Devils and demons, handle with care!

Rev Enoch Thompson | March 12, 2023 | Matthew 8:28-34

KEY VERSE:

Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region. Matthew 8:34 (NIV)

MESSAGE:

The demonstration of the power of the God-in-human-flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, has travelled, the healing of leprosy, and fevers, calming of nature’s storms to the casting out of demons in our text. Two miserable human beings, some students of the Bible conclude it is a couple (for which reason the other Gospel writers talk of one man), are held captive and harassed extensively by the Devil and his demonic host. The two have become a terror to themselves and a threat to others so that no one dared pass their way. They lived in the tombs and shared in the environment of the state of those who had died, though they were alive. This is what demonisation can do to humans created to reflect the image of God.

Is there a real Devil and an assortment of demons? Do they matter in our life as Kingdom citizens? This is the matter of our reflection today. In the times of Christ, the Pharisees believed in the existence of angels and demons, the Sadducees on the other hand did not believe in angels and demons, and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead (Luke 20:27; Acts 23:8). Different people today have different opinions on this question.

C. S. Lewis, in his classic work, The Screwtape Letters, published in 1942, observes that there are two extremes of belief to which the Devil is always happy to have Christians drawn to; one is to deny the existence of the Devil and his demons, and the other is to become overly concerned with them. The modern era has definitely fallen into these two extremes, and the Devil is very very happy. While there are those, even among Christians, who by their education, material wellbeing and sophistication think that they have arrived at a stage in their human development which makes the concept and talk about the Devil and demons a sign of intellectual backwardness. There are on the other hand those who are preoccupied with Satan, demons, witchcraft and sorcery. They find the cause of every challenge as a cause of demonic activity, and consequently their Christianity is more of demon-hunt than God-worship.

Satan and his demonic hosts are alive and well on planet earth. We will do well to assign them their defeated state in the coming of the Kingdom of God in the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in their ultimate defeat when they will all be thrown into the Lake of Fire, to be forever disbanded from troubling the human species.

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:

The Christ-follower is given authority to trample underfoot scorpions and serpents (Luke 10:19), that means to have the authority of our Master Jesus to overcome the Devil and his demons in our encounter with them. Do not be an ostrich and deny the existence of demonic reality. At the same time do not become a feather blown in the wind by unnecessary fear of the demonic hosts that can render you powerless in your journey with Christ. Put the Devil and his demons in their right corner, and march on in the victory of Christ.

PRAYER:

Lord Jesu Christ, thank you for defeating Satan in your ministry, but ultimately on the cross (Col. 2:15).

Please help me to walk in your victory, and to live a life unaffected by the enemy and his agents. May your Church have a balanced understanding of the forces we are called to fight, and may the Church live in the victory of Calvary. For you dear Name’s sake, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!!