Demon Possessed People | Ep27

Transcript

Today, in the United States, one doesn’t hear very often about someone being possessed by demons. But in many Third World countries, this continues to be a major problem. I want us to see what the Bible says about people who were possessed by demons.

In many Third World countries, there’s a great deal of ignorance, where there’s a lot of superstition and traditions, and where their thinking is often controlled by people such as witch doctors.

Of course, these people can point to the Bible about people who are possessed by demons. And sure enough, it is true. In the Bible, we do have record of people who are possessed by demons.

In this lesson, I want us to see what the Bible says about people who were possessed by demons or evil spirits. First off, the Bible never does tell us where these demons come from, their origin. Men have proposed several things.

One, people say, well, they’re fallen angels. Well, that doesn’t seem to be likely. 2 Peter 2.4 says that those angels that rebelled and sinned against God were cast into the pits of darkness.

Another view is that these are pre-Adamic people who are here to torment people. Well, first off, there’s no evidence that there’s any pre-Adamic people. The Bible portrays Adam and Eve as being the first to be created.

A third view is that they were beings created by God. No, I don’t believe so. You see, everything God made was good.

Demons are not good. They create evil. They do harm.

God did not create them that way. Others say they were spirits of wicked men who, for some reason, did not go into the Hadrian realm when they died. That sounds strange, but that’s probably the most popular view as to where they came from.

This is a theory, but it is held by many reputable scholars. It does seem that God may have allowed this to happen to prove a point, and we’re going to talk about that as we go. In this lesson, I want us to talk about what does the Bible say about demon possession.

First off, we say demons were spiritual beings who did not possess a physical body, and therefore they were looking for a body to dwell in. Two, they could talk and even declare that Jesus was the Son of God, Luke 4.41. They could reason. They believed in God and feared him, James 2, verse 19.

They obeyed the command of Jesus, Luke 4.35. They had knowledge. They knew who Jesus was, Mark 1, verse 34. They also differed in degrees of wickedness.

In Matthew 12.45, it speaks about the man who cleansed himself, but he didn’t refill his body with good things, and so when the demon left and could not find a place to dwell, he came back with even greater degree of wicked people, demons, to possess him. As we study the Bible about the demons that did exist, we find that they caused deafness, Matthew 9, 32, and 34. We find that they caused blindness, Matthew 12.22. They caused people to act as if they did not sound mentally, were not of a sound mental mind.

We find that they had superhuman strength. The Bible tells us that men, women, and on some occasions, children were possessed by demons. Let’s think about what the Bible says about the time frame in which demons are mentioned and discussed.

Most of the accounts of people being possessed occurred during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Why would that be? I think that’s a key to understanding demon possession, and we’ll talk about it more in a minute. There, you have several accounts in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

And then there are a few cases of demon possession in the book of Acts, Chapter 5, 16, Chapter 8, 7, and Chapter 16, 16 through 18, and Chapter 19, 11 through 17. And there are not any other occurrences of demon possession anywhere in the Bible. So what does that tell us? Well, the demon possession occurred mainly during Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Why then? Why not before then? Why not tremendously far after him? No. Generally speaking, most of the accounts of demon possession are recorded in the Gospel accounts during Jesus’ personal ministry as he ministered here and dealt with these evil spirits. And then as I said, there are a few accounts in the book of Acts where Jesus apostles had the ability to cast out demons just as Jesus did, and there are no other accounts of demons possessing anyone.

Even in the Old Testament, you don’t have reference to that. You do have a couple of references of evil, but usually in those situations, it’s not a person, it is a condition. Now, why were demons, even if we don’t know where they came from, we do know and recognize they were real.

It’s not a myth. They did exist. Why was it that they came into being? It is interesting to note in Luke 10, verse 17, when Jesus had sent out the 70 on the limited commission to go and preach to the house of Israel, that when they came back, they said, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

What were they saying? The name of Jesus had a great power over the demons. Jesus could cast out the demons. And then it seems that God allowed Satan to use demon-possessed people to manifest his greatest power, but then God showed that he was more powerful than Satan.

Thus, I think this was the purpose that demon possession occurred, that God allowed these demons, wherever they came from, and whatever their cause was, that they could be used by Satan to control people. But God, in essence, said, I want to show you that I am more powerful than you are. We’re not told in scriptures why some people were possessed and others were not.

We do know, as I mentioned earlier, we have record of men being possessed. We have record of women being possessed. In fact, it says of Mary Magdalene, who was a servant of Jesus, that he had cast seven demons out of her.

We don’t know if that was seven at one time or seven different times. And on very rare occasions, but a few cases, the children were affected. Sometimes they would cast them down, cause them to fall.

As we studied in another lesson that you may have heard about the demon-possessed man in Mark 5, he was an outcast from society. He acted in a crazy manner. He lived among the tombs, the graves.

He cut himself with stones. He screamed and hollered all night. Those were some terrible conditions of people who were possessed by demons.

But it seems, as I said, that the purpose for all this was to let people know God has more power than demon-possessed people. Now, there is no demon possession of people today. You know, if people were possessed by demons today, we do not have the miraculous power that Jesus and his apostles had, and we could not cast them out.

God would not leave us in a condition of such a disadvantage. You know, I think logically speaking, we can see that God has removed the demon possession, that it had a purpose for a while, proved that his son was greater than Satan and his demons, and then was removed after it had proven its point. I, along with a number of biblical scholars, believe that there is a hint in the Old Testament that demon possession would one day be gone.

This is found in Zechariah 13, chapter 13, verses 1 and 2. It says, Notice what he said in verse 2. He simply says, There’s going to come that day, which I’m going to cut off the names of idols from the land, and that they will no longer be remembered, and I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirits from the land. Now, I think the key to the time frame here is found in the phrase, In that day. You know, it says in verse 1, In that day, a fountain will be opened.

And in verse 2, it will come about in that day. In the books of prophecy, when the phrase in that day occurs, it usually has reference to the Messianic age, to the Christian age in which we live. In Zechariah 12, in verse 10, he also says, I will pour out on the household house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for the only son, and they will weep bitterly over him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

Notice this idea? The day is going to come when there’s going to be great mourning. When he says, when they will pierce him. Jesus, of course, was pierced.

We read that in Matthew 24. And so, in that day, he says, what day? The day when Jesus is on earth. The day when his message is preached throughout the world.

And in that day, there will be great mourning in Jerusalem. So, there’s a time frame. And so, when you skip down to chapter 13, he again uses that phrase in that day.

What day? That day when the Messiah would come. And notice what he promised in verse 1 of chapter 13. A fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.

The house of David really not only is just talking about the physical house of David, and not only just the city of Jerusalem, but those who are Christians today belong to the lineage of David. We are in the house of David, which is the church that Jesus established. And notice what we have there.

We have it for that time of being purified from sins and impurities. That fountain is the blood of Christ that was shed to forgive us of our sins. And so, this whole context is about the messianic age.

And it seems there that he’s indicating prophets are going to be gone. You see, prophets worked for a while to give us God’s word. But once we have God’s word today, we don’t have prophets inspired by God today.

He’s talking about the day when we would have forgiveness of sins. We have that today. And so, as we think about the demon possession, I believe that that passage foretold that the day was going to come when they would be removed from the land.

We realize that they did exist. Demons were real. Demons had a bad effect on people, causing them great harm.

But at the same time, it seems that the message was that was Satan’s greatest force, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had a greater force, so that he could demand of the demons. The demons would be obedient. He could cast out the demons.

So there was a great battle to say, who is the most powerful, Satan or God? And God said, I will show you my great power. Demons did exist. Demons came, I think, for a purpose.

I think God allowed them to be. And the great proof is Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who overcame the greatest force that Satan had. Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God’s Word.

Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and LightWay Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you’re ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we’d love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at four at the Senior Center. You’re always welcome.

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Until next week, keep meditating on the Word.

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If you’re ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, please join Wayne and Mac for worship and Bible study on Sundays at 4 PM at the Senior Center. You’re always welcome! You can get more information on their work online at www.littletonnhchurchofchrist.org.

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