Mark records for us that the next thing
Jesus did after calling Andrew and Peter, James and John was to go to a
synagogue on the Sabbath day in Capernaum and begin to teach the Word of
God. This is the most important thing for you and me. To be taught by
God. To learn the Words of God and what they mean for us. The scribes
did that too. But there was a difference. The scribes simply read and
give an explanation of the sacred writings, but Jesus taught them with
authority. The Word of God took on power in his mouth.
We might
compare this to a clerk in a law library informing someone what the law
says and a judge who is sitting on the bench rendering a judgment in a
case. The law clerk is merely reciting what the law says, but the judge
is applying the law in a particular case. When Jesus spoke it was as a
Judge applying the Word of God with authority to the hearts of all the
people listening. As He spoke the Word came home with authority to their
hearts.
Jesus cannot act out of character. He is
God and He speaks as God speaks. When God speaks it is with authority.
His Word is with power.
In the book of Revelation Chapter 9 we
are told that vast hordes of demonic creatures are loosed upon the
earth. When the fifth angel sounds his trumpet a fallen star or angel is
given the key to the bottomless pit, the abyss. And when he opened the
abyss, smoke came out like smoke from a furnace, so much that the smoke
darkens the sun and the sky. And out of that smoke came locusts that had
the power of scorpions to hurt men. They don't have the power to kill,
just to hurt and torture men. The loosing of these demonic creatures is
called a woe. There are three woes predicted and the loosed demons are
cause the first and second of these three woes. (Rev. 9:1-10.
Following on the heels of that fifth
angel sounding his trumpet is the sixth angel. And when he blows his
trumpet four bound angels are loosed at the great river Euphrates in the
Middle East. The loosing of those four bound angels sets in motion
forces that are said to kill a third of mankind. Again, in this plague
of evil it is inspired and propelled by demonic forces.
The powers of Satan are chained and held
back from the full force and fury of which he and his hordes of demons
are capable by God's secret purpose and will.
We are not told
exactly why God both binds and looses these tremendous forces upon the
earth. We could say that God looses these forces as a preliminary
judgment
upon men because of their wickedness,
but the scripture tells us that these woe do not succeed in causing men
to repent. In Revelation 9:20 we read
20And
the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not
repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the
idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which
can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21and they did not repent
of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of
their thefts.
Rev. 9:20-21
I am convinced that we live in the days
of the loosing of the demonic hordes. We are seeing that smoke arise out
of the Middle East.
Demons are dangerous, even singly.
Fortunately for us, most of the demonic forces are kept under restraint.
They cannot assemble in great locust-like battalions unless God permits
it. But we do find cases of individuals being joined by demons in this
life. Apparently God permits this to happen now as in the days of
Christ, for we have reports of missionaries and others even in the
United States.
There was the case a few years ago in
Colorado of a 13-year girl named Kathryn Torgler who killed her
8-year-old sister. Dr. Rex Williams, a psychiatrist testified she
suffered from a mental disorder and believed her soul was possessed by
demons. He recommended exorcism to help her and her attorneys
recommended that this be done and the judge agreed to consider the
recommendation.
In the episode in Mark 1 the
demon-possessed man was in the Capernaum synagogue where Jesus was
teaching. We usually think that demon possessed persons are in places
where there is little or no truth of the Bible. But Satan is bold to
send his agents right into the church. This man must have belonged to
the synagogue. He may have been a member of that synagogue all his life.
When the Lord Jesus came in and began to teach this demon could not stay
quiet..
He cried out,
24saying, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One
of God!”
The
demon asks to be let alone. Isn't this the cry of the sinner? Let me be.
Just don't bother me. I'm okay. The demon finds a willing vessel and
takes up residence. Once he gets established he begins to mould that
person to his own evil character. The person is not aware that he is
taken over because the demon works so gradually and slowly. It doesn't
transform him overnight into a demonic person. He just begins to grow
more unbelieving and unclean. His resistance toward evil is weakened. He
is like the person who lives with another person. Over a period of time
the two personalities begin to acquire similarities. Some people even
begin to look alike.
Notice that the man speaks to Jesus as
though there were two persons involved -- Let us alone; what have we to
do with thee? The Voice speaks for both man and demon. All that the
demon expects is destruction. There is no faith in God's mercy. And the
possessed man has the same attitude and unbelief. God can do me no good,
reasons the demon, for he is holy and I am unholy and unclean.
The demon
knew Jesus from a prior period. Men do not know Christ from a previous
experience of fellowship, but demons do. The fallen angels once enjoyed
the joys and fe1icities of heaven. This demon recognized Jesus as the
Son of God and Holy One of God. Notice that before he had said us and we
but now he says I know you, who you are. Now he speaks only for himself.
But his knowing only produces fear. He expects nothing but judgment from
the Lord Jesus. .
Let’s get something clear in our minds.
The demon had a prior knowledge of Jesus. The man may never have seen
Jesus before in his life, but the demon spirit had known him. When would
that have been? That would have been in eternity, in heaven.
God has created all spirits of both
angels and men. Jesus is that Creator. We read of Jesus Christ that He
is the first-born of all creation.
15And
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16For by Him all things were created, both in the
heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through
Him and for Him. Col. 1:15-16
So the demon knew him. He knew him as
his Creator and Lord. He knew that he had disobeyed God and had fallen
from his heavenly position. So his natural reaction was,
“What business
do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy
us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!”
The demon speaks for both himself and
the man. They had become of like mind in many ways. The man shared the
anti-Christ attitude of the demon. The demon had so influenced this man
to be impure in his thoughts and unclean in his life that they were
truly one in spirit.
Of course, the man
had so lost control of his life to the demon that the demon can speak in
the first person. He first speaks in the plural, what do we have to do
with you? Have you come to destroy us? In other words, we are of a
sinful disposition and realm. We are not holy and pure as you are. We
have nothing in common with you. You must be come here to destroy us. Is
that why you are here?
Two
things are implied by the demon: First, we are not like you. You are
holy, we are unholy. You are
of purer eyes than
to behold evil, so how can you have anything to do with either of us,
this man or me.
And then, secondly,
have You come
to destroy us? The demon knew
that Jesus had power both to create and to destroy. A word from Jesus
and it would all be over. Demons may be unclean and impure but they are
not dumb. They know what foolish sinners seem not to know, that the Lord
Jesus Christ is God and Lord that He can kill and cast into hell. Jude
speaks of unbelieving, blasphemous men this way:
10But
these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things
which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things
they are destroyed. Jude 1:10
The demons are wiser than most
sinners, who take the name of the Lord in vain, who mock and make fun of
the Word of God and the One who spoke those Words for our good. Perhaps
that is explained in the final words of the demon when he speaks in the
first person,
I know who You
are—the Holy One of God!”
Jesus did
not accept or want the testimony of demons. He knew that men would not
be helped but rather hindered by the testimony of demons. So he told the
man,
“Be quiet, and come out of him!”
We can learn from this that the demons
believe and tremble. They do not believe in order to repent and change.
They believe because they know who Jesus is and recognize that there is
no way for them to co-exist with Him. Just as the night must depart when
the light appears, so the demons must be banished when Christ appears.
God's mercy is displayed in this
instance. Jesus exorcised the demon. The man had not asked for
deliverance from the demon. Jesus simply commands the demon to come out
of the man and he had to come out.
What prompted Jesus to deliver this man
from his condition? Was there something in the man that appealed to
Jesus? We have nothing to go on to say that this was the case. The man
was under the influence and power of a demon. He spoke like a demon. He
thought like a demon. He behaved like a demon. The demon had so taken
over his personality that for all practical purposes he was demonic. Yet
Jesus commanded the demon to depart out of him. And it was not without a
struggle. We read in verse 26 that the demon threw the man into
convulsions, and then cried with a loud voice as he came out of this
man. It was a battle for the soul and this demon would not give up
easily, but he could not resist the power of Christ.
Christ speaks and it is so. This man was
liberated. He was set free. He was made clean. The whole congregation
saw that take place. They were amazed because Jesus had such power over
evil spirits. We read in verse 27...
27They
were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is
this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean
spirits, and they obey Him.”
What a wonderful thing when a man is
saved and delivered from the power of Satan. We may not have had an
unclean spirit as this man did but the scripture tells us that all
sinners are the Devil's meat.
We read in Ephesians 2
1And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you
formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the
sons of disobedience.
3Among
them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, even as the rest. 4But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when
we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with
Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with
Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the
surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves, it is the gift of God; Eph. 2:1-8 (NASB)
2 Timothy 2:25.tells us
to deal gently with
sinners in correcting those who are in
opposition,
if perhaps God
may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 2 Tim.
2:25
Jesus is the Exorcist. Only Jesus can
deliver a soul from the power of Satan and demonic forces. We can invoke
His Name and ask Him to cast out the unclean spirit. The Word of God
tells us that demon forces are powerless against the child of God who
has the mark of God in his forehead. When we have been washed in the
blood of Christ and have been baptized in His holy Name we are able to
resist the Devil and He must flee from us.
The child of God born of the Spirit of
God is forever delivered from the slavery of sin and the mastery of
Satan. His Word is with power. His gospel brings deliverance. He leads
captivity captive. He gives gifts unto men.
Do you have the seal of God in your
forehead? Have you confessed Jesus Christ and repented of your sins? God
has commanded in His Word that the demon powers may not hurt the grass
of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do
not have the seal of God on their foreheads. (Rev. 9:4).
I invite you to come to Jesus Christ
today. I offer you the saving love of Jesus Christ. Come to Him in this
hour and experience his deliverance, his salvation, his blessing. Find
peace and a resting place in Jesus Christ through faith in him.
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
distribution. We only request that proper
web page attribution be provided if
distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word.