demon-possessed

Day 38 – Matthew 12:22-37; Mark 3:20-30

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The Kingdom Has Arrived.

Matthew 12:22-37; Mark 3:20-30

“But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.” – Matthew 12:28 NLT

The utter blindness of the religious leaders towards Jesus and His claim to be the Messiah seemed to be limitless. It didn’t matter what He said or did, they refused to recognize the power and authority that oozed from every pore of His being. His very words had power. At His command the seas calmed, the lame walked, the blind gained sight, the demon-possessed were set free, water turned to wine, and the dead rose from the grave alive. He miraculously fed 5,000 people with a meager meal that was barely enough for a single boy. He walked on water. He forgave sins. He taught with a power and authority that no one had ever seen before. Thousands flocked to see Him. And yet the religious leaders were blinded by their own arrogance, pride, self-righteousness and greed-driven ambition.

Their logic was illogical. The conclusions they reached were far-fetched and made no sense given the overwhelming evidence. How in the world could they seriously believe that the reason behind Jesus’ ability to cast out demons was that He was demon-possessed Himself? They had just witnessed Jesus and His encounter with a man who had three strikes against him. He was blind and mute. But as if that wasn’t bad enough – he had a demon. But none of that was a problem for Jesus. He simply healed him. The crowd was amazed and began to wonder if He really could be the Messiah. But the Pharisees reached a different conclusion, saying, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons” (Matthew 12:24 NLT).

It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that these men could have witnessed something so amazing and still have written off as a trick of Satan. In essence, they were attributing to the enemy what was an obvious work of God. Which is why Jesus warned them about blasphemy against the Spirit. He tells them that to attribute to Satan anything that was a work of God through the Spirit was unforgivable. It was dangerous territory. But they refused to believe that God was at work in their midst and that the Kingdom of God had arrived. Their very words revealed the true nature of their hearts. And God was going to hold them accountable for both their words and actions.

But the real point is that Jesus clearly claims to be stronger than Satan. That is the reason He was able to cast out demons with a simple command. He gives them a much more logical conclusion to reach. “But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you” (Matthew 12:28 NLT). Why? Because only God would have the kind of power to defeat Satan. “Only someone even stronger – someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house” (Matthew 12:29 NLT). Which is exactly what they had just watched Jesus do. But they couldn’t bring themselves to see it or admit it. And so they would miss out on it – the Kingdom that is. They had the very Messiah of God standing in their presence. They were witness to the power of God working right before their eyes. But instead of confess Jesus as the Messiah and His power as coming from God, they attributed it all to the enemy. They gave Satan credit for what had been done by God. Not the wisest move in the world.

And yet, how often do we fail to see God at work in our midst? How many times have we been blind to the working of God in our lives, even occasionally blaming the enemy, because things didn’t turn out quite the way we had hoped. Jesus was not what the Pharisees expected. He did not come in the manner they supposed He would. He didn’t look like they thought He would. He didn’t teach and speak in a way that tracked with their conclusions and their own dogma. He was not only a disappointment, but a nuisance. So they plotted to get rid of Him. They looked right past the evidence because it failed to prove or support what they were wanting to see. And we can be guilty of the same thing. We can refuse to see Jesus working in our lives because He doesn’t do it the way we want Him to. When He doesn’t keep our agenda, we can easily become blinded to His presence in our lives. Just like the Pharisees. But the Kingdom has come. And He rules and reigns according to His terms, not ours. He does as He wishes. He works in our lives according to His plan. His power is on display every day for us to see, but we can easily become blind to it. The proof of who He is is all around us. May we open our eyes and see His power at work and praise Him accordingly.

Father, forgive me for failing to recognize and acknowledge the power of Your Son at work in and around my life. I know there are times that I give Satan more credit than I do Jesus because things don’t appear to be going the way I wanted them to. But He is King. He is sovereign. He is in complete control. He is stronger than Satan and He has tied him up and plundered his house. May I see that increasingly more clearly with each passing day. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Day 21 – Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-34; Luke 4:38-41

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At His Command.

Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-34; Luke 4:38-41

“This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, ‘He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.’” – Matthew 8:17 NLT

When the people in Capernaum had witnessed Jesus cast the demon out of the man inside the walls of their very own synagogue, they exclaimed, “What sort of new teaching is this? It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey his orders!” (Mark 1:27 NLT). They were blown away by what they had seen. Jesus spoke and even the demons obeyed Him. He had authority. His words had power. He was more than just another itinerant rabbi roaming the landscape of Palestine recruiting disciples. This man was special.

And as Jesus made His way from the synagogue to the home of Simon Peter, He found Himself confronted with another need, the mother-in-law of His host was sick with a fever. Luke tells us He rebuked the fever and it left her. And her healing was immediate and complete, because she got up at once and prepared a meal for them. By that evening, news had spread and crowds began to gather, bringing their sick and demon-possessed friends and family members to Jesus. Mark says, “The whole town gathered at the door to watch” (Mark 1:33 NLT. But there is an interesting dynamic going on in these passages. You have two groups interacting with Jesus and they each give us a vastly different perspective of just how they view who Jesus is. The people see a powerful healer. They obviously believe He can heal or they wouldn’t be going through the effort of coming to Him with their various maladies. They aren’t really sure who this man is, but if He can give them release from their physical ailments and deliver them from demon possession, that is all that really matters. They are stuck on a physical plane. But the demons are spiritual creatures and they have a much different perspective on just who Jesus is. Luke tells us that when Jesus commanded the demons to come out of an individual, they obeyed, but not before shouting, “You are the Son of God!” (Luke 4:41 NLT). Luke says that Jesus rebuked them and refused to let them speak because they knew He was the Messiah. They were fully aware of just who Jesus was, and they understood and feared the significance of His arrival in what had been their domain up until that time. He was competition. He was to be feared because He had power over them. He wasn’t just some rabbi, He was the very Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus was their worst nightmare realized.

It is interesting that Jesus refused to let the demons acknowledge His true identity. But He knew that if the people began to connect the dots and realized that Jesus was the Messiah, as the demons stated, they would misunderstand. Their view of who the Messiah would be and what He would do was radically different than the role for which Jesus had come. They were looking for a conquering king and a political leader to liberate them from the oppression of the Romans. Jesus knew that the people, including His own disciples, would attempt to force His hand and try to get Him to set up His earthly kingdom now. But Jesus was on His Father’s timetable, and He came to provide a different kind of liberation. He was going to set them free, but not from Roman rule. He was going to bring them salvation, but not from political oppression. The demons seemed to know this. They inherently understood that Jesus was out to do war on a spiritual plane. They had experienced His power and had been forced by Him to give up hard-fought territory. They were no match for Him. And it scared them.

It is interesting that many people today are looking to Jesus for only what they can get from Him, and their interest is purely physical in nature. They want better lives, happier marriages, more successful careers, better behaved kids, and trouble-free futures. They fail to realize that the realm in which Jesus works is a spiritual one. He came to do spiritual warfare with a spiritual enemy. He came to deliver from spiritual captivity and to heal spiritual diseases. This is not to say that Jesus cannot or will not heal us from physical sickness, but His main concern has and always will be our spiritual condition. He is out to restore us to spiritual wholeness and completeness. He wants to transform our hearts and radically change our inner beings so that we become increasingly like Him. Our greatest desire should be for spiritual healing. We should constantly look to Jesus and see Him for who He is, the Son of God, with the power and authority to radically transform our inner lives and completely restore our sin-sick hearts.

Father, it is so easy to get stuck on a physical plane and lose sight that our greatest problem is a spiritual one. We are spiritual creatures and the battle we fight each day is a spiritual one. Keep us focused on the real reason for which Your Son came. Don’t let us lose sight of the prize and become distracted by short-term fixes that relegate Jesus to some kind of life coach who is here to make our physical lives better. Give us eyes to see life from a spiritual perspective. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Day 20 – Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:31-37

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Authority and Power.

Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:31-37

“Jesus cut him short. ‘Be quiet! Come out of the man,’ he ordered. At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him.” – Mark 1:25-26 NLT

When Jesus entered into the world in human form, it was like light penetrating the darkness. His presence would prove to be a shock to the collective system. The status quo was disrupted and the spiritual atmosphere was altered in a major way. As Jesus began His public ministry, there was a spiritual war that was taking place behind the scenes. We saw in His temptation by Satan in the wilderness, that the powers of hell were aligned against Him. We saw after His birth, that spiritually dark forces even tried to eliminate Him through the mass execution of all the baby boys, a sinister plan instigated by Herod. Now we see Jesus stepping into the synagogue in Capernaum, and immediately being confronted by a demon-possessed man. Here was this man, perhaps a regular attendee of the synagogue, suddenly confronted with the presence of the Son of God, the Messiah. The evil spirit that possessed him knew instantly who Jesus was. He began shouting at Jesus, “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24 NLT). This demon knew that Jesus was not going to allow him to have free reign in this man’s life any longer. He also knew that because of who Jesus was, He was not going to tolerate the rule and reign of Satan in this world. He had come to bring release to those in captivity. He had come to bring sight to the blind and freedom to those being oppressed. He was penetrating the spiritual darkness with His presence and power.

As the Holy One of God, He had authority given to Him by His Father, to speak on His behalf. Jesus authority was going to become an ongoing point of debate and contention between He and the religious leaders. They would question His authority regularly. They would doubt His God-given right to rule and reign. But that day in the synagogue, that solitary demon had not doubts about the authority and power of Jesus Christ. When Jesus spoke, the demon listened, and obeyed. The people who witnessed this event were shocked and amazed by what they had seen. They were probably not surprised at the presence of a demon-possessed man in their midst. Because of the spiritual darkness in which they lived at the time, demon possession was probably a regular and fairly typical occurrence. But what amazed them was Jesus. “Amazed, the people exclaimed, ‘What authority and power this man’s words possess! Even the spirits obey him, and they flee at his command!'” (Luke 4:36 NLT). Jesus was like no one they had ever seen before. He had a power like nothing they had ever witnessed before. He spoke and the demons obeyed. He didn’t just talk a good game, He brought change. He had the power to make a difference. Jesus was not going to leave the world the same in which He found it when He came. He was a game-changer, who was about to shift the balance of spiritual power in a new and much-needed direction. And He is still doing the same thing today. His word has power. He speaks with authority. He penetrates the darkness in our lives. He changes things. He disrupts our comfortable worlds. He wages spiritual war with the enemy. And He makes a difference in the lives of every one He touches.

Father, thank You for the authority and power You gave to Your Son that has made forgiveness possible, grace available, and eternal life attainable. Help me to recognize His power and to never cease to be amazed by it. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org