895 What Did Jesus Say About Angels & Demons (Mk.5.1-20)
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Q. Why is it that whenever angels are depicted in medieval & modern culture, they have wings on their backs?
- I’ve had a cursory look at information on angels on the Internet
- There are all sorts of new age nonsense
- To recognising an angel from a white feather crossing your path, to music, scents/smells, through to reoccurring events in your life
Q. What about strange orbs in photographs? Was an angel in view?
“If you spot a bright light or a strange colored orb, you might think that your eyes are playing tricks on you. However, these lights and orbs are said to be “vehicles for angels.”
- 6 Signs You’re Being Visited by Your Guardian Angel1
Q. Why didn’t you tell me that James when I saw you about the kaleidoscopic visions I’ve been experiencing lately?
- Is it that an angel was trying to communicate with me & you didn’t tell me that
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- One thing is common with these unbiblical approaches – there is nothing objective about them
- Totally subjective experiences – you can never bank on something when you live in the realm of subjectivity
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- This morning we are looking at what Jesus says about angels & demons
1. Angels
1. Angels
- Angelos is the Greek word for angel & it means “messenger”
- As we can see throughout the Bible, angels are messengers of God
- The wings we see in the little statuettes of angels come from the OT use of the likes of angel images in the Temple
- For instance, the ark of the Covenant where the angels wings stretch out to each other & touch at the tips
- But wings on these angels are pictorial to illustrate:
1. A covering for the mercy seat of the Ark
2. To describe the angel as a being who is swift to obey the Lord
- They never had jets & rockets back then – the fastest analogy you can make is to birds – birds with wings
a. God’s Instruments in His Service
a. God’s Instruments in His Service
- Generally speaking, Angels are spiritual beings that God uses in His service
- They are messengers as I mentioned before
10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11 They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
- They convey announcements & messages from God
- To the shepherds in the fields before the birth of Christ
- To Mary that she was going to have the Christ child
- To Zacharias that he and Elisabeth would have a baby and to name him John
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- The angels ministered to Jesus after He had endured temptations in the wilderness
- An angel terrified the Roman guards at the tomb of Jesus & the guards froze & became like dead men
2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
b. Speak on Behalf of God
b. Speak on Behalf of God
28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
- The angel, as I mentioned earlier, is a messenger of God
- He comes to Mary & gives one of the most wonderful of announcements
- It is enough that a woman is able to have children – that is a blessing in itself
- But this is even more wonderful – she would be the one to bear the miracle – the Son of God
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- An angel also appeared to Zacharias with the news that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son in her old age – for nothing is impossible with God
- Don’t you love that – nothing is impossible with God (Lk. 1:36)
c. Angels Are Guardians Over Believers
c. Angels Are Guardians Over Believers
- The book of Hebrews says that angels are God’s servants sent to serve those who will inherit eternal life, but Jesus says that they are also guardians over believers
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
- Although we often think of this passage in terms of children, - “these little ones”
- The point Jesus makes comes off the question asked of Him
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
- He is talking about the qualification for the kingdom of heaven
- Men & women need to be converted & that comes from accepting a position of humility before God
- Humble yourself as these children are humble
- Angels are guardians over the people who belong to Jesus for it is only the people of Jesus who are in the kingdom of God
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- You can see the great interest angels take in the people of God by their reaction to the repentance of one sinner
10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
- When a person repents, he is humbly accepting the rule or sovereignty of Jesus Christ in his life – he is willing to have the torchlight of Jesus shone on his life & then through his life
- The torchlight is never shone through a Christian until it is first shown on a Christian
- The angels are full of joy when a person repents & turns to Jesus
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- The responsibility of the angels does not stop here
- Under the direction of Christ, they take care of us throughout our journey of faith
- But they then will be involved in the resurrection & gathering of the saints
- The whole purpose of the rapture of the church is to come out & meet the conquering king & then to escort Him to His home (to the earth)
- The spirits/angels of God will be involved & accomplish this for us
- At death, or the rapture (whatever comes first), you have the finish line – the work is over
- Faith will give way to sight – what a day!
31 “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
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- For angels to be guardians & to be full of joy over a person who repents, a person needs to be a public confessor of Jesus Christ
8 “And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; 9 but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
Q. Are you a public confessor of Jesus Christ? Or do you avoid His name?
- In baptism the person makes a public confession of faith as Paul outlines in Rom. 10:9 (in a baptismal context)
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
d. Angels are Powerful
d. Angels are Powerful
53 “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
- One legion equalled 6000 soldiers & 700 cavalry men
- There are innumerable angels & each of them able to do a lot of damage
- One angel in the OT slew 185,000 of the Assyrian army (2 Kgs. 19:35)
e. Bring Glory to God
e. Bring Glory to God
- You can find this throughout the Bible, but we see it in the announcement of the birth of the Christ child to the shepherds out in the fields
13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
- Christians are given wonderful support in the angels of God
2. Demons
2. Demons
- Contrary to the blessing of God’s angels are what is called demons
- Demons are, in the NT, also called unclean spirits
- Like angels, demons are self-aware
- They are a created supernatural being rebellious and hostile to God
- There is a long history that associates idolatrous worship with the worship of demons
17 “They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread.
- Knowingly or unknowingly, if you are not worshipping in Spirit & in truth, you are worshipping that which opposes God & truth – the demons
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- In 1945, C. S. Lewis published what he called, “The Screwtape Letters” – it is what we call Satire – humour/sarcasm & the like
- They are a collection of letters that a senior demon (named Screwtape) wrote to his young apprentice demon
- C. S. Lewis explains about the letters...
There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. -- C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters,.
- Lewis makes the point in these letters that demons know that speculations, not facts, are the best things to fill people’s minds
- In one letter, the senior demon named Screwtape wrote this piece of instruction to his apprentice demon:
Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false,” but as “academic” or “practical.”...Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church (Screwtape Letters., p. 8).
- This tendency to devalue the distinction between truth & falsehood is very much alive & well in our day too as it was in Lewis’ day
- Let’s look, therefore, into Jesus’ dealings about demons
a. Demons are fallen angels
a. Demons are fallen angels
- Demons we understand are created spirits that are linked with the arch-created spirit Satan
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
- Demons are fallen angels or spirits & have Satan as their head
- The Jewish nation understood this & it makes it even more damning on their spiritual leaders who declared that Jesus was using Satan’s power to drive demons out of people
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- Now Jesus was giving relief & healing to those who were demon-possessed
- Interestingly, there was heightened demonic activity with the coming of Jesus
- I suppose that when your enemy is about to bring down your kingdom, you are out for a fight
- Jesus came & with Him was the kingdom power of God
20 “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
- Jesus pointed out the folly of the religious leaders who were desperately looking for any cause or reason to disqualify Jesus’ association with God & they did that by making the foolish suggestion that Jesus drove out demons with the power of Satan
- If that were the case, it would mean that Satan is now on Jesus’ side
- We know that is not the case
- It does show, however, the extent to which some people will go to deny Jesus
b. Jesus’ Complete Power Over Demons
b. Jesus’ Complete Power Over Demons
- The spirit world seems very scary to most people
- When we are in the dark or a scary place like a cemetery at night, we get those spooky feelings
- Let us dispel all that nonsense right now
- A person who belongs to Jesus cannot be possessed or harmed by a demon – the Lord will not allow that to happen
18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
- The devil can’t make you sin because Jesus bans him from touching you
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- The demon world is subject to Christ as is every other facet of the world
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “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!” 35 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. 36 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.”
- It is interesting that the people associate the power with the message
- Not only are the demons worried about Jesus destroying them but also tormenting them – as in subjecting them to punishment
29 And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”
- They know that there is a time coming where they will be judged – that time is coming
- We also note their disrespect & insolence - “What business do we have with each other”
- We come to a basic tenant of Satan & demons is that they do not love, nor do they care for God or people
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- The other thing we note is their knowledge of the identity of Jesus
- The religious leaders refused to acknowledge who they knew Jesus to be – Nicodemus said
2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
- The run of the mill people kind of did know but, of course, imperfectly
- Yet the demons knew absolutely – they give witness to the truth of Jesus
- Not because they want to, but are wanting to subvert His ministry
- “I know who you are, the holy One of God”, they say
- Bible students are quick to point out a truth that knowing a person’s name & saying it is an attempt to exert power over that person
- Jesus would have none of that – be quite, He says!
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- The people are amazed when they see how the demons obey Jesus
27 They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
- This Jesus and His authority amazed the people
- Whenever Jesus healed people of demonic possession they went from being sick, broken & partial to being healthy, well & whole
22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw.
32 As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. 33 After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
c. Jesus Reveals the Desires of Demons
c. Jesus Reveals the Desires of Demons
- Usually a motive is involved in crime shows
- We enjoy watching a show where detectives have to solve a crime
- We follow the show along while they investigate & gather evidence until the motive & the criminal is discovered
- The “bad guys” always have an angle/motive & this is what we find with demons too
- We saw last week that Jesus says Satan is, by nature, a liar & a murderer
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- Demons – these wicked & unclean spirits have a will & intelligence
- Jesus gave a description of the desires & goals of a demon
43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
- In the context of that unrepentant generation, Jesus said that their situation will be worse than before, because they did not acknowledge or accept Him
- When He drives a spirit out of a man it goes through arid places looking for rest
- Jews believed that deserts were the haunts of demons
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- Demons desire to inflict pain, misery & to destroy people
- In our reading today, the demons begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss – a deep transcendent place associated with hostile powers
- He granted them to go into the pigs which they immediately destroyed
- Such is the obsession of demons – to destroy
- We read other accounts of the murderous nature of demons
39 and a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth; and only with difficulty does it leave him, mauling him as it leaves.
20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”
- This is amazing stuff – they are not just stories – Jesus has intimate knowledge about demons – His disciples & the Jewish exorcists wouldn’t have a clue about “this kind can only come out by prayer”
2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.
- In Luke’s account he not only lived among the tombs, but was naked & the chains could not hold him
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- It is obvious that you are seeing a pattern here that resembles the pattern of evil in the world
- Jesus brings order, healing, wholeness, peace & truth
- The pattern of creation was imprinted by God when He created the world as an orderly world – “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters” (Gen. 1:2)
- That is understood to mean that the Spirit of God was bringing order out of chaos
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- In contrast, you have demons that bring disorder, chaos, brokenness & strife – not much different from the godless in our society who are upending the moral truths of God
d. The Healing Power of Jesus
d. The Healing Power of Jesus
- What authority we see as Jesus expels demons with nothing but a word of command
- Jews had all their elaborate arts of exorcisms & rituals in an attempt to drive demons out of people
- The exorcists & the people who witnessed demons being driven out looked so petty compared with Jesus
- The people were not only amazed but frightened
- Frightened not by the demons, but by the awesome power & authority of Jesus
15 They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened.
- Frightened of Jesus – understandably so. If demons had power over people, how much more power does Jesus possess who has power over demons!
- What we see here now is a man in his right mind & at peace
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10 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” 13 And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.
- From brokenness to wholeness; from insanity to a right mind; from a life in turmoil to a life in peace
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- There was a woman by the name of Mary Magdalene & she was such a person who had been freed by Jesus from the power & control of demons & she became a disciple of Jesus
2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
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- Remember that Jesus was not just healing people – driving out demons served another purpose
- It was to show that Jesus is the Son of God & the One who has been sent to be the Saviour of the world
- After hearing all this – what is your response to Jesus?
Q. Would you be like the people of Capernaum with their take Him or leave Him attitude?
Q. Or would you be like a person who says to him or herself – I want to belong to Jesus! I know I need to belong to Jesus!
- You can do that & do that right now, if you really mean business with God
1https://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/angels/6-signs-youre-being-visited-by-your-guardian-angel.aspx