Romans 16
Under Your Feet
The power of obedience, good and the innocence of evil, brings peace
When things are good, you are at peace
Your life is changed, evil no longer is walking on you when you walk in goodness
When you are doing good, you are walking on evil
Don’t run from Satan, resist him and he will flee
Resist with obedience and doing good
And the God of Peace will change your life and the evil in this dark world
You don’t need combat boots
You and I need the Gospel of Peace on our feet
Be wise about what is good, put it on your feet and you will walk above evil
Together we will bring peace on earth and good will to others
One last word as you picture Romans 16:20
It is the word “soon”
The picture I see is not just at the coming of Christ soon
The God of Peace today crushes Satan under your feet as you walk in
Obedience
Being wise about what is good
And innocent about evil
Under Your Feet
Words paint a picture in our minds.
I say paint because words do not
always give us a snap shot like a camera.
Each stroke of the brush brings out more detail.
As children, words leave pictures in our minds.
As we develop, sometimes those images stay the same
and other times they change as more words
are added like the strokes of a brush.
In my youth, I had a picture of Romans 16:20…
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
I was probably 12 years old.
I had an image of Satan as an invisible person.
I never bought the version of
the pointed tail and pitchfork.
I can’t remember why one day,
as a young boy I was really mad at Satan.
I was so angry, I locked myself in the bathroom
of our small 2-bedroom house.
I remember calling Satan out,
I challenged him to show himself physically,
so I could release my anger through my fist on his face.
In the back of my mind,
I think I knew that was a bad idea
but it did not matter.
It did not matter if he killed me.
I would have had so much joy in just
making him feel pain from my fist.
As you read this verse what is the picture
in your mind of Satan being crushed under your feet?
What image do you think Paul had
as he wrote these words?
Some of us get a picture of a snake.
Satan is describes as a serpent in the Garden of Eden
and the curse God put upon Satan in Genesis 3:15.
"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Genesis 3:14-15
As boys, we loved to go to the
Maumee River and fish all night.
One evening a couple of my friends and I
were walking down the bank of the river
looking for a new place to fish.
One of my friends saw a snake swimming in the water.
My friend was terrified of snakes…
Before I could know what was going on,
he was running through a field of weeds,
chest high, screaming.
My other friend and I laughed so hard.
To this day I still get a chuckle as I think of how
he ran from a snake through a field full of big spiders
and ground where woodchucks and ground moles made holes.
His fear of snakes made him run so far
it took us over a half hour to find him.
So maybe your picture of Satan
is an image of a snake and would never
get close enough to put your feet on him.
Down in the Everglades of southern Florida
there is an over population of the Burmese python.
These massive snakes, which can grow to 20 feet long or more,
with telephone-pole-sized girths,
have all but decimated the region’s small-
and medium-sized mammal population,
wreaking havoc with the area’s ecosystem.
Every year the government pays
hunters to catch these snakes.
When a large snake is caught,
the cameras come out and photos are taken
of the conquering hunter victorious of the snake.
Some of us have this image of an end time event
where all believers will take turns getting our picture taken
as we put our feet on the enemy, Satan.
But is this the picture?
What is the picture being painted by these words? …
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Let me share with you two more scriptures
to see what strokes of the brush
they might have on this subject.
First, take into consideration Paul is ending
the letter to the Romans and closes with
the contrast of the God of Peace and the Devil.
In Paul’s closing words to the Ephesians,
Paul seems to be closing with the same theme.
Where He says…
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind,
be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:10-18
Paul defines the struggle…
It is not against flesh and blood.
You and I cannot call
Satan out to a fist fight or a gun duel.
The fight is against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
There is a battle of…
The powers of this dark world,
these are authorities that oppress people.
They are reinforced by…
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms
When Paul gives us a description of the armor…
We need to win this battle.
There is one that reminds us of Romans 16:20
and it is found in the 15 verse…
And with your feet fitted with the readiness
that comes from the gospel of peace.
Could it be that the feet that will stand on Satan
will be feet of the Gospel (Good News) and peace.
Now let’s go back to Romans 16
and look at the verse before verse 20 where Paul says…
The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet
Verse 19 says…
Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
Could it be Obedience.
Being wise about what is good.
And innocent about evil.
Are the keys to Satan being under our feet?
You and I, as the church,
will have Satan, or evil,
under our feet,
if we do these things.
In our doing these things…
We will bring peace,
We will change the hold of evil
oppression on people.
Maybe the picture of Satan is not that of a physical creature
but of the evil and disobedience he seduces people with.
The power of obedience, good and
the innocence of evil brings peace.
When things are good…
You are at peace.
Your life is changed…
Evil no longer is walking on you
when you walk in goodness.
When you are doing good…
you are walking on evil.
Don’t run from Satan…
Resist him and he will flee.
Resist with obedience and doing good.
And the God of Peace will change your life
and the evil in this dark world.
You don’t need combat boots.
You and I need the Gospel of Peace on our feet.
Be wise about what is good,
put it on your feet and you will walk above evil.
Together we will bring peace
on earth and good will to others.
One last word as you picture Romans 16:20…
It is the word “soon”.
The picture I see is not just
at the coming of Christ soon.
The God of Peace today crushes
Satan under your feet as you walk in…
Obedience
Being wise about what is good
And innocent about evil.
Scripture Reading
Romans 16:19-20 NIV
19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
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