Mark 1:21-28 / Luke 4:31-37…
Before we get excited by the thought of demonic deliverance, we need to look deeper into this drama (Acts 19:13-16). Consider that the devil was at the worship service. The teaching of Jesus had brought him out, but the man had brought him in. Jesus had called the fishermen to come out from the world. Now He calls the demon to come out of the man. Jesus is calling but the enemy inside doesn’t really want to answer, yet it must.
Demonic activity has always been present, from the beginning (Genesis 3). Satan and his minions didn’t just show up when Christ showed up, but these powerful, public displays of deliverance served as a witness that the kingdom of God had come on the scene and that the power of Jesus was able to overthrow the power of darkness (Matthew 8:28-29 / Mark 5:7 / Luke 8:28). Notice the sovereignty of God over demonic activity (cf. Revelation 9:1-5).
Jesus was drawing back the curtain, but the drama is still playing out. Satan and demons are still active even if we do not see their activity; they are very much at work and at war. During the time of Jesus and the Apostles it was just brought out into the public eye as a sign. If we are truly using Jesus as the call, the forces of evil will answer, not necessarily in some overt audible way to an invisible Jesus, but person to person, as both of us are proxies. There will be times where resistance is more evident, but if there is never any resistance to your ministry, you are bringing the wrong message about the wrong Master.
We need to know who the enemy is, but also who it isn’t. Unbelievers are not our enemies; they are victims of the enemy (2 Timothy 2:26). Satan uses our sinful human flesh and the world systems to keep captives for his kingdom. When we just scoff at unbelievers because they don’t believe we are seriously misunderstanding the nature of what is really going on in the universe. Unbelievers may feel free but they are bound, and it isn’t simply a matter of just having a different set of values than we do. They are held captive by the enemy and are blind to the liberating truth (2 Corinthians 4:4 / Ephesians 2:1-3). Keep preaching the truth and Jesus will expose and extract the enemy from people’s lives, not by exorcism but in experience (2 Corinthians 4:5-6). We have to strike against the serpent not his prey.
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