Confronting Dark Forces

In 1973, Warner Brothers released a movie called the Exorcist that set the standard for the way we have seen demon possession for the past fifty years. The studio did not expect the movie to perform that well, but it ended up being a massive success. The movie changed the way people thought about demon possession. As popular media has a habit of doing, it gave people a visual representation of what demon possession might look like, and for many, that became reality. The movie is a horror movie, and a horror movie is designed to scare you. This creates in us, the viewers, a sense of fear for a thing we do not understand. There is so much misinformation regarding demon possession, and today we want to explore this topic and get some facts straight.

The story we are looking at today can be found in three of the four gospels. John does not include this story. The story comes at varying positions in each gospel account. Matthew includes it well after the calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John. Mark places it right after the calling of these men. Luke places it before the calling of the four fishermen. This is done for thematic purposes according to each gospel writer, and it provides some difficulty in determining where it fits in the sequence of events. It seems to fit best after the calling of the fishermen.

Two weeks ago, we looked at the story of Jesus calling four fishermen to follow him and they would become fishers of men. Peter, his brother Andrew, and their friends James and John left their fishing business for a fishing business of another kind. From there, Jesus is continuing his Galilean tour, going from town to town preaching in synagogues. Jesus is in Capernaum, a town off the coast of the sea of Galilee, where he preaches in the synagogue and is confronted by a demon possessed man.

Luke 4:31–37 NASB95

And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.” And the report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district.

Jesus was seen as one who taught with authority. He was not like the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus came in teaching a new thing: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Over the three years Jesus was in active ministry, he taught about the kingdom of God, gradually revealing himself as their long-awaited Messiah, and the Son of God. To show his power and authority, he performed miracles of various kinds. He turned water into wine, he provided the record breaking catch of fish for Peter and his crew, healed the sick, and more. Here, he performs a miracle of another kind. He casts out a demon from a man.

The people in the synagogue were astonished at Jesus’ ability to cast out this demon, but exorcism was practiced by religious leaders in his day. So what makes what Jesus did so different from what was done by others? We have to understand some of the practices of exorcism from this time period. Jewish exorcism at the time of Jesus often involved the burning of herbs, music, and submerging the subject in water. There were variations of these rituals practiced to remove the demon from a person. Here, Jesus merely speaks and the demon leaves. We have to understand that nobody did this in the time of Jesus. No religious leader would ever dare to just command a demon to leave a person. What Jesus did was unheard of. Nobody had that power. No wonder the people were astonished at this.

Casting out demons was a part of Jesus’ ministry, but it does not seem to be a major part, nor do we see much of that today. Is demon possession still a thing? What do we need to know? As we look at this story, let me give you a few keys to confronting dark forces in modern times.

Demonic activity is not to be feared. It is to be confronted.

When the demon possessed man came into the synagogue, the demon knew who Jesus was and Jesus confronted him. Jesus did not need demons telling everyone who he was.He wanted people to discover the truth for themselves. He was not going to leave this man alone. He had the power to confront the demon and remove him, so he did. Jesus’ entire ministry was about confronting darkness.

We fear what we do not understand. There is much we do not understand about demonic activity, but let me remind you that demons are real and they are active in today’s world. This is not something we should fear, but confront. At the root of this subject for Christians today is waging war against spiritual forces. I preached a sermon series on the armor of God last year. This will be our VBS theme this year. For us the focus is understanding that there are dark forces in this world and we are called to stand against them as salt and light. We fail if we get scared by what we see and do nothing. We are called to boldly confront the darkness with the truth of the Word of God.

Demon possession may not be common, but it should not be ignored.

Has anyone cast out a demon lately? Have you known anyone who has? I imagine the answer to both questions is no. The answer is no because true demon possession is extremely rare. Why do we not see more of this type of activity in today’s world? I believe it is because it is a tactic of the devil, not the tactic of the devil. There are greater tactics he uses to get the job done that are less extreme. Even so, demon possession can occur, but it is not common. We should not ignore the reality of demon possession, but we should not obsess over it either.

Why don’t we see more of this activity today? The devil can get the job done with less. Why resort to something like demon possession when something like materialism works just fine? Why do demons need to possess people when idolatry will get the job done? Why does a demon need to possess someone when pride, arrogance, and ego will do just fine? There are plenty of effective and even more cunning ways to keep a person from the gospel than demon possession.

So while it may not be common, we should not ignore demon possession, but we should not be obsessed with it either. There is a greater problem to focus on.

The greater problem we must address is the wickedness of the human heart.

The truth of the matter is that even without demonic influence, we are wicked all by ourselves. One of the lies we believe as a modern society is that human beings are basically good. The Bible disagrees. God says in Jeremiah 17:9

Jeremiah 17:9 NASB95

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

The human heart is the true culprit for human sinfulness. The devil and his demons get too much credit. You and I are born with sinful natures bent toward evil. Even if there were no demons, you would still sin all on your own. So we must be careful not to blame our sinfulness on the influence of demons. We need only to look at the deceitfulness of the human heart.

This is why God sent his Son to die in our place, so that we could receive a new heart. There are two major covenants in the Bible: The old covenant and the new covenant. The first covenant was given to the people of Israel and laid out the terms for their relationship with God. If they were to remain God’s people and remain in the land God was giving them, there were laws that needed to be followed. The law of God revealed the heart and character of God, but also showed that no human being can live up to God’s standard. We have a natural bent toward rebellion against God’s law. We think we can define our own standard and measure ourselves against it, and delude ourselves into believing that our standard is God’s standard, and therefore we meet that standard. The old covenant shows us that we lie to ourselves.

God stated in Ezekiel and Jeremiah that he would make a new covenant with Israel, a covenant we are all invited into, where the law of God will be written on their hearts.

Ezekiel 11:19 NASB95

“And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

He says it again:

Ezekiel 36:26 NASB95

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Then in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 31:33 NASB95

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

This new covenant was ratified by the blood of Jesus, offering himself as payment for our sins once and for all so that we might receive a heart transplant. The solution to the true human problem is Jesus Christ. So while demon possession might be possible and demonic activity is surely active, we must not be sidetracked from the true human issue, which is we can do evil all by ourselves and the only thing that can overcome that is Christ.

Therefore,

True healing in either the physical and spiritual sense comes from Jesus Christ.

There are people in the world today who are plagued by demonic forces. There may be some who are genuinely demon possessed (though I would say it is quite rare). We need to be aware of the demonic activity. We need to be prepared to engage it, and we need to remember not to fear it, but have courage and confront it.

The apostle Paul says,

2 Timothy 1:7 NASB95

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

Do your homework. Pay careful attention to what is going on in the world. Do not stop at being disgusted by it. Speak the truth in love. Remember that the man the demon possessed was the victim. Jesus cast out the demon so the man could be restored. We combat the darkness so that men and women may be restored to a right relationship with God. Remember what I asked you a few weeks ago? If you knew a life was at stake, to what lengths would you go to save it? Remember that is on the line every day.