Putting Satan in His Place
In Matthew, Mark and Luke, one of the earliest signs of Jesus’ authority and identity was demonstrated when he drove out demons or evil spirits. Today’s lesson is a continuation of our series on how Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.
I’m sure all of you who were here remember the lesson from two weeks ago. Right? It was about Jesus being tempted by Satan. Remember? If nothing else, what you probably do remember is the video clip at the end of the lesson about Jesus casting the Legion of demons into the pigs. Ahhhh… Now it’s all coming back, right? Good!
It is interesting to me that many modern Christians have not quite known what to do with all the demon exorcisms in the gospels. This is especially true of those who have written since the protestant reformation. People of the modern scientific enlightened period have decided, much like the Sadducees of Jesus’ day that there are no ghosts or witches or demons in the real world today. With many people today, everything can be explained by means of science and reason, so ghosts, goblins and demons do not exist. But what does the Bible say?
Many modern biblical scholars have relegated demon possession to the early days of Christian history before the Bible cannon was completed, in the days of miracles and wonders and signs. We who believe in Jesus Christ and take the Bible seriously believe that the miracles recorded in scripture did indeed happen as historical events. On the other hand many Christians are just as sure that so called “demon possession” do not occur today, at least not as we see dealt with by Jesus and the apostles. Certainly the 12 apostles, plus Paul have now past on and all on whom they bestowed the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have also died.
1 Corinthians 13 speaks of a time when gifts of prophecy, tongues and knowledge will cease or be done away. Is demon possession a thing of the past? Are Satan and his minions bound so that they cannot do that to people today? These questions need to be answered with scripture, not science or modern philosophy. Our understanding must be based on the Word of God, not the teachings or preconceptions of men.
If Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, is demon possession one of the things Jesus brought to an end in the Bible days? Let’s study the Bible and see what it tells us about these things.
Before we look at Jesus’ power over Satan and demons in the gospels, we will do a little introduction. Turn with me to 2 Old Testament scriptures as we begin looking at background for this. These are the only times the word demon occurs in the Old Testament.
Deuteronomy 32: 15 Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
filled with food, he became heavy and sleek.
He abandoned the God who made him
and rejected the Rock his Savior.
16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods
and angered him with their detestable idols.
17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God—
gods they had not known,
gods that recently appeared,
gods your fathers did not fear.
18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.
Notice verse 17. What did they sacrifice to as they worshipped idols? It was demons.
Psalms 106: 34 They did not destroy the peoples
as the LORD had commanded them,
35 but they mingled with the nations
and adopted their customs.
36 They worshiped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was desecrated by their blood.
39 They defiled themselves by what they did;
by their deeds they prostituted themselves.
Notice verse 37. What did they sacrifice their sons and daughters to as they worshipped the idols of the nations around them? It was demons.
These two passages from the Old Testament are the background for Paul’s teaching in the New Testament about the dangers to the Corinthian Christians concerning idolatry and participation with the sacrifices to idols in their day.
Look at 1 Corinthians 10: 14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Notice verse 20 again. To whom are the sacrifices of pagans offered according to this verse? It is to demons, not to God.
What God’s word says here is plain: the worship of idols involved demons. There were real spiritual forces at work when the pagans sacrificed to their idols. Not that the idol was anything, but the demons are real. Jesus encountered them many times in His ministry. The apostles were given authority by Jesus to cast out demons as part of their ministry. This work of casting out demons continued after Jesus ascended to heaven. In fact, Mark 16:17 says that one of the signs that will follow those who believe is that in Jesus’ name they will cast out demons. As late as Acts 19 we read of amazing miracles performed by God through Paul’s ministry, including evil spirits being cast out, so that Paul’s name was even thought to have some authority. The scriptures note that the evil spirits recognized who Paul was. Listen to Acts 19:11-20.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
Notice verse 15 again. The evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul…” Wow! Paul has quite a reputation! Even this evil spirit knew about Paul. I wonder what the evil spirits know about you and me? Are we a threat to them and their work? I hope so! I hope the Signal Mountain Church of Christ is a known threat to the works of the devil. It’s part of our job! We will see in scripture that we are either working against them or working with them.
Finally, let’s look at Ephesians 6:10-13.
10 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.
Notice verse 12. Where is our struggle? What is it against? Is this still true? Does this verse hold any meaning for us today? Of course!
There are two extremes I see in modern demonology. First, is that demons have no influence in our lives today. If that is true, Ephesians 6:10-19 has no meaningful application for us today. But we know better than that, don’t we?
The second extreme, is that demons have overwhelming influence and power in our lives today. They are everywhere and we are powerless to face them. We need special ministers who are exorcists to deal with them, ghost busters or something.
What I hope we can do in this study is learn what God’s word teaches us about how to have the victory of Jesus over the works of Satan in our lives. When we close our eyes to the spiritual battle that rages, we have to come up with some explanation for the evils that are abounding all around us. And worse, we are truly powerless to confront them. We don’t believe they exist!
One of the great illusions of our day is that Satan is not working in our world today. Or, if he is, we have no way to deal with what he’s doing. God would equip and arm us for battle where we engage the enemy and crush Satan under our feet. But this demands discipline and discipleship. It demands separating ourselves from the enemy’s call and walking in faith and obedience to the will and word of God.
If we ignore the reality of Satan’s work and our job to join with Jesus in destroying it, we will find ourselves ignoring God’s work and our responsibility to follow Jesus Christ.
How is Satan working to devour us today? Let me read something to you and we will close today’s lesson with the Lord’s invitation.
David Kupelian’s book: The Marketing of Evil, published in 2005 is an eye opening study of what we face today. I wish every parent would read it.
Does anyone here remember what happened to Robert Bauman in 1980? He was elected in 1973 as representative of the First Congressional District of Maryland, became chairman of the American Conservative Union in 1979, and, many thought, was on his way to becoming Speaker of the House. But he was leading a double life as a married man with four children while at the same time engaging in anonymous homosexual one-night stands. He got caught and lost his job, family and much more.
Looking back on his secret double life, Bauman engaged in some painful self-examination:
“How could any normal and moral human being do what I did? How could anyone, however callous, repeatedly be unfaithful to one’s spouse (lying, evading responsibility, breaking solemn vows)? I have described how it could be done. Why I did it is the serious question. And I have no answer, even to this day. I do not know. In many ways I was driven by a force over which I seemed to have little control.
Of course, my choice was conscious and deliberate. It could have been altered. But some compulsion drove me, blotting out all I had learned, diminishing in importance all that was most dear and important. I seemed willing to risk my marriage, my wife and children, even life itself.”
What was working in Bauman’s life? The Spirit of God or Satan?
Ephesians 2 tells us that there is a spirit at work in the sons of disobedience. There still is. Who are we following and allowing to guide us in our words, attitudes, thoughts, and actions today?
You and I are under the influence of either God, or the enemy. There is no neutral territory.
