January 8, 2023

And immediately, there was verse 23, in their synagogue, a man, with an unclean spirit. This passage is going to force us to take a look at what we refer to as the demonic; the influence the persuasion, the power, the demonic realm, the methods, the goals of demons. This passage, in essence is going to say to us, you really need to look at what Scripture has to say about the demonic realm, and how that impacts the suffering of people, and the the furtherance of the kingdom of God. And so that's what we'll take a few moments here to do. So, what this represents as Jesus enters into the synagogue, what this represents is really this ongoing cosmic battle. This battle that began way back in Genesis, chapter three, right after the fall, as God pronounces the curse upon the man and the woman and then the serpent. And he says, to the serpent, of course, that he was to crawl your belly. And then he makes this prophecy, in which he says, there will be a Rescuer, I will send a Rescuer, and you will bruise the heel of this Rescuer, but he will crush your head. And from that point begins this cosmic battle between evil and good. And all of this now is what's being culminated here into the synagogue building, as this kingdom of evil, with the one who is utterly completely in their control, like a wicked, evil puppet, is now standing up to voice opinion to voice his objection to the kingdom of light, the Messiah, preaching his truth. And so he is here as the strong man to put down the weaker, strong man. He is the one, First John chapter three, verse eight, in whom we are told, the reason Jesus came--the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. So, this is what's taking place. So, so let's just think a little bit about demon activity and demon possession in the Scriptures. And first of all, just ask yourself, Is this something that we should even really think about that we should even really focus upon? Because whenever we mentioned the demonic sometimes when we hear that word, the demonic, demon possession, our ears just kind of perk up, and it sparks an interest in some of us--is this really even something that's worth spending our time, should we spend our time on this? I find that they are oftentimes just typically, the reactions of people to something like the demonic, can kind of fall into three categories. First of all, a lot of people, when they hear about the demonic, they sort of have an unhealthy interest, an unhealthy obsession. They hear things like this, and it's sort of piques an interest, and anything demonic, it's just, it's just this weird sort of bizarre thing that just piques an interest and excites. But then also, we also can kind of come across a reaction on the part of people in which they hear of the realm of the demonic, the activity of the demonic, and it sparks within them sort of a morbid fear, a dread. Like anything that has to do with the demonic, anything that has to do with demonic activity, that that really sort of spooks me out, not something I'm comfortable hearing about, I'd rather talk about something uplifting and encouraging, not the possession of the, by demons. So, sort of a morbid sort of dread, a morbid sort of fear. But then others would have a reaction that perhaps some goes something like this; sort of a cynicism, a lack of belief. After all, aren't demons, something that ancient people believed in? All this possessing of people on the part of demons--isn't that something that ancient people just believed in? And they use that to do to describe or explain things that we modern people can explain with science and medicine? So, isn't this whole idea of demons, and spiritual beings that are evil, and and carry around pitchforks, and have forked tails and horns and everything? Isn't that just something that belongs to the medieval, ancient world? And so there'll be sort of a cynic, a cynicism in that attitude. So, all three of those would represent an attitude toward the demonic that is unbiblical. We should not have a unhealthy interest. In those things demonic, we should not have this fanatical kind of interest in anything demonic. Nor should we have this morbid fear because we are talking about an enemy that has been defeated. But, neither should we approach this as something that only ancient people believed in, and something that modern people have outgrown. Instead, let's take some time this morning, and just think through well about what the Bible teaches us to think about the demonic realm, and how that impacts our life today. Paul says to the Corinthians in second Corinthians chapter two, verse 11, that we should not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. So, in other words, Paul says; you know, I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about Satan and his methodology. But I'm not ignorant of it. I'm aware of his methods. I'm aware of his tactics, so that he will not outwit me. That should be our approach. And that'll be our approach this morning, just to take a look at what Scripture teaches us about the demonic and how the demonic seeks to influence and persuade us. And even this phenomenon known as demonic possession, and what we as believers can benefit from that knowledge. So, that's what we'll do this morning for just a few minutes here. First of all, we'll just begin by just asking the question, what are demons> I know that's sort of a really basic question, but we can begin there; what are what are these demons that we're talking about? Scripture tells us that at some point, there was this rebellion, in which Lucifer, otherwise known as Satan, also called Apollyon, which means the destroyer, he rose up against God in rebellion. And we're told in the Scriptures that a third of the angels joined him in his rebellion. And that 1/3 of the angels, God then cast them down, and so now we think of them as fallen angels or demons. It's encouraging for us to remember that if 1/3 of the angels rebelled, and they were put down, and they've now these fallen angels or demons, it's encouraging to remind yourself that the unfallen angels outnumber the fallen angels two the one. So, these fallen angels are now the demons that Scripture sometimes speaks up is interesting, if you read the King James, or if the King James is your translation, then you should be aware of the fact that in the King James, the word demon doesn't appear. The King James, unfortunately, mistranslates the word ‘daimon’--which, you can hear demon in that, they mistranslate the word ‘daimon’ as devil. ‘Diablos’ is the word for devil. But the King James will translate both ‘daimon’ and diablos, both as devil. That's a little bit unfortunate, because there's only one devil--Diablos. There's many demons, but there's only one devil. So, sometimes, if you do read the King James, just be aware that sometimes when you come across that word devil, it's translating the word ‘daimon,’ which is demon, sometimes it's translating the word diablos, which is devil. So, these fallen angels, these demons, they are the fallen version of the angels of God. Now, the angels of God, God uses these angels, he calls them ministering spirits, that minister to those who are inheriting salvation. And so, God uses these unfallen angels for the advancement of His Kingdom. In a similar way, Satan, Lucifer, Apollyon, will use these demons, these fallen angels for the advancement of his kingdom, and for the opposition of the kingdom of light. The difference is, that Satan, unlike God is not omnipresent. Satan does not, is not a Spirit that dwells all of his followers, like God. And so Satan, therefore must, he is in the position that he has to use this demonic force this demonic army in order to advance his kingdom or advance his calls. And that is essentially how the role of these demons plays out. So, it's interesting to know that all these demons seem to know what their fate is, as we'll see in the passage, they seem to just have an awareness of what their fate is. And we're told that that fate is that they will be cast into this pit, the lake of fire, that we're told, for example, in Matthew 25, verse 20, verse 41, is prepared for the devil and his angels--for diablos sent his angels, for Satan and his angels. So, you've heard it said, or perhaps you've heard it said, or perhaps you've heard it asked, Why would God prepare a hell for sinners? Why would God make a hell to send sinners to. Well, actually, God didn't create hell for sinners. He created it for Satan and his angels. And tragically, those who are unregenerate who are not forgiven and redeemed, will be cast into Satan's hell, but God didn't create a hell specifically for people. So, that's their fate, and they seem to have an awareness of this fate. We're reminded in Matthew chapter eight once again, where the demon says to Jesus, did you come here to torment me before my time? Or in the passage here, the demon asked Jesus, Are you here to destroy me? So, they seem to know that this is what's in store for them. So, that's a little bit about who they are. The Scriptures will tell us that these demons have the ability to live in people to come into people and make their abode and people, presumably by the person's invitation, and in so doing they can cause the person to exhibit signs that, sometimes they mimic physical illnesses, blindness, deafness, muteness. Or sometimes they, they perhaps make the victim appear to be mentally insane, or even maybe have multiple personalities, these sorts of different things. We've been told in Scripture that the demons can even possess animals, remember as Jesus cast the demons into the pigs. So, what is this demonic activity? What are they up to? And what are their methods? And what are their goals? This will help us just kind of think through this just a little bit. And then we'll begin with demonic--not persuasion or influence--but let's just begin and thinking what the passage puts forward to us as this phenomenon known as demonic possession. So, to begin with, where would find demonic possession in the Scriptures? Where's demonic possession found in the Scriptures? I think a lot of people are under the impression that demonic possession is all over the Bible. That demons are doing things and possessing people and doing things all over the Scriptures. But in reality, if we look to the Scriptures and say, where in the Scriptures do we see demonic possession, it's startling in just how few places we see it. Demonic possession is absent in the Old Testament. There is, there are no clear instances of demonic possession in all the Old Testament, which is an incredible statement. Because, think of the time period that the Old Testament covers; thousands of years of the history of God's people. Thousands of events take place in the Old Testament, and yet, there is not one clear instance of demonic possession in the Old Testament. Further, there is no mention whatsoever of demonic possession in the epistles--none. There is demonic references. There's mention made of demonic activity--we just talked about that not too long ago in Ephesians, when we talked about the god of this age, and following the god of this age, and that sort of thing. And we're going to get to some more that in chapter six is Paul's going to talk about the spiritual warfare. So, there are, this, the mention of the activity of the work of demons in the epistles. But never does, do the New Testament letters to the church ever mentioned anything about the possession of a person by a demon and what the church is to do about it. So, we find when we turn to the Revelation that there is demonic activity all over the place in the Revelation. But the only place in all of Scripture that we find demonic possession, are two instances in the book of Acts; the slave girl in Philippi, and the man possessed by a demon in chapter 19, that sons of Skeva try to try to exorcise out, but they do so unsuccessfully, those two instances in Acts, and other than that every instance of demonic possession is found in the Gospels. So, when we turn to the Gospels, we find that not only to the Gospels mention demonic possession, but it almost seems as though Jesus is encountering a demonically possessed person every day. Because they seem to be all over the place, there's going to be a number of instances in Mark's gospel, and that just seems like it's a regular occurrence. Even when we're not told about a specific casting out of a demon, we're told that Jesus, for example, went here and healed the sick, and cleansed the lepers, and cast out demons. So, it seems to be taking place all over the place in the Gospels. Furthermore, Jesus is not the only one in the gospels that's casting out demons, or at least attempting to. We're told about in Mark chapter nine, the unknown Exorcist, remember that guide that came across--he was casting out demons in your name Jesus and he wasn't one of us. Furthermore, Jesus is also going to say, for example, in Matthew 12, Luke 17, he's going to make that statement where, we're aware of the statement, where he says, If I cast out demons by the Spirit, then who do your sons cast out demons by? Meaning that at the very minimum, there were Jewish religious leaders that were attempting to cast out demons. So, demonic possession seems to just be a nearly everyday occurrence in the gospels, yet it's virtually absent everywhere else in the Scripture. So, what does this tell us? Well, intuitively, we might say, what this means is that the kingdom of darkness is maximizing its opposition to the kingdom of Light. The possession of these people, by, on the part of these demons, represents just the apex of the power of a kingdom of darkness. It represents the pinnacle of the power of Satan and his forces when they literally possess a person. And so they are opposing the coming of Messiah with everything they've got, and that's why we see demon possession just going overboard in the Gospels. However, as I think about this, and I think about what it is that's taking place, I think that we've got that backwards. In other words, when we see demonic possession in the gospels, I don't think that that's a manifestation of the apex of the power of the kingdom of darkness. I think instead, it's a manifestation of the desperation, of the kingdom of darkness. I think that demonic possession in the Gospels is their last, desperate act to hold on to the power that they used to have, that they see is now quickly slipping between their fingers. Because you see, as we said earlier, this is a battle. It's a battle that began in Genesis three--you will bruise His heel, He will crush your head. And from that point, the battle begins. And the Old Testament is nothing if it's not a narration, of this ongoing battle between good and evil in which every turn the Old Testament makes. It's like the people of God, the remnant of God are right on the verge of being stamped out. And the people of God, the remnant of God can't be stamped out, because if they are stamped out, Messiah will come, because Messiah will come through his people. And so at every turn in the Old Testament, it's like, we're right on the edge of Messiah's people being eliminated. So, it all begins with, of course, Cain and Abel. Abel, who is the only righteous son of Adam and Eve, he's killed by his brother, what's going to happen to Messiah, he's supposed to come through the righteous line? Well, then God raises up Seth. And then on and on, it goes, we think about the flood, and how nearly there was nobody left. Yet God preserved His people through the ark. Then we think about Abraham, of course. Abraham is the one through his lineage, Messiah will come and yet Abraham has no children. What's going to happen? Messiah is not going to come, unless Abraham has children. Then there's the child of promise, Isaac--ah, the kingdom is saved. Abraham now has a son, then God tells him to kill him. You see, it's just over and over--this right on the verge. And then there's all the battles that we see in the kingdom of Israel--Goliath. Goliath challenges everybody, and if Goliath wins that battle with David, what happens? All the people of God are made slaves. And then we think about the Egyptian slavery, we think about all these things that just right on the verge of stamping out the people of God, and if the people of God are stamped out, Messiah can't come. Yet, God preserves Messiah's line, He preserves His remnant through all of those instances. Then, we come to the New Testament, and Messiah is born. Messiah is now here, he's arrived. And what happens? Well, the kingdom of darkness kills all the baby boys, trying to kill Messiah. Yet Messiah escapes into Egypt. So, you see how the battle is going on. So, this all brings us to this point here. Messiah has now come, and he is now here. And the kingdom of darkness knew this. And the kingdom of darkness knows that he's now here. And they are manifesting, not the apex of their power, they are manifesting the last ditch effort for what little resistance they really have to put up against Messiah--the true Strong Man, the true Rescuer, who is now here. So, think about this with me for just a moment. Take a look in your notes at this quotation that I put in your notes from Richard Sibbes, from The Bruised Reed, which by the way, if you want to be blessed, you need to read The Bruised Reed, by Richard Sibbes. But here's what he says; Those that take the most liberty to sin are the greatest slaves, because they are the most voluntary slaves. The will is either the best or the worst part in anything. The further men go in a willful course, the deeper they seek into rebellion, and the more they oppose Christ doing what they will. So, here's what Sibbes just said; There is an obedience that's a willful obedience that's on a whole different level than an obedience that's not willful. There's a disobedience that is a willful disobedience that's on a whole different level from a disobedience that's not willful, that's more like a coerced disobedience. God desires from us, willful obedience, right? He doesn't want robots. He doesn't want little machines. He doesn't want puppets. He wants obedience from the heart. He says so--the heart is what matters to him far more than sacrifices. God desires willful obedience, he doesn't desire mechanized robots. In the same way, the kingdom of darkness is the same. The kingdom of darkness much prefers willful disobedience, than coerced disobedience. The kingdom of darkness much prefers one who willingly knowingly of their own accord, thumbs their nose at the kingdom of God, and says, I will not follow you. So, the kingdom of darkness, given their choice, would obviously choose people who choose to reject God, instead of this type of coerced demonic possession, that takes a man and makes his mouth blaspheme the Lord, who makes his vocal cords blaspheme God. You see, whenever we see, in the pages of the Scripture, whenever we see demonic possession take place, we always see weird things happening, don't we? We see people who are made blind, people who are made deaf, people who exhibit the symptoms of mental illness. Wouldn't the kingdom of darkness much prefer its subjects to be attractive, and desirable to the world? Wouldn't the kingdom of darkness much prefer the world to look at its subjects and say, that's what we should be like. That's normal, that's successful, that's attractive. That is clever, that's intelligent. But whenever demons possess people in the Scriptures, what's exhibited is anything but attractive. What's exhibited is strange, odd, perverse, unattractive. As we're going to see the, Gerasene, the demoniac, the Gerasene demoniac in chapter five. I mean, it's not at all attractive to think of someone who lives naked in the tombs. Nor in the story of the boy, whose father pleads with the disciples to cast the demon out of his son, and yet they can't. I mean, that demon will cause the boy to grind his teeth, and groan, and he'll throw him into the fire. So, when we see demonic possession, we see behavior that's not attractive in the world's eyes. So, the kingdom of darkness would much rather have willing obedient servants, than coerced, possessed servants. But you see, they're not the ones calling the shots anymore. Because the Strong Man is here. And their kingdom is falling apart at the seams. And the demonic possession that we see in overdrive, is the kingdom of darkness saying; we have lost our power. We have had free reign for centuries, but we could not prevent Messiah from coming. And now that he's here, our time of power is coming to an end. And this is the last thing that we can do.