June 25, 2000
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Luke 4:31-37 Jesus' Authority over Demons
Jesus' Authority over Demons, Part 1
Luke 4:31-34
The central point of the section is that Jesus has power over everyone and everything. First of all, Luke deals with Jesus' power over demons. "But He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath and they were amazed at His teaching for His message was with authority. And there was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice, 'Ha, what do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are, the Holy One of God.' And Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Be quiet and come out of him.' And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him without doing him any harm; and amazement came upon them all and they began discussing with one another saying, 'What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.' And the report about Him was getting out into every locality in the surrounding district."
It mentions His authority twice, in verse 32 and in verse 36. We already know that Jesus has engaged in a conflict with Satan. The beginning of Luke 4:1-13 give us the account of that. And we remember that Jesus went out into the wilderness, He was sent there by the Holy Spirit to engage in conflict with Satan. Satan put three temptations in front of Jesus over which Jesus totally triumphed in every case. He established His power over Satan there. He established the fact that Satan had nothing in him, as the Scripture says, that He could withstand all of Satan's assaults personally. So in the first section of chapter 4 we learn that Jesus could overpower Satan for Himself. But there's another question that remains, "Could Jesus overpower Satan for others?" (John 8:44, Ephesians 2, II Corinthians 4, Colossians1:13, I John 5:19, Acts 26:18) All sinners are under the dominion of Satan. It is the spirit of that deceiving, lying, demonic fallen angel Satan and all his demons that literally indwell and pervade the kingdom of darkness, the world of the unregenerate people.
If Jesus is going to deliver people from their spiritual poverty, if He's going to deliver them from their spiritual bondage, if He's going to deliver them from their spiritual blindness and their spiritual oppression, if He's going to set the captives free, if He's going to smash down, as 2 Corinthians 10 describes it, the fortifications of the deceiver, if He's going to destroy the fortresses of Satan, the lying ideologies, false religions, etc., if He's going to do that and set the captives free and bring them to salvation, He has to be able to conquer demons. The whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. The whole world is in the dominion of darkness, the darkness of Satan. Dominion means under the sovereignty of... In the words of Romans 6, they are slaves to unrighteousness in that dominion of darkness. Sinners are in darkness and under condemnation. They are prisoners in Satan's kingdom. If they are to be liberated, then the Messiah must have the power to shatter the guardians of that kingdom, the demons, the fallen angels and their ruler, Satan.
Can He deliver them from the domain of darkness? The bondage is profound and deep, Hebrews 2:14 says that people are all their lifelong in bondage to Satan. If Jesus is the Savior of sinners, if He's the Messiah, if He's the deliverer, if He's going to make the poor spiritually rich, if He's going to deliver the prisoners of Satan's kingdom and make them free, if He's going to give them sight and take away their burdens, He has to be able to conquer Satan on their behalf. So it's one thing that He could defeat Satan in His own temptation, the question is, can He conquer the kingdom of darkness on behalf of others? He must demonstrate His power on behalf of sinners who are the helpless subjects of Satan's angels.
1 John 3:8, "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil." What does that mean? You can say, "Well, the devil holds all sinners captive in the prison of his kingdom and Jesus in order to save sinners has to destroy all of those devilish efforts." Messiah then was brought into the world, God incarnate, for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil. He has to do that in order to set the captives free. And it's as if the imagery again comes back of 2 Corinthians 10, it's as if we view all the sinners as in a fortress, a great prison. The prison is fortified and it is guarded and it is guarded by the demons of Satan. In order to go in and free the captives, you have to be able to overpower the guards and the guards of the kingdom of darkness are the hosts, the fallen angels, that we know as demons.
We are all in bondage to the demonic system. Every sinner is under Satan's dominion and influence. And since we can't do anything that is right, we only do what is wrong, we satisfy the kingdom of darkness at every point. While every sinner is not possessed by demons, every sinner is in the domain of darkness and has to be liberated by the Messiah and the Savior. The sinner comes to the recognition that he is the poor, the prisoner, the blind and the oppressed and he turns to the Savior and says...please save me, deliver me from Satan, deliver me from sin, deliver me from bondage, deliver me from death and deliver me from hell.
The question is...can Jesus do that? If He's the Messiah, He has to demonstrate that He can. And this passage shows that He can. And by the way, the man doesn't even say anything. We don't even see this man repent. We don't even know whether he believed. The demon spoke out of him and in verse 35 Jesus rebuked the demon and said, "Be quiet and come out of him." And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him without doing him any harm. Regardless of where the man was, in terms of his own understanding of his sinfulness or faith in Christ, we don't have any indication that those things were part of his thinking, it didn't matter where he was, Jesus can command the demons at will at any time and they had to do immediately what He told them to do. That's the point. If He is the Messiah, He has to have power over the kingdom of darkness if He's going to deliver us, as Colossians 1:13 says, from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. He has to be able to shatter the power of the demons and this illustrates that He can, regardless of what the man thought, we don't even know what he thought. That isn't even recorded for us.
The evil spirits knew why Jesus had come. Verse 34, "I know who You are, the Holy One of God." They know exactly who Jesus is. They've known Him since before they fell out of heaven. They were once holy angels, remember that? A third of them, according to Revelation 12, fell. They know who God is. They know who Jesus is.
They also know the end of the story, the lake of fire prepared for them. That's why when Jesus arrives you see this explosion of demon possession take place because they really feel the battle is on in a full force. All hell literally breaks loose and all through the gospels and even into the book of Acts there's this explosion of demon possession as these demons try to hold on to the sinners that Jesus has brought the message of release. Demons typically like to work in subtleties. They don't like to speak, that blows their cover. They operate in subtleties and they operate clandestinely. But during the life of Jesus, that changes. As Jesus steps in, the power is so great that they can't restrain themselves and they blow their own cover. This demon in this text screams in the middle of Jesus' sermon and it's apparent to everybody that a demon is in this man. But normally you find demon possession rare and you find the demon conversing also rare. But here in the ministry of Jesus it explodes and the clandestine subtle ways in which demons generally operate give way to an open confrontation with Jesus Christ as the battle for the souls of sinners is really on. So the evil spirits, I would say, through all of biblical history, unleash their greatest and most visible audible assault at the time of Jesus and on the sinners that are hearing Jesus preach.
We've got to understand the dynamics that are working here. James 2:19 says, "The demons believe and they tremble, or shudder." You don't need to be afraid of them. Demons live in constant terror. The demons believe...the demons are all fundamentalists, they're even pre-millennialists. They know that Jesus is going to come back and bind them for a thousand years and then throw them in the lake of fire. They can read Revelation just like we can. The demons know the story. They're in constant fear because they also don't know the day nor the hour when the Son of Man is going to come and render their judgment. So the demons believe and because they believe the truth, they are in a constant state of trembling. The demons live in fear. We believe the gospel and the gospel tells us that our eternity is settled and secure and in that we rejoice. The demons know the very opposite. They know for them there is no salvation, only a lake of fire. They don't know exactly when that's going to come, they know it's inevitable and they live in constant terror.
What scares demons? Four things in this text. First the preaching of the Word of God by the Son of God, in this case...let's call it the preaching of the Son of God. Secondly, the purpose of the Son of God scares them. Thirdly, the purity of the Son of God scares them, and fourthly, the power of the son of God.
Demons live in terror of the Son of God. His preaching, His purpose, His purity, His power, those four things, we're going to just look at those as we go. Let's take the first one today, the preaching of the Son of God. I hope I can convey the true impact of this part of the passage.
Jesus was a preacher. He spoke the Word of God. That's all He ever spoke, He never spoke anything but the Word of God. Every time He opened His mouth, the truth of God came out. John 8 He says, I think it's verse 26, "I only speak what the Father shows Me to speak, I only speak the Father's Word, the Father's will."
They never heard anybody like this: the clarity, the profundity, the truthfulness, the power. This was the greatest mind that ever walked on the planet. He had the greatest grasp of truth. He had the same understanding of truth that God Himself has because He was God. He had the same ability and facility with language that God would have with language that inspired the scriptures. There was never anybody who spoke like Him and they were literally in awe of this man and His ability to speak. And not only that, verse 32 says, they were not only amazed at His teaching but they were astounded because His message was with such authority.
His authority was absolute. He didn't quote anybody, He drew nothing from tradition or history. He just spoke the Word of God. He didn't need to quote anybody. He didn't need any scholastic support for anything. His word was true, it was penetratingly and powerfully true. Nobody could escape its meaning. It came with tremendous conviction, nobody could escape its application. And when the force of the Word hit that place, strangely it hit a demon. Verse 33, "There was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice, 'Ha, what do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are, the Holy One of God.'"
There was a man in the synagogue with a big problem, he was possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon. It tells us that this man was possessed, indwelt, literally the Greek is having the spirit of an unclean demon literally in him. This is akatharto, this is katharos is to be cleansed. This is akatharto, this is an unclean demon. This is...they're all morally filthy, wretched, hellish, damnable spirit beings, possessed. Literally the man was under the control. Demon possession means to be under the control of a demon which control cannot be resisted. It's different than being influenced. People can resist the influence of Satan, but possession is another thing all together in which total control cannot be resisted.
So here is this man just sitting there and this gospel is coming out of the mouth of Jesus with tremendous force and it hits the demon and the demon screams. That's what "he cried out" means, literally the demon screams with a loud voice, right in the middle of the preaching. Back to verse 31, it tells us, "And He was teaching." The demon blows his cover here. Demons don't like to do this. My understanding is that they would prefer to be subtle, they would prefer to ply their devilish work in a secretive fashion because they can conquer so much more and not frighten people. This demon is exposed. Ha, from...that is heah[?] in the Greek, probably from the Greek verb heao[??] which means "let me alone." The demon...have you ever heard somebody say, "You know, I went to church this morning and I felt like the preacher was talking directly to me?" Right? Have you ever felt like that, that I was talking right at you? Well that's exactly the way the demon felt. The demon felt...He is coming right at me. And you want to know something, He was because Jesus was coming with force of the gospel of God that was going to shatter the kingdom of darkness and rescue the captives of Satan and free them and bring them to salvation. And the demon felt the power of that gospel. The demon couldn't restrain himself. Jesus preaching the good news of salvation, deliverance for those who are the poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed and He's coming to free them from Satan, free them from the demons, free them from sin, death, darkness, hell. Jesus is saying...I'm going to take the penitent sinner and I'm going to deliver him from the domain of darkness, the domain of Satan and I'm going to bring him into the kingdom of light and the Kingdom of God.
This is a terrible announcement that the demon hears, "this is indeed the Messiah." The demon knows it, he says in verse 34, "I know who You are." He knew He was the Messiah. He knew He was. He says, "Is this the time for us to be destroyed? Is this the time when we're all going to get thrown into the lake of fire?" And so, dreaded reality hits the demon. The holy war is on and the demon can't restrain himself so he screams through the voice of this man. The demon actually panicked.
Now they live all the time in fear, right? James 2:19, I go back to it, "The devils believe, and therefore they tremble." But tremble turned to panic. The demon knew the holy war was on and he knew the implications, almost, if not, out of control now, losing the more effective clandestine presence, the demon exposes himself and screams, "Ha," which is in all lexicons, that word in the Greek, haah[??] means dismay, fear, or terror. The demon is panicked because his kingdom is being plundered and Jesus is after the soul of that man in whom that demon lives and the demon feels the force of that gospel of deliverance.
"And then the demon said out loud, 'What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?'" Jesus of Nazareth was the title by which Jesus was known. It's not necessarily a term of disrespect or disdain, that was His home town. "What do we have to do with You?" That's an interesting statement, it's an idiom. Literally it is "what is it to us and to You?" But you can't translate idioms literally in any language. What it means and all the expressions of all the lexicographers and commentators on this come back to this, what the demon is really saying is "why are You attacking me? Why are You attacking us?" because he knew that the attack on him was an attack on all the other demons who are in the same kingdom.
In Luke 8:28, Jesus comes across a man possessed with demons and the man sees Jesus. He cried out, screamed again, the demon causes the man to fall down. The demon says, "What do I have to do with You, Jesus?" exact same statement. "Why are You attacking me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I beg you, do not torment me," that's the demon talking. The demons felt the power of the truth of God coming through the lips of Jesus, didn't they? You want to have an impact on demons? Just preach the gospel message of deliverance and salvation. You want to shatter the kingdom of darkness and you want to cause the already fearing demons to panic, then you preach the gospel that saves sinners. The demon says, "Why are You attacking us? Why are You interfering with us? Is this the time of our destruction?" And he uses the plural "we" and "us" again because he knows that assault is on all of them, not just him. The war was on and the victory was Christ's and the demon knew it. He knew it.
In Luke 11:20 Jesus said, "If I cast out demons then the Kingdom of God has come." That's what He is saying. If I'm the Messiah, you'll see Me cast out demons. If you see Me cast out demons, you know that I'm the Messiah. And He will do that in a moment, but He didn't even have to cast the demon out to get a response, all that had to happen was the preaching of the truth.
Jesus' Authority over Demons, Part 2
Luke 4:31-37
If we're going to talk about the power of Jesus, then let's talk about the place where that power has to be in effect. Jesus came to save sinners and sinners are subjects of Satan, children of the devil if they literally are controlled by the spirit of Satan working in them, if they are under demonic control, if they're held in bondage, if they're in great massive fortifications of demonic ideologies where they are prisoners, if Jesus is going to deliver them, if He's going to justify them, if He's going to redeem them, if He's going to regenerate them, if He's going to adopt them He's also going to have to deliver them. That's why the apostle Paul on the Damascus road was told by the Lord Himself that you're going to go and preach deliverance. You're going to preach deliverance.
The fact of the matter is, folks, we do not tremble in front of the demons, the demons tremble in front of us. We need to understand that. Satan has been put beneath our feet. James 2:19, "The demons believe and shudder, or tremble." They're afraid. I'm not afraid of the demons, we have no reason to be afraid of the demons. "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world," right? There's nothing to fear. I am not the temple of demons, I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. That kind of tragic misrepresentation strikes a blow against the wondrous work of deliverance that Christ wrought in the life of everyone who is regenerated.
If they're going to be delivered from the kingdom of darkness while they're being justified and redeemed and regenerated and adopted and converted, all those great concepts, when we're going to be delivered then Christ has to have power to shatter darkness that destroys Satan and his demons. And He does. First John 3:8, "The Son of God appeared for this purpose that He might destroy the works of the devil." And He's done it in my life, has He done it in yours? He has if He saved you. Satan has nothing in me, he has no authority. Can he condemn me successfully? Not according to Romans 8, he can't condemn me. God hears no accusation against me by the devil, the devil is the accuser of the brethren, God hears no accusation, because Jesus Christ already paid the penalty for all my sins, no accusation stands. That's why nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. That's why no one can ever condemn us, no one can ever bring a charge against God's elect. I have nothing to fear from Satan. Satan cannot crawl into my life and possess me. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which I have of God, I'm not my own, I'm bought with a price, He paid the price of His blood. He purchased me, took me into His Kingdom, filled me with His Holy Spirit. And that's permanent.
Jesus in His life time has numerous encounters with demons. And during the time of Jesus they kind of blew their cover, they moved out of a clandestine and subtle operation with which apparently they're more comfortable and they were exposed. They were exposed in panic and fear very often like this demon. I don't think this demon necessarily wanted to burst out like this but he involuntarily couldn't restrain himself under the powerful preaching of the gospel, the implications of which was going to be his expulsion if that man believed and ultimately the implications are that he's going to be cast into the lake of fire, that's why he said, "Are You here to destroy us? Is this the time? Is it now that You've come to send us to the lake of fire?"
All sinners are influenced by Satan to one degree or another but demon possession is a very rare kind of phenomena, but it was escalated during the time of Jesus Christ as the demons literally were sitting under the powerful preaching of Jesus. The people were all astounded. The people were all amazed. They were astonished, they never heard anybody speak like this. Well, the demons had the same reaction with the added feature that they knew that the powerful preaching of Jesus would not only spell the salvation of those that they possessed, but the power of Jesus would some day damn them to a lake of fire. So He exposed them and they escalated the fury of their attack, I think they perhaps may have indwelt more people more frequently trying to hold on to sinners because of the powerful influence during the time of Jesus Christ. You find that same kind of demon activity in the early parts of Acts as the apostles are ministering and on into Acts down in to 16 and even in to 19 and then it just sort of fades away as Jesus moved off the scene and the apostles. We could say that they dropped their normal subtleties, they sort of blew their cover, they were exposed by the power of His message.
The question is, what makes demons afraid? The preaching of the Son of God, the purpose of the Son of God, the purity of the Son of God and the power of the Son of God. The great power against the demon world was the preaching of the Son of God. Jesus is preaching. He's in the synagogue, He's teaching, He's preaching and in the middle of His message this demon who is dwelling in the man in the synagogue screams, the end of verse 33. The demon literally can't restrain himself. This is a sort of an unpremeditated, involuntary panic that sets into this demon as he hears the gospel being preached, the gospel that says the Messiah has come to deliver these sinners from the darkness, the blindness, the spiritual poverty, the oppression in which the world of demons and Satan held them captive. And the demon can't restrain himself and out comes, "Ha," ea in the Greek from the verb saying "let me alone." It's an exclamation of terror. The demon is literally terrified. The demon just screams out, "What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?" which is idiomatic. And I told you last time what that means, "Why are You attacking us? Why are You trying to hurt us?" You see, what terrorizes the demons is the preaching of the gospel that sets the prisoners free. When the supremely powerful and absolutely authoritative Word of God is preached, the forces of hell who hear it panic. And never was it preached and never has it been preached the way Jesus preached it. It's no wonder they couldn't restrain themselves.
This is the first of Luke's miracles. There are many incidents of demon possession, in the New Testament. Now I want to add something. Whenever a demon -possessed person was manifest, whenever the demon manifested itself through the person, it was obvious to everybody what it was. Demon possession was never confused with mental illness. It was never confused with paranoia, schizophrenia or whatever mental illness is, that's probably a misnomer, but being crazy or being...lacking the ability to understand reality whether willful or not...never was demon possession confused with some kind of craziness, some kind of irrationality because when demons manifested themselves they were always rational. Whenever there was a conversation between Jesus and a demon, it was very rational. This is a very rational demon, by the way. He knew Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. He knew that Jesus was going to destroy the demons, that's very clear in Scripture. He knew who He was, the Holy One of God. That is a rational demon. This is not double-talk, this is not craziness, this is not wild fantasy, this is not the absence of rationality and reality.
When somebody shows up who is vicious and rational because that could well be the expression of a demon. It is possible that a demon could make a person lunatic, as the New Testament word is in the case of one boy who was acting in a deranged way. But when confrontation comes with the demon, there is rational confrontation at that point. That's the way it was, that man came rushing down towards me and said, "Why are you attacking us? Why are you trying to hurt us?" very rational. And the kingdom of darkness was being assaulted by the truth of Christ.
So, even unbelievers knew when a person was manifesting demon possession. They might not know a person was demon possessed if it wasn't a manifestation, but once there was a manifestation the spiritual pathology was unique to demon possession so that they knew it was demon possession. It was a kind of extreme and bizarre behavior where there was another entity, another personality within that person, and it was apparent.
Demon possession then is a phenomenon that occurred on an amazing scale during the time of Jesus. The rest of biblical history, it seems to be very rare. And it will escalate again, as I told you, at the end of the age, just before Jesus returns, when He comes and raptures His church, takes the church out, removes the restraint. All hell breaks loose. The demons that are now bound in chains in hell are released. They come up to earth, join the ones that are already here and they wreak havoc during the time of the Tribulation which is described from Revelation 6 to 19, also 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. But it is a rare occasion and again we can understand why because they were exposed. There are demon possessed people, I think, at all times, they don't always manifest themselves. I think there were even more demon-possessed people during the time of Christ because the demons were moving in trying to hold on to the souls of men who were being influenced by the powerful preaching of Jesus. But mark it now, folks, there's no such thing as a demon-possessed Christian. Salvation is deliverance from that kingdom.
There are four New Testament expressions that describe demon possession. You need to know what they are. First, having a demon. That's used 16 times in the New Testament. It's the most common one, eikon[?], having a demon. It simply means a person was indwelt and controlled and one other word, tormented...indwelt, controlled and tormented, those are the words. It isn't something that a person necessarily wanted. I suppose one could be open to it if one chose, and maybe there are some people who want to be tormented, but the idea of what a demon did came in and controlled, and the person cannot resist the control and the person is therefore tormented by that control. It is not a form of mental problems, it is not anything physical, it is a supernatural phenomena. And as I said, demons are rational. They are personal spirits. They talk, they scream, they possess knowledge. They show fear. It was something that was very different than some schizophrenia or some paranoia or some bizarre lack of reality. Demon possession was not a physical disease, but there could be physical torments associated with it. Another thing to know about it is it's important to note that nowhere does Jesus speak of the forgiveness of sins with regard to demon-possessed people. You have all these occasions where Jesus is confronted by demon-possessed people, He casts out the demons. Never in any of those, not one single time is there any discussion of the forgiveness of sins, which is interesting. Sometimes when Jesus healed people of physical diseases, there was a discussion about the forgiveness of sins. Never after curing someone who had a demon did Jesus speak of the forgiveness of sins. And that is to say they were not necessarily the most wicked people. Jesus never said you got this way because you're the most wretched, vile, wicked person. They weren't necessarily the most wicked, nor were they necessarily penitent. There's no discussion of some of them believing or repenting. That doesn't happen either. It certainly didn't happen on this occasion.
The point here is not the demon-possessed man the point is that Jesus had power over the demons. The focal point of the story is His power over demons to show that He can break the power of hell and set the prisoners free. You can't make the conclusion that people got demo possessed because they were more wicked than everybody else. That's not so in the Bible, in the New Testament. I'll tell you another way that's probably verified is that there were children who were demon possessed. And it would be hard to argue that they were the most wicked of all.
Nor were people delivered because they repented. In the case of the New Testament, it was a matter of Jesus just delivering people to show He had that power and they could be delivered from demons. In the time of Jesus and the apostles, the apostles were given the power to do that as well as the 70 were, they could be delivered from the demons but not necessarily saved. But once Jesus and the apostles passed off the scene, the only way any sinner will ever be delivered from demons ultimately is to be saved. This was an exhibition of messianic power at that time. There is an ongoing exhibition of messianic power going on today and true deliverance only occurs when Christ comes again into the life of a person and delivers that person through the power of the gospel.
The second phrase, one is "having a demon," the second most common expression is demonized, one who was demonized, daimonizomai, used 13 times describes the same thing, a person indwelt by a demon who is exercising control over the person, the person can't resist that control and is therefore tormented by it, tormented mentally, tormented physically. This is not ever used, to be demonized or ever having a demon, is not ever used to describe demon influence. We are all influenced. Satan is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of the world and all of that. He's got the kosmos, the evil system, we all feel his influence. That's different. To be demonized does not mean to be exposed to his influence, it means to literally have a resident demon or demons controlling and tormenting. And that particular phenomenon...the whole world of sinners is under his influence...but that particular phenomenon is much more rare.
Demons can influence people. They influence, according to the New Testament, in false doctrine, 1 Timothy 4:1. They influence in immorality, same passage, 1 Timothy 4:1-3. They influence us in attitudes of jealousy, divisiveness and pride, James 3:13-16. In other words, the demons have created a world system that sends temptation toward us. But demonized people were not just influenced, they were dominated, they were controlled and they were tormented. Those are the three words that describe this phenomenon. The demons literally spoke through the vocal cords of the individual, such as Matthew 8:29, or if wanted to, they kept him from speaking, Matthew 12:22. The demons caused blindness, Matthew 12:22, gave supernatural physical strength, Mark 5:3, promoted nakedness, the original streaker was a demon-possessed guy in Mark 5. And it wasn't anything immoral, it wasn't some kind of prurient thing on his part, it wasn't sort of lewd conduct, it was torment. It was embarrassing. It was shameful. It was hideous to be constantly running around naked because you were being tormented and driven to do that by a demon, to say nothing of being cold if it was in the winter.
In Matthew 12:43, Jesus gives us an illustration of demon possession. "When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, doesn't find it. And then it says, 'I'll return to my house from which I came,' and when it comes it finds it unoccupied swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, they go in and live there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first, that is the way it will also be with this evil generation."
The person who is demon possessed is like a house. The demon is like an occupant. In verse 43, "The unclean spirit who lives in the man decides to leave, he goes out." Maybe he decided it on his own, finding somebody else he could be more effective in. Or maybe there was an exorcism. Maybe the Jews got together and they pronounced their little formulas and their little incantations and their little chants and maybe the demon decided to leave. But it pictures a man who leaves his home and wanders out in the desert, roaming around in waterless places with no place to rest. He thought the grass was greener but there was no grass and there was no water and so he says, "I better go back, I better go back and I'll go back to my house." Well he comes back and guess what? The place is unoccupied, swept and put in order.
Now how did that happen? Jesus could be referring to these Jewish exorcists who went around like the sons of Sceva in Acts and did this kind of thing. Maybe this is the result of that, you know, this person has had the demons called out of him and the demons have obliged and left and said, "I don't need to deal with this grief, I'll find another place. And now that they know I'm here, my cover is blown, I'm not going to be as effective, so I'll leave." So he goes out, tries to find another place, can't find another place that's as commodious and accommodating and suits the demon's purposes as well as the man. He goes back and what does he find? The man's cleaned up his act. The house is clean. This even makes it more inviting.
What that means is he's gotten more religious. The demons would rather occupy a very religious man than a very irreligious man, because Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his ministers are disguised as angels of light. So now they go back, they find this guy, he's had a little more cleansing, cleaned up his act. This is a legalist. This is a typical self-righteous Jewish legalist and they say this is even better and the demon comes back and brings seven buddies with him. And now there's eight of them living in the guy. So much for exorcism...so much for formulas and incantations. Jesus said, "That's how it is with this evil generation." If you've never dealt with your sin, you're never going to be delivered. You have no control. You might have one demon, you might have a time when the demon's gone and you might have eight coming back. You don't have any control over that. That's the way it is to live in a state of being in the kingdom of darkness under the power of Satan. You're susceptible to that.
Jesus' Authority over Demons, Part 3
Luke 4:31-37
Verse 31 of Luke 4, "He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching there on the Sabbath. They were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority. There was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice, 'Ha, what do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are, the Holy One of God.' And Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Be quiet and come out of him.' And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all and they began discussing with one another saying, 'What is this message? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out.' And the report about Him was getting out into every locality in the surrounding district."
As we learn from the Bible, there is a wicked force of evil spirits in the world called demons. Originally they were created by God has holy angels. Their home was heaven and they served and worshiped God. But through pride and rebellion they became evil. Their leader, Lucifer, came known as Satan the devil, he was able to lead one third of those holy angels in his prideful rebellion. As a result of their rebellion and pride, they were cast out of heaven by God Himself. They number in the millions, they are eternal. Created by God originally they will live forever. In the future, they will be thrown into a lake of fire where they will be tormented forever, they cannot be redeemed, they cannot be forgiven, nor will they or can they repent. They are forever wicked.
They operate in the world today to achieve the purpose of Satan and thwart the purposes of God. They are behind the world's complex system of evil and they are the dominating powers in the lives of all people who do not belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ. The whole of humanity is in the grip of this force of evil spirits. They are real, they are personal and they are wicked.
Everybody who is not a Christian belongs to them in the sense of functioning under their dominating power. John 8:44 says, "All the unconverted are the children of the devil." I John 5:19 says, "The whole world of humanity lies in the lap of the evil one." Ephesians 2 says they are all children of wrath, they are all under the influence of the spirit of disobedience who works in them. Second Corinthians 4 says, "The god of this world has blinded their minds so they cannot understand the gospel."
You look at the world and you see its evil when you see the depth and height and length and breadth of the evil in the world, you are seeing the result not only of human depravity which produces its own evil, but the compounded result of a complex system of wickedness being purveyed by millions of supernatural demons. They use people to effect their God-intended purposes. They would like to stop God's purpose of redeeming sinners and they would like to hold all sinners for themselves who are already in their kingdom. All the unconverted, according to Colossians 1, are already in the kingdom of darkness. And they would like to make that permanent. They do all kinds of things to work their way in the world.
They operate in a person who is teaching in a liberal seminary. They would be in a pastor who advocates homosexuality. They can get a lot more done subtly. It appears to be high church, it appears to be sophisticated, it appears to be even elitist in terms of its academics. But these people who are the quote/unquote human instruments of these disguised demons sound the same as Satan. If you listen to them, these liberal people, they tell you you can't believe the Bible. Isn't that what Satan said in the Garden, you can't believe God, He's not trustworthy? They tell you the God of the Bible is not good. Isn't that what Satan implied? God isn't good, if He was good He wouldn't tell you you couldn't eat of that good tree over there. You can't trust God. You can't believe God. God isn't going to look out for your best.
Satan from the very beginning did one particular thing, and that is to undermine the character of God and then along with that undermine the Word of God. And when anybody comes along today and undermines the nature of God and undermines the Word of God, you can be sure they're plying the trade of the kingdom of darkness. Whether they are actually indwelt by demons or not, we can't know unless there would be some point at which that manifestation occurred. But it's not usual that they would manifest themselves. I suppose that's a. maybe a commentary on the weakness of human preachers, but when Jesus preached, they couldn't keep themselves hidden because in their sheer panic they gave themselves away.
Looking at this text we find the first miracle that Luke records. The point of it is to demonstrate that Jesus has power over the kingdom of darkness. Remember, Jesus is God and He threw Satan out of heaven. He can certainly throw a demon out of a man. That needs to be demonstrated, doesn't it?, if we're going to believe Jesus is the Messiah. If we're going to believe that He can deliver us from the kingdom of darkness, if He can deliver us from sin and death and Satan and hell, then we have to see that He can get us and take us out of the kingdom of darkness. In other words, if Jesus is the Messiah, He has to be able to plunder the kingdom of Satan. In Jesus' own words, He has to be able to go into the strong man's house, tie the strong man up, take all his goods and that's exactly what Jesus did. And what are his goods? The souls of sinners that he held captive. He proves that He can do it because He has total power over the demons.
In 1 John 3:8, it says, "The Son of God was manifest, or appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil." One of the works of the devil is to hold men captive to false systems, to wickedness. And Jesus, if He was the Messiah and Savior of sinners, had to demonstrate that He could overpower Satan and overpower demons. He did it repeatedly and in public view. The demons would have wanted to stay clandestine in the synagogues in the people they were in and influence through false teaching and lies, deceptions, division. They didn't necessarily want to be manifest, but under the preaching of Jesus, they couldn't keep their clandestine identity, they just in sheer panic screamed when they were confronted with Jesus.
You don't need to be afraid of demons, demons are afraid of you. There's so little said about the doctrine of deliverance. We talk about the issue of salvation and we go through a long list of justification, sanctification, regeneration, redemption, adoption, all those great words. Where is deliverance in there? That just seems to be the lost component of salvation but when you were saved you were delivered out of that kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
Four things made the demons tremble. Number one was the preaching of the Son of God. Why is the demon screaming? Because he's been hearing the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is what comes in, binds up the strong man and plunders his kingdom. This gospel is going into the hearts of people that belong to the kingdom of darkness and they don't like that to happen. Satan and the demons hate God. They hate God as much as they can possibly hate God because they're evil is unmixed with any taint of good. Everything is unlimited evil and unlimited hatred of God. That is to say it is limited in the sense that their capacity would be limited, but it is not limited in any sense by any tinge of goodness. They hate God. They hate that God would redeem a soul. Redeemed souls give glory to God, and they hate that God would be glorified. And the last thing they want is their kingdom to be plundered and souls of sinners to be redeemed.
So the demons realizing that the gospel preaching of Jesus is announcing that salvation has come and the kingdom of Satan will indeed be plundered, and so the demon screams, "What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?" And I told you, that's idiomatic, that's a way of saying, "Why are You trying to hurt us? Why are You attacking us?" The attack was the gospel because the gospel in the terms of 2 Corinthians 10 smashed the fortresses that these demons had built for their prisoners and the gospel smashed the fortresses, went in and rescued the sinners and led them captive to Christ. So this demon screams under the preaching. Preaching the gospel terrifies demons.
When Jesus came, He delivered people from demons. There's no clear example in the Bible where a demon ever inhabited or invaded a true believer. Never in the New Testament do we see anybody rebuking demons, binding demons or casting demons out of a true believer. Furthermore, the epistles of the New Testament never instruct believers to cast out demons out of anybody, believers or unbelievers. Christ and the apostles were the only ones who cast out demons, the 70 and the apostles, and in every case the demon-possessed people were unbelievers. It never says that the demon-possessed people even believed, or repented. They did it, Jesus, the apostles, the 70, to show that the Kingdom of God had come. Jesus says that, I think it's the eleventh chapter of Luke, He says, "Look, if I'm casting out demons, the Kingdom of God is here." It was God who threw them out of heaven to start with and if you see Me throwing them out again, you know it's God again.
Demons can't come and live in a Christian. II Corinthians 6:15-16, "What harmony has Christ with Satan? What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols, for we are the temple of the living God." Just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk in them, I will be their God and they shall be My people." You don't need to go around fearing demons. So tragic that people make Christians afraid of demons when the fact is demons are afraid of them. Colossians 1:13 says, "God delivered us from the domain of darkness and took us right out of there and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son." That's why we are more than conquerors in Christ. That's why we always triumphant in Christ Jesus. That's why 1 John 2:13 says, "We have overcome the wicked one." And 1 John 4:4, "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world." Where is Satan and his demons? They're in the world. Who's in us? God.
The point of the text is that Jesus meets this demon-possessed situation and totally dominates the demon. The demon panics under the preaching of the gospel because the gospel raids the kingdom. The gospel steals the man that he's living in and plying his wicked influences and so the demon panics under the preaching.
People run around, "I cast you out, I bind you," that doesn't do a thing to any demon anywhere, anytime. If they laugh, they laugh at that...exorcisms, human manipulations, like Acts, you know, the sons of Sceva going around...they were Jewish exorcists, you know, they had these little incantations, chants and formulas and the demon said, "Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you? We're not impressed." They shudder not under human manipulation, they shudder under the power of the gospel because the gospel goes into the kingdom and raids it. The gospel goes into the house, ties up the strong man and plunders his goods. That's what smashes their fortresses. That's what frees the souls of their captives and brings them to Christ.
The second thing that frightens demons is the purpose of the Son of God. "But the demon says to Him, 'Have You come to destroy us?. Have You come to destroy us?'" I John 3:8, "For the Son of God was manifest that He might destroy the works of the devil." They know the plan. They know the way they're going to go and that God in the end is going to be triumphant and judge them. He's already thrown them out of heaven. They've already been sentenced to eternal wickedness and eternal punishment on top of their wickedness. The demon doesn't quite know the chronology, not even the Son of God knows the full layout of the timing of God, so the demon says, "Is this the time?" Here's one demon speaking on behalf of the demons in general, using plural pronouns, "Have You come to destroy us? What have we to do with you? Is this it? Is this the last? Is this the last part of our operation? Is this it? Is this the end? Have You come to destroy, luo?" The Greek verb means "to undo." It means "to dissolve." It means "to disconnect something that holds together." It means "to destroy." Something disintegrates...have You come to literally destroy us? To destroy not only the works but us, the works, erga, the enterprize, that's 1 John 3:8. Erga means action, undertaking enterprize collectively. Have You come not only to destroy the satanic enterprize but all the demons as well? Why would he ask that? Because that's exactly what he expected. The coming of the Messiah was to include the total end to the demonic activity, and then all the demons would be thrown into the lake of fire.
If they know that's the plan, why do they work so hard?" Number one, they hold out a little bit of hope that maybe they can thwart the plan. They're desperate. Furthermore, they're wicked by nature, that's all they are is wicked so all they can do is what is wicked. And they do it with passion and they are tireless cause they are spiritual beings. They don't sleep. They don't get weary. They don't take a day off. They ply their vicious wickedness at all times.
In Luke 8:27, again Jesus goes up into the Gentile area in Galilee to the area called Gerasa, or Gadara. He is meeting a man there from the city possessed with demons. He hadn't put on any clothing for a long time. He was being tormented. He didn't put any clothes on because the demon was indwelling him, controlling him and he couldn't resist it and this was the torment. So he was literally thrown out of society. He had been like this for a long time. He didn't live in a house. He had to live in the tombs. He was so socially outcast that he had to live in a cemetery and he sees Jesus. The demon goes into total panic, the demon's inside the man. Screaming again in loud voice, "What do I to do with You?" Same thing, "Why are You here to harm us? Why are You here to hurt us? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I beg You, do not torment me." The demon feels the purpose of Christ, maybe this is the time He's come and now I'm going to go to torment.
The demons are asking..."Please, please don't send us to the pit. Don't send us down there. We're enjoying a measure of freedom in our wickedness, don't send us down where we're going to be bound, don't send us to the pit." They know that Jesus is going to send them to the pit. You say, "How do they know He's going to send them to the pit?" Because that's the plan.
Turn to Revelation 20. By the way, demons are also premillennialists because they know the plan is for Jesus to return, Jesus to come to earth, set up His earthly Kingdom and during the earthly Kingdom they're going to the pit. Revelation 20, "An angel coming down from heaven has the key to the abyss," same word, key to the pit. Remember now, chapter 19, Jesus is coming, this is after the time of Tribulation. You have the Rapture of the church, the church is carried into heaven. Then for seven years you have a time of Tribulation on the earth. During that time all hell breaks loose. Demons work in an unrestrained fashion. God takes off the restraint and demons just run across the world and Revelation 6 to 19 describes what happens in the horrors of all of that goes on. And then at the end of that seven-year period Jesus comes back. He destroys all the ungodly, sets up His Kingdom. Now in setting up His Kingdom what He does, chapter 20 verse 1, He sends an angel, has the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He takes hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, the devil and Satan and implied here is all the rest of the demons and they're bound for a thousand years. They know when Jesus comes back He's going to put them in the pit. So this demon in the Gerasa countryside sees Jesus, realizes who it is and says, "Is this the time to go to the pit? Is this it? Is this the time You're going to come to earth and actually set up Your Kingdom?"
Verse 3 of Revelation 20, "He threw them in the abyss, shut it up and sealed it and they're not allowed to come out for a thousand years." Down in verse 10, "After the thousand years is over they are thrown, along with the beast and the false prophet, into the lake of fire and brimstone to be tormented day and night forever and ever."
I've heard people say that all the hell there ever is is that you're just going to be wicked forever. If you're wicked, you're just going to be wicked forever and that's what hell is. No, that's not what hell is. They're already wicked forever. They are wicked forever but they fear the lake of fire because the lake of fire isn't just being the same as they already are, the lake of fire is being tormented and punished forever for being wicked forever. The demon in Gerasa says, "Is this the time? Are we going to the pit?" They know what's going on. There will be eternal punishment with no relief forever. And they won't be operating their system, they will be kept in a lake of fire. They tremble at the thought.
There's a third thing that terrifies demons, not only the preaching of the Son of God and the purpose of the Son of God, but the person of the Son of God. I think you can understand that. Verse 34, we have a lot of insight into this whole situation just in this one verse, "The demon says, 'I know who You are, the Holy One of God.'" Why does he pick the word "holy"? What is most frightening to one who is most wicked? Someone who is most holy. They know who He is. It was the sheer terror of one who is ultimately wicked in the presence of One who is ultimately perfect. Ultimate evil cringes in the presence of perfect holiness. "I know who You are."
Look at verse 41 of chapter 4. "The demons were coming out of many, crying out and saying, 'You are the Son of God,' and rebuking them He would not allow them to speak because they knew Him to be the Christ." He silenced them. The last source of promotion Jesus wants is demons because, as I told you, people knew demon manifestation when they saw it, and if hell is pronouncing this man the Messiah, that doesn't help because Satan is the father of lies. Jesus says, "Shut up, silence." There was this demon-possessed girl in Acts 16, she was saying about Paul, "These men are the servants of the Most High God." Paul says, "Stop, get out." God doesn't need publicity from the kingdom of darkness, that confuses the issue.
But the demon couldn't restrain himself. They know who He is. There is a sort of a back-handed reality here, isn't there? For those of us who are Christians we can see. This is tremendous insight into the nature of Christ, but for a group of unbelievers who hear the demons saying, "This is your Messiah," they're going to see that as a lie. Jesus didn't want that from them. Mark 1:34, "He healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons and He was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who He was." They always know who He is.
Where does Jesus dwell today? I know He sits at the right hand of the Father but what about you, where does He dwell? You know the answer to the question? Galatians 2:20, "I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me." Think that terrifies the demons? Is your body the temple of God? Yes, it's not the temple of idols, it's not the temple of demons, it's the temple of Christ, what do you have to be afraid of? Demons are afraid of you. You bring into their realm the presence of Christ. You bring into their realm the remembrance of the purposes of Christ. You bring into their realm the preaching of the gospel of Christ which raids their kingdom. Everything about you having been delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear Son causes you to make demons fear. When you show up, they cringe because when you show up Jesus shows up. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit," 1 Corinthians 6:17.
If Isaiah panicked when he saw God, what do you think a demon does? Isaiah was a prophet and he fell on his face in terror when he saw a vision of God. If Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 1, saw God he went into a coma of fear. The disciples on the transfiguration mount, Matthew 17, saw the glorified Christ and they fell over like dead men. John, Revelation 1, sees a vision of Christ, falls over like a dead man. If God's own people panic in the presence of His holiness, what does a wicked, vile demon do in the presence of His holiness? And you are the temple of God, do you understand that? They're terrified because of what we preach, the gospel that raids their kingdom, because of the purpose of God...that's one of the reasons that we have to get the book of Revelation right and we have to preach the coming of Christ and His glorious Kingdom and the end of all the sources and powers of hell. And thirdly, the demons are frightened by the perfection of the Holy One of God whose presence in the world now is in the church. That title, verse 34, "I know who You are, the Holy One of God," is reminiscent of the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary back in chapter 1 verse 35, "The angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God." Mary, you're going to have a holy offspring.
Demons are terrified by the power of the Son of God...the preaching, the purpose, the purity and the power of the Son of God. The power is displayed, in verse 35. "Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Be quiet and come out of him.'" Would you please notice what isn't here? There's no incantations, there's no manipulations, there's no dialogue, there's no discussion, there's no conversation, there's no prayer, there's no binding, there's no loosing, there's no nothing. Shut up and get out of that man...that's all He does. Immediate domination. It says, "He rebuked him," and some scholars think that epitimason[?] here is a technical term for the subjection of evil spirits. It's used over and over in the New Testament. No discussion, no conversation, no dialogue, no debate, no formula, no exorcism, no prayer, no nothing, absolute power...Be quiet, get out! To put it simply, folks, this is miraculous, this is divine power. Jesus demanded that that demon be silent, He will not accept promotion from demons.
The demon didn't want to come out. The demon was very subtle in plying his deceptions through the man. It's like the demons in Luke 8, "Don't...please don't send us...don't send us out of the country, don't send us to the pit, we like what we've got, we're comfortable, we're doing our thing here, don't..." One day He's going to send them out of the world, one day He's going to send them in the lake of fire, just like He sent Satan right out of heaven when he sinned and all the rest of the demons with him. He has the power to command this demon who can't resist His power and he has to go. He's the creator of the universe and words of power brought everything that exists into its place and those words of power can take everything that exists out of its place. And here is evidence of that.
If you study the demon possessed and miracles of Jesus with regard to them, they're often called "healings." That's right, the word "healing" is used, Matthew 4:24; Matthew 12:22; Mark 3:10; Luke 6:19; Luke 7:21; Luke 8:2; Acts 10:38. The casting out of demons was considered a healing and healings were miracles, folks, these are miracles done only by Christ and those that He commissioned and sent out, not anybody else. There is no case anywhere in the scriptures of some exorcism, some incantations, some formula, some prayer, something or other, some binding, some loosing, some chasing of demons. When demons were dealt with in unbelievers, they were dealt with with absolute divine and supernatural authority, either Christ's own or that which He delegated to those that were with Him. This is categorically a healing that constitutes a miracle. Now the demon wanted to stay but he couldn't stay because Jesus had the power to throw him out. The demon wanted to stay and torment the man and this is a bratty demon, like a spoiled kid. Verse 35, "And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him without doing him any harm."You've seen your kids do that. "Put that down!" "No." "Put that down!" The bratty demon slams the guy down...I'm going but I'm not going without a final act of defiance.
He came out of him, however, verse 35 says, without doing him any harm. This man is not a believer. There's nothing about forgiveness of sins here. There's no discussion of the man. But Jesus is certainly compassionate, isn't He? I mean, the demons...part of the demon possession, as I said, three words, indwelt, controlled, tormented, now this man had been tormented with this demon and here was one final torment, slamming him to the ground in the middle of the synagogue. It reminds me of Matthew 17 of the boy who was ill and falling into the fire and falling into the water as the demon slammed him here and slammed him there. Jesus protected the man from any harm, showing His compassion. But the point here is not the man, it never is in dealing with demon possessed people because there's never any discussion about any demon-possessed person in the gospels spiritual life. It's just the demons, it's just showing us that He has power over the demons who hold all men in their kingdom. But Jesus was compassionate and He protected the man from being harmed. Demons want to harm, produce illness, injury. You find in the New Testament things like epilepsy, deafness, dumbness. As I showed you in Matthew 17, falling into the fire, falling into the water, danger of burning and drowning and things like that. But when Jesus cast them out, they went immediately. This was a healing, this was a miracle, this is not an exorcism. Such have no true divine power.
Jesus has come in and plundered the kingdom of darkness and rescued us and taken us out, smashed the fortress and delivered us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. And that's where we dwell. Now all of this, Jesus dealing with demons, is to demonstrate that He can do that. Can He deliver us from the kingdom of darkness? Sure. Does He have power over Satan? Sure, He threw him out of heaven. Does He have power over demons? Sure. That means that He can free us. So God the Son, the Savior, Messiah manifests to bring the kingdom of salvation. In order to bring that kingdom and the souls of men has to destroy Satan's enterprize and ultimately will send Satan and all the rest of his demons to burn forever in a lake of fire. But when the Son came, Satan didn't take it lying down and struck back and the demons struck back attacking Jesus and the apostles with an assault that was violent and extreme. It was unprecedented, unrepeated escalation of demonic manifestation as they, I think, unwillingly were manifest just under the power of the presence of Jesus and now today they've kind of gone quietly back into their secret places and they'll escalate their stuff again just before Jesus returns a second time, as we find in the book of Revelation. But Jesus proves to be the Messiah here. Luke gives us this to show that He can deliver us from the kingdom of darkness. He can save sinners.
What Jesus did that day had a great impact. "Amazement came on them all." Amazement is sort of wonder mixed with fear. "And they began discussing with one another, "What is this logos What is this word? He speaks... for with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out?" These people were familiar with this. There had been manifestations of demons. They had seen that. And as I said before, they knew it when they saw it but they had never seen anything like this. What is this word? This man speaks and we have never seen anything like this.
Matthew 9:33 puts it, "Jesus had power over demons such that the Jews said it was never so seen in Israel." Jesus' power over demons was supernatural, extraordinary, unmatched, it was miraculous. They never saw anything like this. This isn't like anything they've ever experienced. He commands with authority and power, exousia and dunamis, two very strong words. He commands, habitual action. He constantly commands and they do whatever He tells them to do. "And the report about Him," verse 37, "was getting out into every locality and surrounding district." Well, literally into every place of the region round about. Everyone was hearing. This man has power over the kingdom of darkness. This man commands demons and they do exactly what He tells them to do. There are no formulas, no prayers, no nothing, no conversation, gone and they're gone. These were miracles. These were pointing to the authority and power of the King Himself and His Kingdom and they cannot be duplicated, they cannot be equaled.
