Authority over Demons

A message from Luke 4:31-43 by Phil Rogers 03/06/07

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Today is Pentecost Sunday which is a day each year to remember the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church on that first day of Pentecost. On that day the community of Christ’s followers received the same anointing that he had received at his baptism. To use the imagery of Ps 133, the oil on Jesus Christ who is the head ran down upon his whole body, us. He was the anointed Son of God but we too have the same anointing that he had; the works that he did we shall do and greater works!

We saw last week how the Lord visited his own home town of Nazareth. As Mark writes, “He couldn’t do any works of power there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them, and he was astonished at their unbelief.” He provoked a riot in the synagogue and they tried to throw him down a cliff, but Jesus fearlessly walked unharmed through the crowd and went on his way.

In this passage we see that because of his anointing Jesus had both authority and power. There is no power without authority and no authority without anointing. His anointing gave him authority to speak God’s word in a way that changed people’s outlook and mindset and kindled faith in their hearts. The anointing of the Holy Spirit upon him gave him authority over unclean spirits and over diseases and his authority gave him power to rebuke unclean spirits and diseases which had to leave at his command. In almost every case the effects were instant, as with Simon’s ma-in-law.Imagine the scene the Capernaum synagogue. Jesus was explaining the true meaning of the scriptures, when suddenly one of the men in the congregation stood up and shouted out in a loud voice “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!” He would have been a local, regular in that synagogue and known to everyone. They would have been puzzled at his words. Why would he think the healer had come to destroy them? On everyone’s minds was the question, “Is he the Messiah” which he had more or less claimed to be by quoting Is 61 - “the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me” and saying “today this scripture is fulfilled” But it was odd shouting out in a synagogue meeting “I know who you are - you are God’s Holy One, his Anointed One.”

I doubt anyone would have suspected that it was an unclean spirit speaking through him. But Jesus instantly recognised it. “Leave us alone. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?” This spirit was spokes-demon for a cluster of unclean spirits living in this man. He was not possesed. The Greek here is ‘having a spirit of an unclean demon’. He had a spirit, just like we might have a cold. We don’t say “O I am possesed by a cold!” We say “I’ve got a cold.” This man had got ‘spirits of unclean demons’ and probably had no idea he had them, although I expect some of his friends and relative knew he had a problem. He may well have shown some quite difficult behaviour at times. A few demons inside someone will usually go unnoticed, not like the poor Gadarene man who hadthousands of demons inside him, out of his mind, self-harming and violent! No! A small group of unclean spirits often go almost hidden. Until God’s power was present - then this spirit couldn’t contain itself, not in the presence of God’s Holy One. So it shouted out! They all thought that he was speaking.

To the astonishment of all present, Jesus’ reply was “be quiet and come out of him” at which the man fell to ground and began convulsing and with a loud cry the spirits left, leaving him lying on the ground quite unharmed. Everyone realised this was demonic and were astonished; that this respectable member of the community had demons in him, that Jesus’ presence had flushed the hidden spirits out into the open and that with authority & power Jesus had commanded it to go and it went, setting the man free!

Can a Christian have demons? The AV translation ‘possessed with devils’ is unfortunate. We can’t review all the scriptures but let me just share some conclusions. People get sick and people have evil spirits. v 40-41 Sickness can be caused by unclean spirits. Spirits will leave a person only when they are commanded to leave by someone with the necessary anointing, authority and power. Not one scripture suggests that demons leave automatically when we commit to following Christ or are baptised. (Didache) But neither are there any specific examples in the NT of a believer being delivered from demons, possibly because all evil spirits were expelled from a person before or at their baptism, which we do not do today. If we were not set free of all unclean spirits when we first came to Christ then we will certainly need deliverance as believers, as happened to me 22 years ago. Demons are not stupid, evil, but not stupid. They know who has authority or not (see Acts 19:15) and they will go whenever spiritual authority is being properly exercised.

In the last few verses here we see the reason for Jesus authority and power. He was anointed, yes, but he also frequently went off to be alone with his Father. This is what sustained his anointing. We too have an anointing from the Holy One, but like Jesus this can only be sustained by spending time alone with our Father in intimate communication. Do I want to see more healing, more people set free without hours of ‘prayer ministry’. I would love to see it. But I need to spend more hours in prayer, alone with my Father like Jesus did.

Isa 10:27 promises a day when the burden of the enemy’s yoke shall be broken off our necks because of the anointing. (AV) Oh for the day when we see the enemy’s yoke broken off the neck of everyone who is bound by sickness, broken relationships, unforgivensss, mistrust, oppression. Jesus can do it - we can do it too because he has given us his anointing and the anointing we have received abides. So let us go on being filled - a fresh touch from heaven, fresh oil for each new day.