Tag Archives: impure spirit

MARK’S GOSPEL…OPPOSITION – 6

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Mark 1:21, 23-26 NIV
[21] “They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach…
[23] Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, [24] “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” [25] “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” [26] The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.”

Jesus’ appearance on the public scene stirred up a hornet’s nest of demonic activity. In the synagogue, of all places, the place where God’s people met together to worship and to hear God’s Word… one of the resident demons voiced its objections! How could demons be comfortable in the synagogue? Surely, the very Word of God would stir them to frantic opposition!

It seems that demons were quite at home in Israel, judging by the number Jesus encountered in His movements around the country. Like flies on a rubbish dump, demons infested many of the people of Israel, sucking life out of them and being an embarrassment to their fellow Israelites.

How fitting that the first record of the Servant’s work, according to Mark, was a frontal attack on one of His fiercest enemies. Demons were the devil’s footsoldiers, the infantry of hell, occupying ground that Satan desired to possess completely. The people of Israel were meant to be the front line of attack and defense in the battle between heaven and hell for the souls of men and women. Instead, their lives of sinful disobedience to the covenant of their covenant-keeping God had made them vulnerable to enemy occupation.

One thing the demon recognised when Jesus arrived on the scene, was that the commander-in-chief of the armies of heaven was right there, in its face, if you please! There was no negotiating, no peace agreement, no cease-fire pact. This was not a balancing act between two equal enemies. This was war to the death!

Demons were usurpers, squatters in God’s territory. This was not a battle. This was an eviction order…and the demon knew it. Despite its objection to being disturbed, this demon understood authority. It had to obey. In view of all the people in the synagogue, the demon bowed to Jesus and, with a final show of defiance, fled the scene, leaving Its victim dazed but free.

Imagine the effect of the deliverance on the worshippers! This was power and authority they had never witnessed in all Israel. As much as their spiritual leaders swaggered around, claiming the authority and power they could not produce, Jesus had done the unthinkable with just a few words!
“Be quiet!”… “Come out of him!”

Mark 1:27 NIV
[27] “The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits, and they obey him.”

So, the battle lines were drawn for all-out war. Most of His struggles were not with Satan’s henchmen but with his representatives…the men who posed as God’s representatives but who, in fact, resembled the devil more than the God they claimed to worship.

Jesus had identified His territory, the kingdom of God, under the authority of the Father… and His weapon of choice, the infallible Word of God, “It is written,” which He used with devastating effect.

Jesus never allowed His reputation or His emotions to take centre stage. In every encounter with the enemy, be it with demons or humans, He always wielded only one weapon…truth. All the Father’s authority and power flowed through His Word.

His first hand-to-hand combat with the devil in the wilderness was convincingly His victory. He had proved the effectiveness of His weapon and established His authority over the only one who had ever dared to challenge His position in heaven.

For the rest of His time on earth, Jesus continued to overcome the world and its opposition forces with one defence…faith, and one weapon…truth. He trusted, submitted to, and obeyed the Father. He did the Father’s works and spoke the Father’s words… a true Servant of Yahweh!

Through the Word, the universe came into being. Through the Word, Jesus upholds all things and all creation functions in harmony. Through the Word, the Son has been assigned the power and authority to judge all people…and, through the Word, He will conquer all opposition.

Revelation 19:11-16 NIV
[11] “I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. [12] His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows, but he himself. [13] He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the WORD OF GOD. [14] The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. [15] Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. [16] On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Jesus’ victory was not His alone. He passed on His conquest to those who would follow Him by faith.

John 16:33 NIV
[33] “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus unmasked Satan’s plan to enslave all people by holding them accountable to the law of God. He broke Satan’s power by perfectly fulfilling God’s law, then dying as a law breaker to pay our debt for disobeying the law.

The devil can no longer deceive us into believing that he has us in his power.

Colossians 2:13-15 NLT
[13] “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. [14] He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

Jesus stepped in, paid the debt, reversed the charge, and cut us loose from any obligation to obey the law to be righteous. So, with His word, these squatters were evicted, and their victims freed from all accountability.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – MY NAME IS LEGION

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MY NAME IS LEGION

6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. Mark 5:6-10

The conversation Jesus had with the demon-possessed man was a strange mixture of sane interaction with a man created in God’s image and capable of responding to God, and the crazed outbursts of terrified demons who knew who He was and feared the fate that awaited them. Although this man had endured terrible torment from the demons – it was a miracle that he was still alive – there was a sense in which they actually benefited him in the end. Because of their disclosure, there was no doubt in the man’s mind who Jesus was.

The demons kept butting in to keep the man from conversing with Jesus until they were silenced and dismissed from him and he was able to respond to Jesus without interference. Why did he plead with Jesus not to banish the demons from the country? Was this their last stand before they were driven out? Why did Jesus capitulate and send them into the pigs? Was it because He had not yet accomplished His final victory over them so that He could banish them to hell?

Judgment day still lies in the future and the demonic powers still serve their purpose in the world until Jesus returns.

This man’s deliverance was a process, part of which was to acknowledge his condition, symbolised by his name. It seems that his confession, “I am a rioting mob!” brought about his final release. The demons fled into the pigs who reacted violently by hurling themselves over the cliff into the lake.

This is an incident we need to keep uppermost in our minds. This happening proves Jesus’ authority and power over the demonic realm without a doubt. There is no power struggle here, no equal contest between God and Satan, between good and evil. There is no question here as to who is in charge. Jesus is Lord, always was and always will be. Even in His human life, He stood and because He is in us and we are in Him, we can also stand.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – SEARCH AND DESTROY

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CHAPTER 5

SEARCH AND DESTROY

​1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. Mark 5:1-5

This story convinces me again the Jesus was far more concerned about the condition people were in than how they got into it. This man certainly didn’t become like he was overnight. If I read it in a disinterested way, it reads like another fictional horror story but, if I really think about it, I wonder what sort of life he lived to have become so deranged with demons.

We can compare him with so many of the animal rescue programmes we see on TV. Months of neglect and starvation bring them to a state of parasite infestation and emaciation. This man was spiritually emaciated and infested with demons because they had gradually taken him over through years of ungodly living, receiving and believing their lies until they could move into the strongholds they had created in his mind.

Satan cannot lead any sane-thinking person to a point of believing that he is lord by convincing him through a demonstration of his character. A sane-thinking person would turn from him in disgust if he were to reveal his true self. It has to be by deception and ensnarement. He lures people through the pleasures of sin without revealing the consequences. When the consequences begin to bite, guilt and shame drive the person deeper into sin and farther from God’s mercy. He becomes so ensnared by his behaviour and his beliefs that the next step is easy. Move in and control from the internal command post!

From that position, the next step is to destroy. Self-inflicted punishment, torment and violence isolate the person from family and friends and inflict physical damage that will eventually destroy that life. This is what the Father revealed to Jesus and this is what Jesus was en route to do – to repossess the tormented man’s mind and refocus his beliefs so that Jesus could take over the command centre of his life. He had the authority to do it and that was His immediate mission.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – “OUT, SQUATTER!”

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“OUT, SQUATTER!”

Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. Mark 1:23-28

What is the essence of authority? Jesus knew what He was talking about because He knew the Father and had confidence in Him. He was not theorising or speculating. He was speaking from reality and experience. In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, He confidently asserted, “I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen…”! (John 3:11). During the last supper, when He undressed Himself and washed the disciples’ feet, John commented, “Jesus knew that the Father has put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God…” (John 13:3a).

John could not have recorded things like this unless he was divinely inspired. It seems, then, that the greatest authority comes from complete confidence in the one who has the authority.

Jesus translated that confidence into action in the synagogue in Capernaum. He was confronted by a shrieking madman who reacted violently to His presence. When Jesus spoke, the demon yielded, under protest, yes, but he had to give way because Jesus had the upper hand. Another demonstration of “fishing” for His disciples.

Jesus was not intimidated by the demon’s blustering show of strength. He confidently stood His ground because He knew where the authority lay. When it comes to a stand-off between His kingdom, where everything is perfect and orderly, and the kingdom of darkness, where chaos and ruin are the outcome, God’s kingdom prevails because Satan’s kingdom is all bluff.

In partnership with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, every child of God carries the same authority to restore order and calm in the chaos we have created by siding with the devil. When we can confidently align ourselves with God and purposefully believe in His plan to restore perfection, He said that nothing is impossible. 10

Jesus Let Loose

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JESUS LET LOOSE

They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at His teaching because He taught as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law (Mark 1:21-22).

Jesus was ready. He had bent all His energies towards this moment when He could do what He was born to do, to reveal the Father to His people. He had gone through the school system of His day to become a rabbi – a recognised teacher of Torah. From early childhood He had memorised and been coached in the Torah, the five books of Moses upon which the rest of the Holy Scriptures depended.

Over and above His training as a rabbi, Jesus was recognised as one having authority – s’mikah. That gave Him the right to choose men to follow Him and learn to be like Him so that they could pass on what He taught about the Torah which was uniquely His interpretation – His yoke.  Unlike the “teachers of the law”, He was not bound by the yoke of the ancient rabbis and the rabbis of His day who had s’mikah.

The people of Capernaum were used to the “teachers of the law” who taught in the synagogue every Sabbath. Whoever they were, they all had the same thing to say. They simply regurgitated what others taught about the way of Yahweh. To them the Torah was a book of general rules, but it was left to the authoritative teachers to fill in the missing bits. This resulted in a religion of intricate instructions about everything which were constantly debated and which left the common people confused and in fear of upsetting God by not doing what He demanded.

Jesus had a different story to tell. He spoke about the way God ran things which they had lost in the maze of humanly imposed interpretations. The real God was obscured by all this stuff that had been heaped upon what He had said. The real God was not anything like they made Him out to be. He wasn’t some tyrant who was fanatical about their keeping His rules and punished anyone who dared to step out of line. He was a loving Father who taught them how to live so that they could enjoy the best life.

The people were amazed. How could anyone say things like that? Jesus was making God out to be nice. What authority did He have to do that? Who gave Him the authority to tell them things about God that they hardly believed possible? Was He just making it up or was God as loving, caring and merciful as He made Him out to be?

Jesus’ teaching not only stirred up the ordinary people; it also got the religious teachers going. What He taught was not what they taught. They were losing credibility because the people loved what He had to say about God and His kingdom, and He seemed to know what He was talking about. But not only did He tell them about this nice God who was their Father, He also showed them what He meant, by healing sick people and restoring disable people. The religion teachers had no answer for that!

Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!’ ‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this? A new teaching – and with authority He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey Him.’ News about Him spread quickly all over the region of Galilee(Mark 1: 23-27).

It was all about authority. Never in their lifetime had the people been exposed to a rabbi who said and did things with such authority that He could literally chase demons out of a man. One minute the man was crazy and the next he was completely sane and they had no answer for it.

Strange, isn’t it that the only one in the synagogue who knew who He really was, was the demon who held the man prisoner? He belonged to the unseen world. He represented the arch enemy of the one whom Jesus represented. He was there to create as much havoc in the human world as he could. He was the opposite of everything Jesus represented and stood for.

Here was Jesus’ opportunity to show His people what He meant when He told them that God’s kingdom was near. With a single command He evicted the squatter and set the man free from his tormenting presence. That’s what the kingdom of God is all about – living free from all the slave-drivers that control our lives – emotions, habits, moods, beliefs and attitudes and whatever dominates our thinking and behaviour that holds us in bondage.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour (Isa. 61: 1-3).

This was His mission, and He had authority from above to do everything He was commissioned to do.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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