Authority Over the Powers of Darkness
Series: Encountering Jesus (through the Gospel of Luke)
Brad Bailey – May 19, 2019
Note: The following notes are more extensive that what I did or could have stated within reasonable time. As I do not memorize or read notes, but rather use them to refine thoughts then presented more freely. While the actual message given may be more dynamic, I hope others will find that these notes can serve well in providing even more help in engaging this passage..
Intro
Today we are continuing in our series Encountering Jesus…through the Gospel of Luke.
As one sees throughout all accounts, his central message is that the Kingdom of God is breaking through… embodied in himself…his life…his sacrifice that will defeat the power of sin… and his resurrection that will defeat the power of death. And we should not be surprised that this confronts the powers that have brought chaos to God’s order.
To encounter Jesus… involves engaging the reality of evil and the spiritual forces of evil.
Broadly speaking the majority of the world throughout human history has believed in some spiritual forces of good and evil.
The human experience has had a sense that there is something beyond human nature that influences if not inspires good… and that there is something beyond human nature that influences if not inspires evil.
As many note today, our current western culture is living in a dichotomy… beginning with many refer to as the Enlightenment from which some emphasize a freedom from any outside powers. This has come to promote the belief that our existence is simply the evolving of a material world… for which there is no real meaning to human life pre se… nor ultimate moral nature. The only force that is at work is the natural progression towards survival. Good and evil are not really meaningful terms nor forces.
Alongside trying to cultivate what we might call this secular view of life….there has been an equally strong sense that the human experience is not simply progressing by rational explainable means…that good and evil are quite real… and connected to forces bigger than ourselves.
I believe that while modern minds and technology has brought some good means to gain control over the created realm… we remain in a world of vast mystery.
We can try and presume we can control life with our understanding and ability to name things… but with everything we come to know it only expands what we don’t know…and certainly don’t control.
We can distract ourselves from the mystery… but it is like building a compound in the middle of a vast forest and trying to turn on more lights to feel safer … they can’t defy what lies in the darkness.
The vast darkness remains.
That is the reality which Jesus brings forth. Jesus enters the world to fulfill what had been revealed through the people and prophets Israel… that the world is neither ruled by the capricious mythological gods of the Romans or Greek…nor by the minds of man…but by the eternal Creator… to which there has long been some form of spiritual opposition. (This revelation would transform much of the world.)
Evil is that which seeks it’s own. There is some form of spiritual opposition which will seek to control and dominate and ultimately destroy all that which reflects God’s goodness…because His goodness reflects Hs glory. Such forces seek to draw human life into the same vanity of self-oriented pride… a false freedom that can bring the human soul into a state of spiritual oppression and even possession.
I invite you to follow along… as I read the whole of this rather dramatic encounter…
Luke 8: 26-39
26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!" 29 For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. 30 Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
Here we have a picture of human wreckage and restoration.
Though it may strike us as more dramatic than our own life stories or those around us....it tells us of the power of Christ’s presence over this world…and in every personal world.
For they land on the shores of the region of the Gerasenes...on the eastern side of the Sea of Gallilee. It’s a region of predominantly Gentiles...those considered “unclean” by Jewish religious leaders. It is likely the site of Khersa where about one mile south can be found a slope 40 yards from shore and two miles from there are tombs that are actually caverns and which appear to have been used as dwellings. [2]
It is out of these tombs and down this slope that a man oppressed by “unclean” spirits comes to meet their boat …likely in the dark of night.
...He’s become the figure that everyone despises…and everyone fears.
“For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. …Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.” - Luke 8:27, 29
Something had taken hold of this man.
Imagine… for years he had been part of the community… but something began to take influence… He has become unsound in mind and manner… and he became more destructive… and dangerous. He has been cast out… for he’s so unclean he may defile others … there is an evil no one can control.
They have tried to keep him in chains… but even those cannot contain his.
This is the devolving of the human soul… publicly naked… rejected, alienated, driven into solitary places… and now physically harming himself and others.
Our entertainment culture has created versions of spiritual evil which are often… comical… playful…even cool. [3]
Here we face the true nature of evil. We see what it does to the human soul.
And beneath his madness lies a tormented soul.
Little is said of how such oppression began...we might assume that this man allowed some level of access into his life...for God warns us about giving the devil “footholds” in our life. No life who receives Christ into their life… can be possessed like this man… for the Holy Spirit now resides within them…but Jesus still warns of the power of the enemy to gain footholds of oppression. [3b]
• How often might we give something power over us…to define and direct us… that not only proves a poor decision… but becomes a source of oppression?
• How often are we drawn to what we assume represents freedom…but only binds us?
• How many forms of temporary elation… have ultimately left us deflated?
We may not know how it began for this man… but it has become as dark a place as any human soul could be take.
In this man we see the picture of the destruction of soul.
In this scene we get a look into the horror the human soul can face when the powers of evil begins it’s work of shame and estrangement and control. One begins to live in the darkness and depravity.
And the first thing we cannot miss is that…
1. Jesus will go into the darkest ...most “unclean” places.
The “unclean” is that which could never be touched for the sake of purity; and the darkness was the place to which evil would be cast for eternity.
Yet here Jesus enters the region of outsiders....and without hesitation is prepared to enter this man’s darkened world....and unclean soul ..to see him restored.
Jesus will enter any darkness.
That is a truth we need to really hear…and take in.
• Maybe you have feared a darkness… certain that no one could enter.
• Maybe you have felt tormented by something in your past that you have thought it will simply control and consume you.
• Maybe you have felt so unclean… you don’t think you can ever have anyone really know you…or come close to you.
You need to look and see…that one has come whose very nature is to come into the darkest ...most “unclean” places.
…And then we discover that his presence bears authority.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!" – Luke 8:28
Here we begin to see the reality of who Jesus is.
2. Jesus has authority over the spiritual forces of evil.
This becomes even more profound when we step back and understand the magnitude of what had just taken place…and is now taking place.
The context gives a cosmic perspective…on the power we see on a personal level.
There is more at hand than the profound personal transformation of this soul.
There is the cosmic question of what powers prevail over human life.
And to this… human life will always fear the unknown… particularly the depth and darkness from which the forces of evil may lie.
So for the ancients of the time… great fear was associated with sea…what was beneath their vast and dark water. They represented that which held man in inevitable fear.
Just prior to this...Jesus and his disciples had been in the region of Gallilee...a Jewish region. Jesus tells them it’s time to set sail...to cross the lake. Off they go in the dark of night and on their way they encounter a great storm…. so intense that even these life-long fishermen know they will be consumed by the sea… and they awaken Jesus and he rises and clams the storm.
It declared that the Kingdom of God was THE order over all chaos and powers. He is not choosing to simply keep any storms from arising…but rather to show that what they see as simply the chaos … the immensity of the mysterious sea and storm… to which they are powerless… is that which cannot overcome the kingdom of God.
Chaos may have come upon God’s creation, but Jesus is showing that God is still the one who prevails in mastering cosmic forces of chaos.
….and it stuns them… it is a whole level of power over the dark powers and larger realm they fear than anything they had known… and the last verse…right before this concludes…
“ …the storm subsided, and all was calm. … "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him." – Luke 8:24, 25
These are the powers that held human life in an underlying fear.
But where they were going would bring an encounter with a different kind of destructive force. For parallel to the depth and darkness of the sea…was the darkness of what roamed in the spiritual unclean places…. forces that seemed able to get hold of human nature.
As it turns out, the battle that Jesus fought and won on the sea was simply round one of an on-going conflict, for the battle continues when he and his disciples make shore. Indeed, when framed in a first century Jewish perspective, it becomes clear that Jesus and his disciples had just entered the heart of the kingdom of darkness. They had just crossed over into a Gentile region, which was defiling for a faithful Jew. They immediately confronted a man whose nakedness was exposed in public…which was regarded as shameful. The Gospels note that the spirits that possessed this man were “impure” (Mk 5:2, 9; Lk 8:29). And, on top of this, this region was home to an enormous herd of pigs, which Jews regarded as unclean and vile (Mk 5:12-3; Mt 8:30; Lk 8:32).
What’s happening here is so much bigger than they expected.
They believed that the God of all power would send a savior….who would save them from the human political force of the Roman Empire. I suppose we all tend to focus on the most direct problem in life.
But Jesus was doing things no one imagined.
• Yes…”even the winds and the water obey him.”
• And then the spiritual forces… submit to him.
Jesus doesn’t represent merely freedom from the bondage of Rome…but to the bondage of all that rules with fear over human life.
Take that in. Because… While we may feel we have grasped a bit more… we still exist in the mystery of the of the unknown depths…and unknown darkness.
This is what we can expect in Kingdom warfare. Jesus comes to siege Satan’s domain.
Deliverance means that the Kingdom has moved within range of our lives. And when Goodness comes, evil must go.
Jesus questions the demonic presence …asking it to state it’s name.
This may reflect an understanding that demonic spirits are associated with particular influences …whether by some means of assignments or simply by the power that a human life has given to them.
And calling out that name or nature may represent the authority of Jesus over it.
The response is beyond any one name. When asked his name … the response is
"Legion" … because many demons had gone into him.
We don’t know if this was the demon speaking or the man under influence speaking what he knew. A legion was a Roman regiment of 6,000 troops. Very likely the man had seen one of these Roman regiments clanking along the road, and he felt that there was a whole battalion of demons inside him.
Further, Palestine was an occupied country. As William Barclay notes,
The legions, at their wildest and most irresponsible, could sometimes be guilty of atrocities that would make the blood run cold. It may well be that this … conjured up for him a vision of terror and death and destruction.”
That is what he knew within him.
Suddenly one is present who has authority over such spiritual force.
Where is the fear?
In the spirits. It is the spirits which now fear…it is they who must plea.
That is what we must take in…and take in deeply.
Shortly after this, Jesus will send them out to heal and take authority over such spiritual forces. And each of these encounters is transforming them…from those who fear…to those who know that the authority of Christ brings fear to these powers of evil.
Here a vital part of the truth: The authority is not our own…but that of Christ which we can call upon.
It is not a magical word…it is the actual summoning of Christ.
I my own experience…I have had encounters… like that of a presence I could not see… and I have found that as I call upon the name of Christ… who he is… such presence always leave.
1 John 4:4 - “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Now…this is not a matter of post-game party… until God brings all to it’s end… such forces are at hand.
I recall John Wimber… who was the original father of the Vineyard movement… challenging the tendency of some to become trite about the forces of evil. He said something to the effect of “Jesus showed a more sober understanding about the demonic spirits than some do today.”
Every one of us needs to know that Christ wants us to enter the same position as his first followers… that which calls upon his authority… with a healthy confidence… knowing that it is those forces which now face the ultimate fear.
…Now what unfolds in this exchange may seem unusual. [4]
I am struck with two aspects that are hard to understand:
1) Why to these evil spirits make this request of Jesus?, and
2) Why does Jesus allow them to be sent into the pigs who face such a fate? It can strike one as a callous disregard for the welfare of these animals.
As to why they seek the pigs? … we are told that they are seeking to escape their final end…that of the abyss. Why they seek the pigs in particular…we are not told… unclean spirits can only enter that which is unclean…so perhaps fitting of pigs which were deemed unclean animals.
Why does Jesus comply? We are not told…but Matthew includes in his account that it was not yet “the appointed time” (Mt 8:29)…not time to bring such final judgment to them. [5]
As to why these animals die?
I don’t believe that Jesus was impervious to the violence of what came to them.
It’s important to grasp that he did not simply kill the pigs… Jesus was not actually the cause for the unfortunate fate of this herd of pigs.
Nothing in this passage suggests that God (or Jesus) drove the pigs into the sea and caused them to drown.
Nor does it make sense to suppose that the demons wanted the pigs to drown since they had just pleaded with Jesus to use them as hosts.
Those who know the behavior of pigs… knew that it pigs don’t naturally act this way…and under normal conditions are capable of swimming.
What appears to play out…is the power of such demonic presence to overcome the pigs… to overcome them with such madness that is caused them to drown themselves in water. If such power had caused the man it had possessed to suffer from a form of temporary insanity… in need of restraint….. it is not hard to understand how pigs, which have a much smaller capacity than humans to rationally restrain themselves in the first place, could become insanely suicidal when indwelt by a demonic presence.
They appear to have been… casualties of war… a war for which the demons, and the entire kingdom of darkness, are responsible for setting forth.
What we do know is the impact…
This dramatic encounter sends those tending the pigs running off to tell of what has happened. And what do they find when they return ??
Luke 8: 35
When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
Here we see a third central truth…
3. Jesus is the restorer of souls.
This soul who had been divided into so many pieces… his identity owned by so many who possessed him…is now calmed by the one voice that has the authority to reclaim his true identity.
He is dressed… and in his right mind – Through the presence and authority of Jesus lies the power to become to be integrated… fully human again.
The power of a voice of authority over all others.
Those who study psychology and the development of personality in particular, describe how we seem to be a product of all the experiences and relationships that influence us. This leaves us in a state of being a swirling of unsettled parts and pieces…in need of some sort of “organizing identity” … longing for that original voice.
We need that which is greater than ourselves…outside ourselves…that original voice.
It is like the story of a tiger that was brought up with a herd of goats. Despite what his true nature was… the social message shaped him into a goat.
Then one day a tiger came into the clearing. He saw this tiger amidst the goats…and he roared the earth-shaking roar that declared the true nature of a tiger.
The goats fled in terror. The tiger raised to be a goat… was divided… afraid… but the tiger on the edge of the forest called forth his true nature.
The tiger at the edge of the forest of our existence is Jesus.
He has come to seek and save that which was lost.
And there is one more quality that Jesus restores… and that is community.
The human soul needs to be known in community. This man had been alienated…and Jesus knows he needs to find his restoration among them.
Luke 8:38
The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
Jesus makes a remarkable choice…He gets back in the boat but not without commissioning the first missionary.
There is so much we learn from this encounter… but let me close with three challenges.
1. Will you receive the authority of Jesus in your own life?
Each of us lives with some level of underlying fear…. of what we don’t control.
Each of us knows that we are not able to face every force that wants to oppress us.
Jesus wants us to know that we can call upon his authority… to claim us…to protect us.
2. Will you call upon the authority of Jesus for the lives of those oppressed?
Would my concern for this poor man have been the same as our Lord's--or would I have bypassed that cemetery as quickly as possible because of the violent homeless man living in the tombs? Would I have been willing to see the money I had invested in agricultural stock "go down the drain" if it meant the salvation and restoration of a social misfit--or would I have protected my investment and the pigs instead?
This man mattered to God as much as any other… unique.. he had a name.. an essence to who he was that God had formed and loved.
And the second comes from the final response of the people.
Luke 8:36-37
Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.
You would think that these people would have thanked Jesus and welcomed Him into their city.
It appears that their position was: Solve our problems.. but spare our pigs.
- As one author expressed it… “They wanted deliverance without disturbance....benefits without the bills....success without sacrifice.” [6]
But the Lord had disrupted their way of life. They couldn't handle it, and they didn't want His intrusion. They would rather have the Lord leave them alone than have Him disrupt their self-serving and self-indulgent lifestyle. [7]
What is perhaps most striking… and significant…is that he got into the boat and left.
The Lord left when they asked Him to leave, because God will not force Himself into anyone's life where He's rejected. The Lord does take "NO" for an answer!
3. Will you receive the presence of Christ… recognizing he comes to bring change?
Prayer
Responsive Song: Belong To You - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ANCjqieojc
Notes:
1. The broadest summary of spiritual worldviews might consider western monotheism, atheistic / materialism, and eastern Vedic religions. (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc) Through the Vedic teachings that flowed initially from India… there is a mixture of appeasing countless gods and powers… to that of an impersonal interconnected state that all is meant to be dissolved and united into… through overcoming the illusion of the material world and separation it represents.
2. An early church structure was built there… which was just recently rediscovered in 1970.
Some sources of discussion about the location:
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/site-where-jesus-christ-drove-demons-into-the-sea-uncovered-confirming-biblical-event/74039.htm
https://www.dqhall59.com/israelphotosIV/kursi.htm
3. Our culture has tried to make evil something almost playful. In the Hollywood horror version… it’s just real enough to bring a playful fear… shifting the focus to play on the fear of the viewer…more than the deep pain in the tortured soul. The entertaining scare we call “horror” works because we have a sense that it’s reality actually may exist… but it keeps us from facing the true horror of what such evil seeks. I can only imagine the powers that have sought to rule the created world finds this playful approach serves them well.
C.S. Lewis wrote a work many have read… called “The Screwtape Letters”…in which he portrays a senior devil Screwtape giving guidance to a junior devil Wormwood. At one point the senior Screwtape explains:
"The fact that 'devils' are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you." - Screwtape, C.S. Lewis - From C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 7, p. 33.
Other helpful views by Lewis include:
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”
-C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Preface, p. 3
“No reference to the Devil or devils is included in any Christian Creeds, and it is quite possible to be a Christian without believing in them. I do believe such beings exist, but that is my own affair. Supposing there to be such beings, the degree to which humans were conscious of their presence would presumably vary very much. I mean, the more a man was in the Devil's power, the less he would be aware of it, on the principle that a man is still fairly sober as long as he knows he's drunk. It is the people who are fully awake and trying hard to be good who would be most aware of the Devil. It is when you start arming against Hitler that you first realize your country is full of Nazi agents. Of course, they don't want you to believe in the Devil. If devils exist, their first aim is to give you an anaesthetic - to put you off your guard, Only if that fails, do you become aware of them.”
-C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock, "Answers to Questions on Christianity", p. 56-57
3b. Many have sought to help identify if believers in Christ can be possessed…and of not…what type pf influence the demonic forces can have… often using terms like influences, oppressed, or demonized. I would concur that one who receives Christ is indwelled by the Spirit of God…and therefore it would seem contrary to the nature of possession to believe that a Christian can have their life fully taken over. However, I believe the Scriptures speak broadly of the enemy gaining footholds and having some hold…and would align with those who make less emphasis on defining the boundaries and remain open to seeking freedom over any influence. Two resources one may find valuable: Position paper of AG - https://ag.org/Beliefs/Position-Papers/Demon-Possession. Can a Christian be Possessed by a Demon? By Don Gallagher at https://www.truthortradition.com/articles/can-a-christian-be-possessed-by-a-demon
4. In regards to the challenging questions raise, I have drawn from these resources:
Greg Boyd (ReKnew website) - https://reknew.org/2016/01/that-weird-episode-with-the-pigs/
Peace in the Place of Pigs - https://www.growingchristians.org/devotions/peace-in-the-place-of-pigs/
5. It’s been noted, “The demons may have made this strange request because it was their last chance to avoid confinement in the Abyss, the place of confinement to which evil spirits are doomed (Revelation 9:1-6). Whatever their reasoning, it is clear from the account that demons had little power of their own and were unable to do anything without Jesus’ permission. As Christians, we can take comfort in the knowledge that the forces of the enemy of our souls are under the complete control of God and can only act in ways He allows.” -From https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-demons-pigs.html?
It can also be noted
The Bible doesn’t explain to us Jesus’ reasoning, but displaying His sovereign power over demons could be one reason why Jesus sent them into the pigs. If the pigs’ owners were Jews, Jesus could have been rebuking them for violating Mosaic law which forbids Jews from eating or keeping unclean animals such as swine (Leviticus 11:7). If the swineherds were Gentiles, perhaps Jesus was using this miraculous event to show them the malice of evil spirits under whose influence they lived, as well as displaying His own power and authority over creation. - https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-demons-pigs.html
And David Edouard notes, “Deut 14:8, In the old testament, pigs were considered unclean, anything that is unclean gives demonic spirits legal ground or rights to operate. At that particular verse, the people were still under the law because Jesus had not died yet to fulfill the law, therefore when the demons wanted one thing to enter into, the pigs was the perfect legal ground for them.”
6. John Maxwell,Be All...pg.108
7. Captured well and drawn from “Dismissing the Lord - https://www.growingchristians.org/devotions/peace-in-the-place-of-pigs/”
