Contending Against Demons

Background:

Today’s talk is a probably a little different then your typical Sunday sermon because the miraculous sign I will be discussing involved Jesus casting out demons.  I know that it may make some of you a little uncomfortable so I am asking for a little forbearance because I believe that by the end of our time together, you will find it more comforting than scary, encouraging and may be even life changing.

Before I jump into the text and our talk, I want to give you a bit of my personal background in this subject matter – which I hope gives you a little perspective. 

I took an early retirement as an engineer from the Boeing Company.  I knew I wanted to get into ministry, but I wasn’t interested in becoming a pastor nor going to seminary.  I always had an interest in spiritual warfare and the invisible realm of God, and I love mysteries.  I found a workshop on Spiritual Warfare by Dr. Charles Kraft in Pasadena, so I signed up.  In his workshop, I learned about the relationship with Inner Healing which is really just the transformation of the inner person and Deliverance which is the casting off of demons.  This topic is generally not taught on a typical Sunday sermon, but I had personal experience seeing demonic manifestations so believed that it was real and I wanted to understand it.   Dr. Kraft and Judy Taber – the founder of Hearts Set Free Ministries were very graciously and allowed me to learn at their feet and for the last 10 years I have been actively involved in the ministry of praying inner healing or transformation and casting off demons from people.  While it is a very small ministry, but since the pandemic almost all my prayer sessions have been done virtually and I have been privileged to pray for people not only across the US, but internationally as well.  I tell you all this just so that you know that what I am about to teach you comes from not just my Biblical interpretation of the text, but also from personal experience in prayer and spiritual warfare covering over 10 years and with hundreds of people.

In my talk today, my objective is that you will comfortably be assured of the answers to the following questions:

·      Are demons real and if so, what are they and what is their purpose?

·      Can demons influence society and if so, is it possible that I am under a demonic influence?

Text:  Matt 12:22-28

²²Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed the man so that he could speak and see. ²³The crowds were astounded and asked, “Could this be the Son of David?”

²⁴But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “Only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, does this man drive out demons.”

²⁵Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? ²⁷And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁸But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Back in Jesus’ days the belief in the existence of demons was common.  No one needed to be convinced of it.  But today, I think there is a lot of skepticism.  About 3-4 hundred years ago a cultural movement called the “Age of Enlightenment” swept across Europe and eventually into colonial America.  This move focused on rational thought and science and the Church was threaten by it and opposed it.  This led to a cultural-religious battle front. Science vs the Roman-Catholic Inquisition.  Ultimately, this led to a compartmentalization of spiritual aspects of Christianity vs science and rational thought.   That separation or compartmentalization is prominent today.  Today we a have faith and spiritual compartment vs rational thought and science compartment.  For example, when we see someone who is schizophrenia – that is someone who hears voices in their head, we simply believe they suffers from a mental illness – “science”.  Even if we believed that person’s condition was due to demon possession, we probably wouldn’t say so publicly because that would not be “scientific or rational”. 

With that understanding of the effects of the age of enlightenment and compartmentalization, let’s go back and look at our verse.  A demon possessed man who is both blind and mute is brought to Jesus.  First of all, demon possessed is a poor translation.  A more literal translation would be “has a demon”.  So, a man who has a demon or “demonized” man was brought to Jesus and he does two things.  He heals him and delivers him from the demons – the evidence is that he is able hear and speak.  This text is very clear that Jesus healed and delivered this man from demons.  They are other examples in the gospels where Jesus casts out demons, but I believe in each of these cases looking at it from a 21^st century perspective Jesus is healing and delivering. Healing a schizophrenic person or epileptic person and also delivering them from demons.  I believe that demons are real and will take any advantage afforded them and especially anyone suffering from any mental illness.  It’s not an “either or”, it’s an “and”.  It does not belong in either science compartment or spiritual compartment in isolation.  It should be in the overlap between both compartments.  Let me give you another example, a person suffering from clinical depression will in all likelihood also have a demon telling them how worthless they are, how hopeless their situation is and how they might as well take their own life – demons taking advantage of a person’s mental illness.  In Jesus’ days, without an understanding of mental illness, they attributed the symptomatic incapacitation entirely to demons whereas today we would attribute that same incapacitation entirely to mental illness. Jesus does not compartmentalize, he heals and delivers people from demons.

Now the people who saw this were astonished. They have never seen any like this before and began to wonder if Jesus was the promised Messiah.  But the Pharisees in their own hardness of heart refusing to believe that Jesus could be the Messiah, they dismissed him and said that he was a demonized person himself and that he was driving out demons under the authority of Beelzebul – a principality or prince of demons. 

Jesus’ response was very revealing as to the nature and dominion of demons.  According to v 25-v26, Jesus says demons are organized under a kingdom domain ultimately ruled by Satan.  If we go back to Jesus’ temptation in the wildness at the start of ministry, Satan tempted Jesus by offering him all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would bow down and worship him.  This would not be much of a temptation if Satan’s kingdom did not have influential control over the ruling political powers of our world.  The apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says these powers and authorities shroud the world and its leaders in darkness.  It is in this darkness these lies from princes of the demonic realm, can take hold of entire social-political communities.  These lies are the basis for racism, hatred, anger, murder and when these negative emotions are fanned by these demonic principalities there is a recurring historical pattern of war, violence and even genocide.  We see this across every continent and every political power even in the history of the US.   These demonic lies draw upon our sinful nature to love money and power above all else and they drive us to fear the loss of the same.  Our own greed, fear of not being in control of our own financial wealth and anger over the violation of our human rights are fertile grounds for enemy to pit us against one another as we fight over limited resources or act out of vengeance.

The Apostle Paul says that it is these spiritual powers and authorities of darkness that are our real adversary – and we should not be fighting against each other.  That is the mission of the Kingdom of Satan, to maintain control over the world’s political, cultural and social systems and keep the everyone in darkness, keep everyone oppressed, contending against one another. 

So, what are these demonic entities?  The bible is not explicit in identifying what demons are. But the best explanation I have heard is that they were once members of God’s divine counsel.  Angelic beings who God had partnered with to rule the heavens that is the invisible realm in much the same way that God partners with humanity to rule the earth.  But just as humans rebelled against God, Satan led a portion of this divine counsel in rebellion again God and were cast out of heaven and down to the earth.  So these divine beings, or fallen angels are led by Satan in his rebellion against God.

Jesus goes on to explain in v28 that he is driving out demons under the authority of God, which means that the Kingdom of God has arrived.  Let me give you a couple of simple definitions of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God – his rule and reign where his will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  The Kingdom is where heaven and earth overlap.  In God’s original creation the overlap between heaven and earth was the garden of Eden.  After the fall it was his Tabernacle and later his Temple.  Wherever his Spirit dwells is the overlap between heaven and earth. 

Where was this overlapped space in Jesus’ days?  It wasn’t the Temple – It was in Jesus.  And in this overlapped space the Kingdom of Satan is defeated as clearly evidenced by Jesus’ ability to cast out demons.  The Temple, where heaven and earth overlapped was in Jerusalem but in 70 AD the Temple was completely destroyed by the Romans.  So where does God’s Spirit dwell today?  The Kingdom of God is available here and now because we are his temple – we are his new humanity that was described in the Bible Project video.  We bring Kingdom power and authority everywhere we go as long as we are submitted to Jesus.  As long as we are submitted to him to do his will, we bring the Kingdom with us.  In us, the Spirit of Jesus dwells – so that we are the overlap between heaven and earth.  Since we occupy the space between heaven and earth, we should not be compartmentalizing the material world from the spiritual domain.  We are the body of Christ; we are his Church and against us the gates of Hades shall not prevail.

So, does that mean we as Christians are immune to the deceitful lies and influences of demonic spirits?  The apostle Paul says we are a new creation in Christ, so do we immediately become transformed into Christlikeness? Do we immediate possess understanding of all things with Godly wisdom and act with Christlike behavior?  Can everyone see the loving and compassionate and yet still justice loving Jesus in the things we say and do?  I think if we are honest, the answer is maybe partially but not yet fully.   Why is that? 

We need to be wise and humble.  All of us still have some areas in our lives that are still in darkness – areas that have not been exposed to the light of Jesus.  This may be a conscious hiding – a holding back from Jesus because we are afraid of letting him be in control over some aspect of our life or we may be in denial over something.  But it could also be something that we are completely unaware of – a blind spot that others see but invisible to us.  These could be lies of the enemy that we have accepted as truth.  Anger, bitterness, unforgiveness or sin secret or not, buried deep within our soul that still troubles us.  In all of these areas, demonic attachments can form.   If we do not expose this darkness to Jesus, then we will fall short in becoming more like Jesus in character, thought and behavior.

If you think that being a born-again Christians gives you immunity against a demonic attachment, let me give you the example from the Apostle Paul. 

In his 2^nd letter to the Corinthian Church in chapter 12 verse 7 he describes a “thorn in the flesh” which he calls a “messenger of Satan” and a tormenter.  Paul pleaded with Jesus to take “it” away – 3 times.  Biblical commentators generally interpret this to mean that Paul had some sort of physical affliction or ailment.   But that is a very poor interpretation.  If it were a physical affliction or ailment, Paul would have simply said that he asked Jesus to heal him.  If the “it” was described as a messenger of God; what would we call it?  We would call it an angel.  So, what should we call a messenger of Satan and a tormentor?  We would call it a demon.  Only reason biblical commentors interpret the “it” as a physical affliction is based upon the assumption that Christians cannot be demonized.  But again, that would be a very poor interpretation of the text. So, if the apostle Paul can be demonized, what does that say about the rest of us?

Paul is a unique situation.  Jesus came to set us free from demonic strongholds – lies of the enemy that hold us captive and conformed to worldly values and pursuits.  Paul was not a captive by any stretch of the imagination – his demon kept him from becoming arrogant.  The rest of us are being held back by demonic strongholds to some extent from becoming all that Jesus would desire us to become – to become Christlike in every aspect of our being.  The war zone is between having a mind conformed to the patterns of this world or to have the mind of Christ.  Imagine life without any fear or anxiety.  No fear of the approval of man nor of failure, no fear of shame, no fear of loneliness. No fear of not having enough money or wealth. Imagine a life filled with joy and love even in difficult situations and circumstances.  Imagine life together in a community of faith – always loving and encouraging, never judgmental and critical of every minor flaw in our character.  Imagine a life where we are always accepted, not because we are perfect, but because we are beloved children of God.  One family, with Jesus as the head – remember Sandy’s Ohno comment: “Treat people like family and they become family”.  That is a picture of true freedom that comes with having the mind of Christ.  That is the good works that he has prepared in advance that we should do, partner together with – that is yoked with Jesus so that we can lavishly love people into the Kingdom of God.

If you want a mental image of what this looks like think of a salmon swimming upstream to spawn. The love of Jesus compels us to swim against the currents no matter how strong.  Climbing up and over waterfalls because when we get to the other side, that is where there is new life.  At the end of this life, we discard the old shell – that is we die like salmon, but we know that is not the end of the story.  We will be cloth in a new resurrected body in the new Jerusalem - the new and final overlap between the new heaven and new earth where Jesus will reign in the age to come.

I want to close our time together with this.  In my 10+ years of doing inner healing prayer and deliverance ministry I do not raise my voice or do any theatrics nor require the folks I’m praying for to do anything other than let the Holy Spirit in any area of their life they are withholding form him.  I really don’t do much more than lead the person to pray Psalm 139:23-24

²³Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  ²⁴See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Whatever the Holy Spirit brings to light, we pray appropriately – forgive where forgiveness is required, confess sin and repent as needed, renounce any inner vows or oaths we have made provoked by a demonic spirit especially anything to do with getting even or seeking revenge.  We renounce any lie of the enemy that we have accepted as truth.  We let Jesus into every area of our life as the Holy Spirit reveals and demons leave without much effort.  It is almost always peaceful. In the last year, the Holy Spirit has given me the privilege to pray for people in Singapore, Belgium, Nigeria, South Africa and most recently in Uganda and I say that to let you know that spiritual warfare is real, but the power of Christ goes across cultural boundaries to set people free.  The power of Jesus’ sacrificial love empowers us to love sacrificially.  In his Kingdom, as we continue to grow in transformation to Christlikeness, we gain even more power to love sacrificially while we reject the love of power.  We gain even more authority over the demonic realm, and we learn how to war against the power and principalities of darkness rather than against one another.