Jesus' Authority Over Demons (Parts 1 & 2)

Introduction

One of the greatest deceptions of our day is that Satan and his minions are not actively working in the world around us. When you factor in the increasing apostasy of the church today, Satan is able to freely and openly move and work in our world, including our churches. What most people don’t understand is the clandestine nature of the ministry of demons. When most people think of demons, they use Hollywood as a reference; a person frothing at the mouth speaking with an unnatural tongue, while they thrash around the room. That’s very rare as we’ll talk about shortly.

Most of the demonic work of Satan is hidden and subtle. He’s intentionally surreptitious. That’s his nature. Satan father of lies. The Bible tells us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). And he leads counterfeit order that is becoming increasingly powerful, deceptive, and perhaps most alarmingly, influential within the church as we move closer to the Rapture of the church. Jesus warned the churches of Revelation that this would happen and they were to have nothing to do with anything associated with such things. So what has happened is most churches are essentially impotent spiritually.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:1: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. The question is what are these doctrines today? One of the most prevalent spirits at work in the church today and in America today is the Spirit of Jezebel. This will probably be a topic for a Wednesday night, but the deception of a Jezebel is a spirit that appears outwardly religious, but it is doing so for control of those in leadership. It is often rebellious toward leadership, especially male leadership. Jesus warned the church in Thyatira not to tolerate this spirit.

Other places we can see the doctrine of demons active in the churches is the blending of eastern religions into our worship and practices. Now what are some of these? Things like yoga poses, unbiblical worship songs that contain new age themes, the idea that you are a little god, name-it and claim-it teachings, crystals, the practice of healing through oils, and the like. One of the most recent occult practices to infiltrate the church is the Enneagram. This personality test is not from a psychologist nor from a Christian. It was created by a man named Claudio Naranjo, who said that he created the Enneagram test from “automatic writing,“ which is a dangerous occult practice of getting messages from unfamiliar spirits. Even though the Enneagram has been touted as Christian, it has no biblical basis.

Satan father of lies and deception and delights at introducing something innocently that opens doors for demonic influence. So what is the church to do and how do we respond to these things? Well, Grace Community Church is a church that is fortunate enough to have become a church that sits under the full council of the Word of God. I hope you understand that most Christians all over the country spend their time focusing on their problems and their feelings rather than the riches of God and His Word. Sadly, there are many who wonder around in a fog trying to find Jesus. We can’t have that here and in these last days.

Romans 1:16 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

So we come to the fourth chapter of Luke today and also next week of an incredible event that is taking place with Jesus in Capernaum. This is event that starts out in a Synagogue provides us with a transition as Luke transitions from demonstrating who Jesus was as a person who is the Messiah and the Son of God to Luke demonstrating Jesus’ power and authority. We will see that Jesus has power and authority over demons, sickness, nature, and religious teaching. All of this is going to unfold for us. Luke is demonstrating this to us so that we may be certain that he has the complete power and authority to save us from the grip of sin. That all starts to unfold as Jesus is teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum. Lets take a look:

Luke 4:31–37 ESV

31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. 36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

Now, please keep in mind as we study this today and next week, that if Jesus is going to save sinners, he is going to have to snatch them out of the kingdom of this world; the Kingdom of Satan. That’s what Jesus meant when he said that the Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent will take it by force (Matt 11:12). If Jesus is going to save sinners, He's going to have to get them away from Satan whose children they are. Jesus said John 8:44, the unconverted sinners of the world are the children of Satan. Ephesians 2 says that they are literally children of disobedience, 2 Corinthians 4 says the god of this world has blinded their minds lest the light of the gospel should shine unto them. 1 John 5:19 says the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The whole world is in the dominion of darkness, the darkness of Satan.

If I asked you why did Jesus appear and come to the earth, you most of you would answer that Jesus came to save sinners and you are right, but not entirely. 1 John 3:8 tells us that m”The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” You have to understand that this is not the sanitized gospel that many preachers preach today. Most preachers are more concerned about feelings and modern issues like social justice than the gospel of Jesus. Some of these guys don’t even understand the nuances of social justice, much less are able to preach about it. If you want to preach on social justice, preach the gospel of Jesus. Without the gospel, it’s a worldly order of justice instead of God’s order. That can only come by the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of the Cross. Sin places us in the dominion of darkness where we are continuously under the influence of Satan and his demons.

I remember when I was a pastor in South Carolina and I joined the police department to provide extra income. I interviewed with the Chief of Police, Jon Zumalt, and he concluded his interview with me by telling me that his only concern was that as a pastor I would constantly see the best in people as a police officer I would have to do the opposite. I’ll never forget my response to him. I said, “Chief, the reason I preach the gospel is because our world has a sin problem. In every person I see the effects of sin and Satan. We all need a savior. So I would say the two jobs aren’t that far apart.” He hired me on the spot. Sin places and imprisons us under the dominion of darkness. We are poor, blind, imprisoned, and oppressed until the power of Jesus sets us free. That is why when the full gospel is preached the demons respond fiercely. I experienced this response numerous times when I started preaching at Grace which is why two months after I started here I wound up in ICU. It was a demonic response to the preaching of the gospel. We don’t need to fear demons, it is the demons that fear us when we shake off their lies and put on the garments of righteousness. So here are four things that causes them to tremble:

Demons Tremble at the Preaching of the Word of God

Luke tells us that after escaping the crowds in Nazareth Jesus went to the synagogue in Capernaum. Now Nazareth is in the mountain some 1200 feet above sea level. Capernaum is on the shore of the sea of Galilee which is roughly 650 feet below Sea Level. Capernaum was a thriving fishing village when Jesus was on the earth. Today if you go there, you will find the remnant of the village including the Synagogue mentioned here and a church built over the spot believed to be the location of Peter’s mother-in-law. Which means what? Peter was married. I’ve been to Capernaum and stood in the remaining structure of the Synagogue. Some argue that it’s not the same structure, but at the very least it is of Byzantine era.

Jesus’ ministry was primarily a preaching ministry. When Jesus shows up and starts preaching in Capernaum, the crowd are amazed. Why? Because his word (the logos) possessed authority. What does this mean. The word "amazed" means to be stunned or shocked, literally to be out of yourself. It could be translated “dazed,” or “dumbfounded”. Their theology came second-hand. In the words of one ancient rabbi, “I have never in my life said a thing which I did not hear from my teachers.” But Jesus spoke on his own authority. They never heard anything like this and it was the gospel. And His message came with such force, authority, or power used interchangeably. You know how much power truth has. It produces clarity, and conviction.

Romans 1:16 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

In doing so, the ministry of Jesus elicits a response no one was expecting. As Jesus is preaching, a man who was sitting in the congregation, stands up and yells. “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” (v. 34). So as Jesus is preaching the gospel with truth and conviction, this guy stands up and screams “Ha!” is what your Bibles say. It is a cry of agony in the Greek. It means, “leave me alone!” It’s a cry of despair. I’ve had similar instances happen to me as I preach. Some happened right here in this church, at least one person I know told me that when I preached they had anxiety attacks. But my guess is it had to do with demonic influence. That’s not demonic possession and there’s a difference. Demons cannot be in the presence of the Word of God and the liberation of the the Gospel. So either, we flee from the devil or we flee from the one who is liberating us.

In the village of Kittaa in Guinea Bissau, the people there are in the worst kind of false religion and that is witchcraft and demonic worship. The stories we come back with are incredible. I remember praying with Vlidimere, who was a demonic in the village. As soon as we started preaching, he came out and was yelling and cursing us. He wasn’t cursing us - he was cursing the Word of God. He wanted us to stop. There is no magic formula to set a person free. Only the power of Christ can come and deliver a person and eventually that happened. Another time we were praying for a woman and the moment she was delivered the demon bolted out of here and ran right past me as it ran down the path. Vladimere was the only one I heard speak because demons don’t like to blow their cover. But during the ministry of Jesus that changes and as Jesus begins to minister, the power is so great that they can’t restrain themselves and they blow their cover. The demon in our text screams in the middle of Jesus’ sermon. He’s being tormented by Jesus’ words.

Demons Fear The Purpose of the Gospel

Another thing the demon says to Jesus was a question. “What have you to do with us?” It’s an interesting translation in the Greek and it literally means, “What is to us and to you?” The phrase implies that the two parties involved have nothing to do with each other. The idea here is that the demon is attempted to create distance between him and Jesus by indicating there is no business or affiliation with each other. What the demon is really saying is, “What are you coming after us. Why are you attacking us?” It’s a defensive exclamation because the preach of the Gospel was an assault on the demon. The demon knew that the truth of God was an attack on all the other demons as well, so he responds with “What are you attacking us?”

“The worst thing that threatens a demon is the preaching of the gospel. The clear profound, powerful, accurate preaching of Christ and his salvation cause the demons to panic.” My son, like most children his age, is scared at night. It’s amazing because he asks me to play the Word of God on my phone when he is scared. So I play my Dwell app and his quickly find comfort and goes to sleep. That’s the power and the purpose on the Word of God in the demonic realm.

The demons know why Jesus is there. “I know who you are, - the Holy One of God.” They know exactly who Jesus is because they were once the angels under Jesus’ rule. According to Revelation 12 one-third of them fell when Satan led a revolt against God. Incidentally we don’t see this kind of manifestation anywhere in the Old Testament. It’s not until Jesus shows up and starts preaching that this kind of activity starts taking place. As I said before, demons are not overt in nature. They work clandestinely and don’t like to expose themselves because they are manipulators. But when the Son of God shows up in your city and your a demon hearing the pure Word of God, they react in torment.

Demons are tormented spirits. Demons live in constant fear because they know that they are going to be bound by Jesus for 1000 years and thrown into the lake of fire. They can read revelation too and they know there is a time coming soon when they will be destroyed. Look at verse 34, “have you come to destroy us?”

Some of you know this story, but one year I was heading to Guinea Bissau and leading up to this trip I experienced violent reactions from demonic forces. There was a confirmation that a spirit was sent to prevent me from going. I won’t go into all the details, but by the day I arrived at the airport, I was feeling the fear of the demon over me that was sent to try to stop me from going. I was in the security line with beads of sweat on my face and it’s amazing that they didn’t stop me.

As we waited to board the plane I literally was picking up the phone for Andrea to come and get me. I asked a couple of the guys to pray with me. But it was the Word of God that chased the demon away. “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of counsel and might.” When you are feeling the crush of Satan in your life, the only thing that will deliver you from him is the Word of God. There are no magic formulas, holy water, or incantations. Just the pure and powerful Word of God

Demons Fear the Person of Jesus

Demons can and do influence people . They influence us through false doctrine (1 Tim 4:1), immorality and temptations of the flesh (1 Tim 4:1), through attitudes of pride, jealousy, divisiveness, pride (James 3:13-16). All of this is temptation of control us, torment us, and keep us from the saving work that can only be found in the Gospel.

The purpose and work of the Gospel is deliverance. It’s not a ticket to ride. It’s not a bypass judgement to get into heaven card. It is to deliver us from the power of Satan and the bondages of sin. Deliverance is an issue that needs to be addressed. If we're going to be delivered from the world of demonic power and influence, then Jesus Christ, who is our deliverer must have power over that kingdom, right? It's one thing for Him to resist the power of Satan in His holy perfection. It's quite another thing for Him to break the power of Satan over a sinner.

“Jesus came to save sinners and sinners are subjects of Satan, children of the devil, if they literally are controlled by the spirit of Satan working in them, if they are under demonic control, if they're held in bondage, if they're in great massive fortifications of demonic ideologies where they are prisoners, if Jesus is going to deliver them, if He's going to justify them, if He's going to redeem them, if He's going to regenerate them, if He's going to adopt them, He's also going to have to deliver them.” (MacAurthur) I don't think most Christians understand that today.

So when this demon within this guys cries out, the first thing that Jesus does is silence him. “Be silent and come out of him!” Well first, Satan is the Father of Lies. His speaking out is to create confusion and discredit Jesus, not just identify him as Messaih. God doesn’t need publicity from the kingdom of darkness, that just confuses the issue. Luke 4:41

Luke 4:41 ESV

41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

Luke 8:28 ESV

28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”

Satan is the author of confusion and demons can put the truth in the mouth of sinners as pat of his great deception. This raises an obvious question: “Are people still possessed by demons today? The answer is yes. We are in a spiritual battle, and the cosmic forces of darkness are still fighting against us (see Eph. 6:12). These powers seek to gain control any way they can. They are often at work promoting evil in the structures of sinful society, but in their wickedness, they sometimes seek to dominate particular individuals.” (Ryken).

It is also important to know that demon possession and ordinary temptation are not the same thing. In some Christian circles it has become popular to attribute every sin to a particular demon. Someone would say, I have a demon of pride; people who eat too much have a demon of gluttony; and so on. When people talk this way, they are really blaming Satan for their own sinful behavior.

Demon possession and mental illness are also not the same thing. Not everyone who has a delusion is under demonic control, although demons can exacerbate mental illness and often seem to attack people who are spiritually or psychologically weak. Demon possession and other physical disorders are not the same thing.

Where does Jesus dwell today? Some would say at the right hand of the Father and that’s correct. Galatians 2:20, "I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me." Do you think that terrifies the demons? It's not the temple of idols. If you are born again, your body is the temple of Christ. What do you have to be afraid of? Demons are afraid of you. You bring into their realm the presence of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV

17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

If Isaiah panicked when he saw God, what do you think a demon does? Isaiah was a prophet and he fell on his face in terror when he saw a vision of God. The disciples on the transfiguration mount, Matthew 17, saw the glorified Christ and they fell over like dead men. John, Revelation 1, sees a vision of Christ, and falls over like a dead man. If God's own people panic in the presence of His holiness, what does a wicked, vile demon do in the presence of His holiness?

Demons Fear the Power of the Holy Spirit

If you study the demon-possessed and the miracles of Jesus with regard to them, they're often called "healings." (Matthew 4:24, Matthew 12:22, Mark 3:10, Luke 6:19, Luke 7:21, Luke 8:2, Acts 10:38) I don’t want you to take this to mean that physical illness is demonic possession. That’s not correct. They’re two different things. We’ll look at physical healing next week. Physical illness is a result of sin and our fallen state. Jesus came to set us free from that too. Sometimes demons will work to harm us physically to hinder us, discourage us, or prevent us from serving God. I certainly feel days when the enemy is come against me physically or mentally.

2 Corinthians 12:7 ESV

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Mark 9:22 ESV

22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

But generally, illness is a result of these bodies which born in sin. Demon possess and demonic influence grieve God. Jesus was compassionate and the affect of demons over people was an afront to the divine creative order of God. Never was it God’s intention at creation for us to separated, tormented, or influenced by the prince of darkness and his minions. So Jesus came to release from that captivity and He protected the man from being harmed (v. 35)

Demons want to harm, produce illness, and injury. You find in the New Testament things like epilepsy, deafness, dumbness. As I showed you in Matthew 17, falling into the fire, falling into the water, danger of burning and drowning and things like that. But when Jesus cast them out, they went immediately. This was a healing, this was a miracle.

Humanly speaking, we have no authority and power over demons. Spiritually speaking, we are given power and authority over demons through the power of the Holy Spirit. As I said before, our words and our authority mean nothing to them.

Acts 19:15 ESV

15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

But when you are under the full council and will of the God through the dwelling and power of the Holy Spirit, demonic forces are helpless. It’s not by incantations or special formulas. Its Christ’s authority working in you and through you. You need to recognize and understand that power and authority and live it. As I mentioned before, demons like to be subtle and subversive in their work. All they can do is lie, intimidate and manipulate you away from God’s will.

Matthew 10:1 ESV

1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.

Mark 16:17 ESV

17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;

Now what Jesus did that day had a great impact. Look at verse 36, "Amazement came upon them all." Amazement is sort of wonder mixed with fear. "And they began discussing with one another, "What is this logos? What is this word?”

Matthew 9:33 puts it, “Jesus had power over demons such that the Jews said it was never so seen in Israel.”

This is the ministry of the church today. We are not to be ignorant to the work of the enemy. What kind of ministry would we have today if we allowed the power of the Gospel to liberate us from our bondages. What kind of Church would the world see when we allow the power of the Gospel to proclaim the year of our Lord to the poor. To set the prisoners free? That we allowed the power fo the Gospel, not fancy talk about feelings and emotions, to bind up the broken hearted? What kind of world would we enjoy if it was the power of the gospel that opened blind eyes to the deceptions of demons and the enemy.