Jesus and the Spirits
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
The spiritual world is real.
The best explanation is that it’s probably like another dimension - a higher plane or manner of existing that is hard for our minds to comprehend. But it does exist, and it is real, and there are persons who live there.
We are body & spirit, but in our present state we cannot see into the Spiritual world unless we are given special insight.
We live right next to this unseen world, often oblivious to it’s goings on. That is until we die, and our soul or spirit is disconnected from our body an continues on this other plane of existence.
Now, a pertinent question is, how should we interact with the spiritual world? What crossover should we pursue?
And, how does that world interact with the physical world?
And what does Jesus Christ have to do with all of it?
Well today we’re going to walk through a passage from the New Testament in the Bible and it will be an excellent guide to explore these questions. We’re in the book called the Acts of the Apostles, written by a fellow named Luke. Luke was an eyewitness to some of what happens in Acts, and he gathered reports and information to record the stuff that he didn’t see.
Our passage is relating a story that was connected to the missionary work of Paul the Apostle. He was a former persecutor of the Church, but Jesus revealed himself to Paul and he converted. He became zelous for the proclamation of the Gospel all across the Roman empire.
Lets start getting into it.
God Works through people & things
God Works through people & things
It’s a bit of a trope these days in fantasy novels and movies, it’s a bit of a trope to have some magical item. Think of Susan’s Horn from the Narnia Chronicles. The one ring, or Sting, or the Palantir and many others in Lord of the Rings. Excalibur for King Arthur. If it’s not too obscure, maybe you read Deltora’s quest by Emily Rodda, where there was a magical belt with 7 magical gems, ech with it’s own power.
I could go on,
But the idea of magical amulets or artefacts or relics is well known. And not just from fantasy, we humans have through history has various magical items of our own.
In Christian history probably some of the most famous are relics of the saints. Items or preserved body parts that are said to impart grace or favour or other things.
Pagan (and by pagan I mean non-Christian), pagan religions around the world have an abundance of examples of such items.
Some of these items are forgery or frauds, but it seems some have had some real spiritual power or significance. But I would suggest to you, that the power of these items is not in the item itself, but the spiritual forces behind the physical item.
We see in the Bible that there are several “magical” items that appear, such as when a dead guy was thrown into Elisha’s grave. When the dead guy’s body touched Elisha’s body, he came right back to life (see 2 Kings 13). The is the famous Ark of the Covenant - touch it wrong and you die. The Urim and Thumin were divining tools used by priests of YHWH to hear his will.
But I would suggest to you, that the power of these items is not in the item itself, but the spiritual forces behind the physical item.
And that is obvious in our passage in Acts. Read it with me:
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
Lets break it down:
First we see that God was doing the miracles. God was the power and force behind there supernatural events, and he used Paul, and these items that had touched Paul, to accomplish these miraculous events.
Given that we don’t have handkerchiefs and aprons of Paul floating around Christians churches, healing anyone who touches them, it would seem these are temporarily “magical”. Their power to heal was for a limited time, and connected to God’s purposes through Paul to spread the Gospel.
In the Bible, the miraculous is not for it’s own sake. It is always an appologetic - it is always to reinforce the revealed Word of God. It is always to demonstrate the God is over all the gods and spirits and human powers.
When Jesus went preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven, he would prioritise preaching over healing, because healing physical ailments was not his main game - healing their spiritual brokenness was much more important. That could only come through Gospel proclamation.
When the Apostles went out establishing the Church, the same thing happened. God by his Holy Spirit accomplished supernatural wonders to reinforce the message of Salvation in Jesus.
And thus we have this interesting footnote of the miraculous handkerchiefs and aprons. Probably more like a rag or sweat towel, don’t be imagining a white lace edged hankerchief. When he wasn’t preaching, Paul was a tent-maker by trade. He was a tradie, working hard. It looks like some people took his work apron and shop-towel and it healed them!
Now what was the effect? Sickness left them, and evil spirits came out.
I’ll talk more about evil spirits in a moment. But let me just wrap up this point by saying - it is possible to have a “magic item,” and even people who perform miraculous signs but the power comes from whoever is behind it.
The Bible has examples of miraculous things being done by both the LORD God. But there is also signs by other spiritual forces, for instance:
Magic arts of the Egyptians
Satan taking Jesus or showing Jesus a vision of a very high place and of the temple
Miracles in the Revelation that will convince the world - even a fake resurrection.
Divination by pagan priests
So what doe we do with this information? Well...
We acknowledge that there is a supernatural world, that can intersect with ours.
That spiritual forces can work through people and objects
That just because something is miraculous, does not mean it’s from God.
God’s miracles confirm and reinforce his revealed Word.
That the most important thing is not to get miraculous deliverance or healing, or even just to satisfy your curiosity, the most important thing is to find salvation on Jesus Christ - the one who has conquered death. And the one who has power over all other Spirits, including Evil Spirits, which leads me to...
Spirits are not Safe
Spirits are not Safe
Lets talk about what the spiritual world is like.
Who are these other beings, other persons who inhabit this spiritual world??
Species:
Seraphim - Burning ones, attend the Throne of YHWH
Cherubim - Guardians of Sacred Space
Elohim - “gods”, Sons of God, spiritual beings, disembodied spirit (Samuel)
YHWH - THE Elohim, God of Hosts, Lord of Lords, God of Gods
Job Descriptions
Angel - Messenger
Archangel
Spirit / Evil Spirit / Demon
Satan/Devil - The Accuser
There are two broad categories of spiritual being: Loyal & Disloyal to YHWH. aka Good & Evil.
YHWH
made them all, some have rebelled
sets the boundaries, lets them continue in their rebellion for a time
promises to judge them
What about us, what interaction should we have with them? There are good and bad spirits is it ok to try and talk to them?
God’s people have consistently been prohibited from trying to interface with the spiritual word. The only allowable interface is with YHWH himself.
He has been known to use angels, and Urim/Thumin. But for us primarily we interface with God through prayer, and we hear him through his Word.
As for other spirits and spiritual powers
No worshipping praying to other elohim, including sacrificing to them.
No talking to the dead or other spiritual beings (necromancy, mediums)
No fortunetelling, interpreting omens.
Some of this stuff works! Some are frauds, but the Bible has examples where it works, including pagan divination, Saul using the Medium at Endor to speak to the dead prophet Samuel, the fortuneteller who annoyed Paul, other magicians, the magi who read the stars. Some of it is real, but God’s people have nothing to do with it!
Why? In part because the evil spirits are at work to derail, to deceive, to divert and to destroy. Why would you go to them for help when they want to kill you? And how are you to know who’s good and who’s evil? Even Satan himself can appear as an angel of light!
Anyway, I could go on, but lets tie this back to our passage in Acts. Read the story with me:
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.
Possession - people being possessed by evil spirits, demons.
There were start-ups, entrepreneurs who took it upon themselves to cast out demons. hey heard that the name of Jesus was pretty effective, so they start using it in their exorcisms.
What happens?
But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
Beat them up and made them streak through town! Quite funny.
If you’re going to invoke the name of Jesus, you better have Jesus to back you up. You better be loyal to Jesus. You better have joined yourself to Jesus and come under his protection.
The spirits are powerful beings. Even regular angels are overwhelming to people. We are not the strongest beings in the world. We should not go messing around with spirits that we don’t understand, especially not while outside Jesus.
But if you are in Christ you are safe. No possession.
Jesus is our security from the evil spirits
Jesus has defeated the evil spirits and put them to open shame
They tried to take him out
they tried to opposed God’s plans
They had deceived humanity onto the mess we’re in
Jesus defeats them by overcoming their war against humanity & YHWH.
Jesus defeats them disarming them. They have no claim on his people.
If you ever come face to face with an evil spirit, invoke the name of Jesus Christ to cast them out.
God uses all kinds of things to glorify Himself
God uses all kinds of things to glorify Himself
And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
True Loyalty means Repentance
True Loyalty means Repentance
When we turn away from the other spiritual forces, whether it be leaving Hinduism, wicca or any other number of spiritual pursuits, it means turning our back on all of it.
Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
So What?
So What?
God works through people & things
Spirits are not safe
God uses all kinds of things to glorify Himself
True Loyalty means Repentance
