Theme: Christ shall set you free
Text: 1 Kings 19:1-7; Gal. 3:23-29; Lk. 8:26-39
Jesus taught with such authority that it displeased the regular teachers in the Synagogues. Whereas they quoted from well-known rabbis to support their teachings, Jesus as God had no need to do so. He spoke with authority and demonstrated His authority over evil spirits, sickness and disease. The demon in today’s Gospel reading knew Jesus. He knew His identity as the Son of God at a time when very few men recognised Him as the Messiah. The evil spirits did not only know the identity of Jesus and that they were destined for destruction; they also knew His authority over them and their inability to hide their presence. Although evil spirits knew Jesus they have nothing in common with Him and want nothing to do with Him. They know they have been defeated and try to avoid any open confrontation with Him and with His disciples. Christ is always demonstrating His authority over evil and no matter your condition, when you believe, Christ shall set you free.
God gave man authority and dominion on earth so only a man could undo the damage caused by sin. Christ was born by a virgin without a sin nature. “He appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin”. (1 John 3:5) God requires a perfect sacrifice, a lamb without blemish. The Lamb of God was blameless and without sin. He was born without a sin nature and lived a life without sin. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin”. (Hebrews 4:15) Jesus Christ paid more than was required for sin. His ascension to heaven and being seated at God’s right hand confirmed that the sacrifice of His eternal blood had been accepted and there was no further need for any other blood sacrifice.
Christ is blameless and perfect and exposes all false teachings and all forms of evil and His presence is a threat to all evil spirits. In today’s world, many people deny the existence of evil spirits. Psychologists dismiss accounts of demon possession as a primitive way to describe mental illness. However, this is neither the view of Scripture nor the reality of those who have experienced torment at the hands of demonic spirits. By describing them by other names does not really change the situation and today evil spirits are tormenting more and more people. Christ assures believers, however, that the devil cannot possess a believer because he or she has been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Although demons cannot possess us, they can still affect the way we think and behave with their lies. Elijah, a prophet of God, singlehandedly killed 300 prophets of Baal. He experienced the power of God in an amazing way when fire descended from heaven and consumed his sacrifice but at the threat of Jezebel he was filled with fear and ready to die. He yielded to the lie of the enemy. The devil does not want us to know that evil spirits have no legal right over us because we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus has not only redeemed us from captivity to sin and Satan but has also restored our authority over him.
Christ has redeemed man from captivity by the shedding of His blood for “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin”. (Hebrews 9:22) Justice demands the punishment of the guilty. This means that to be pardoned someone must be held responsible for our sin and punished. Jesus Christ, our Creator took our place and endured all the evil consequences due by divine justice to our sin. Christ’s sacrifice is the basis for our forgiveness, not only for past sins but also for present and future sins. Jesus Christ was made sin with our sin and bore the righteous judgement of God on our behalf. Not only did Christ take our place on the cross, He also gave us all that He had. He made us righteous with His righteousness for us to access all His provisions. Christ has cleansed us with His blood and recreated our spirit. Our new spirit is blameless so that the Holy Spirit can live in us. We become one with the Holy Spirit and as the Scriptures declare “He will not leave or forsake us”.
The good news is the gospel of grace. Jesus Christ has dealt with sin forever and our faith in the good news is the source of our victorious life. This is more than enough to inspire us to successful service as it leads to a manifestation of all God’s promises in our lives. We can only be defeated when we give up and forget that the enemy has already been defeated. Just imagine the situation whereby another person trespasses on your property. You can simply evict that person off your property because he has no legal right to it. An evil spirit has no rights of ownership over a Christian and therefore the owner or his delegated authority can command them to leave. Let us rely on the authority of Christ and His Word and not allow evil spirits to control or influence us. They have no place in the life of the believer and in the ministry of Christ.
The disobedience of Adam and Eve led to sin consciousness at the expense of God consciousness. Sin consciousness led man into captivity to Satan and the kingdom of darkness. Christ paid the price for sin with His blood to “deliver us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son”. (Col. 1:13) Christ paid the full price for sin so that God no longer remembers our sin. The blood of Christ has put an end to the sacrifice of animals and the requirements of the Law that served to point out sin. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin”. (Rom. 3:20) Christ by His sacrifice has given man access to the grace of God, God’s undeserved favour. God’s blessings are no longer dependent on us but on Him. We are favoured because of what Christ has done.
The sacrifice of Christ has given us access to God’s grace. We experience His favour when our focus remains on Christ. Evil spirits always work against Christ by trying to redirect our focus. They often pretend to witness for Christ but evil spirits can never be a valid witness to the person of Christ. We should never accept their testimony as a basis for validating any truth. Even when what they say is true, their testimony is unacceptable. God will certainly not use the witness of demons to herald His gospel. The work of the devil and his demons is to deceive and they are all liars and deceivers. We should never forget that the devil is a liar and the father of lies. It was through the liars of the devil that Adam and Eve lost their access to the presence of God. If we need to know anything about the activity of the enemy, would not the right thing be to go to God instead of the enemy? Why do we rather want to rely on the enemy? Those who listen to their lies stand in danger of believing what they say. To listen to evil spirits and teach what they say as truth is to fall into deception and the Bible warns us of such deceptions that will occur in the latter days. “The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” 1 Tim. 4:1. Jesus Christ has “given us authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt us” Luke 10:19. Christ has set us free to follow in His footsteps by being conscious only of God.
The practice of occultism, spiritism and witchcraft, welcomes demons and their manifestations. These manifestations are to serve Satan’s main purpose and desire that is to prevent God from being glorified. This is because, whenever God is not glorified, in a person’s life, in a Church, in a city or in the world as a whole, Satan has in that degree accomplished his objective. The devil came to steal, to kill and to destroy. He enjoys making human beings and human society as miserable as possible. He uses wars, poverty, oppression, sickness, racism, tribalism, greed and similar evils that do not bring glory to God. This is why Jesus came to seek and save the lost and wherever He went He destroyed the works of the devil. Christ has been destroying the works of the devil in many people but there still remains a great number to be saved. He has given us power and authority to extend His activity into the lives of the many people who have not heard the good news. Let the authority and power of Christ be manifested in our lives. Let us effectively drive out the enemy and release God’s glorious power into the lives of those bound by the enemy to the praise and glory of the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!
