some Thessalonian Jews. But through the ordinary words and phrases of faithful Christian teaching, God works wonders.

When the risen Jesus told Paul to go teach, he also told him what the effect of his teaching would have:

“I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me”. (Acts 26:17–18)

Through teaching, God works miracles greater than the multiplication of loaves, or the deliverance of demoniacs, or even the raising of Lazarus. He shatters our delusive darkness. He forgives our innumerable sins. And he frees his people from the power of Satan, that serpent of false teaching and forked tongue, and wins lost people back to himself.

So, in the church’s global teaching against the gates of hell, teaching is our greatest weapon.

The church of Jesus is not perfect!

Think of a wedding. The morning before the ceremony, the bride wakes up with tangled hair. She then drinks her coffee. Afterwards, the hairdresser will come and do her hair. Then the makeup artist prepares her face for the ceremony. The great moment is when she is dressed in her wedding dress for the bridegroom.

At ATS, we consider this our task: to dress the bride of Jesus until the day that John describes in Revelation 19 as the marriage of the Lamb.

“Let us rejoice and shout for joy! Let us give Him glory and honour, for the marriage of the Lamb has come [at last] and His bride (the redeemed) has prepared herself.” [Ps 118: 24] She has been permitted to dress in fine linen, dazzling white and clean- for the fine linen signifies the righteous acts of the saints [the ethical conduct, personal integrity, moral courage, and godly character of believers]. Then the angel said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” And he said to me [further], “These are the true and exact words of God.” [Is 25:6– 8; Matt 26:29; ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” And he said to me [further], “These are the true and exact words of God.” [Is 25:6– 8; Matt 26:29]

Conclusion

That is also the task that the Holy Spirit called us to, and that is, to dress the spouse for our Heavenly Bridegroom – to fertilise this old world with God’s new world. Paul says in Ephesians 5:27, “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word [of God], so that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless”.

As ATS’ lecturers, we trust that we give our students and communities hope. And the New Testament definition of hope is to believe in the supernatural space of God, to enter that space, and experience the kaleidoscopic coloured dimensions of life in the Spirit. A Latin American pastor once said: “Hope is to hear tomorrow’s music today, and faith is to dance on tomorrow’s music today”.