“ED’S DEMON”
Mark 1:21-28
INTRODUCTION:
About 30
years ago, I was part of a group of people who started a detoxification unit in
Whenever I read in Scripture about
demons or evil spirits, I think of the very 1st person who came into
our new detox unit. His name was Ed, and
Ed was a very heavy drinker. Ed had a
very tough time drying out. The 2nd
night he was there, he went into DT’s.
Now, I don’t know if any of you have ever been around anyone who was
going through DT’s. It is horrible—it’s
not any fun at all. And, it’s really a
life threatening situation for anyone who is having them.
Part of my job was to monitor the
patient’s medical condition. I sat up
with Ed all night helping him through his DT’s.
It was tough—Ed was picking bugs/spiders off the walls all night. He kept shouting out, “There’s my demon! There’s my demon!” All night long, Ed was fighting his
demons. I don’t know if Ed ever did win
his battle with his demons. The next
day, after he somewhat dried out, he left and I never heard from him
again.
Do you ever struggle with
demons? Now, I don’t believe that anyone
who has ever confessed Christ as their Lord/Savior has demons living with
them—there is no room for demons when Christ dwells within us. But, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going
to try. It doesn’t mean they are going
to try to raise havoc in your life.
Scripture tells us there is a
continual war being waged to get control of us.
As humans, we have a sinful nature that wants to control us. But, as Christians, we also have a
Spirit-filled nature that continually fights against our sinful selves. Let me read from Galatians
And, from Ephesians
Well, how can we win this war. And, how does our passage, today, help us to
win the war over evil? Let’s look at the
passage and ask the question, “What can we do to allow Christ to defeat the
evil that is within us?
WE
WILL RECOGNIZE CHRIST AS THE SON OF GOD:
That is absolutely the 1st
thing we must do before we can ever go about handling that spiritual war that
is within us. We must recognize Jesus
Christ as the Son of God—our Lord/Savior—the Messiah who has come to save
us.
We have spent 4 weeks, so far on
this 1st chapter of Mark, and Mark isn’t a bit bashful in
introducing Jesus as the Son of God. The
very 1st sentence in this Gospel, the title page, says, “The
beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And, Mark quotes the Prophet Isaiah in
preparing the way for the Lord. Mark
introduces John the Baptist who introduces Jesus as someone who baptize people
with the Holy Spirit.
Then when Jesus is being baptized by
John in the
After being baptized and facing
Satan in the desert, Mark said that Jesus began his preaching ministry,
proclaiming, “The time has come. The
Last week, we saw the Son of God
begin to assemble his ministry team.
Jesus walked along the
And now today, we find the Son of
God and his 4 new disciples in
An evil spirit dwelling inside a man
who was in the synagogue recognized Jesus.
Here’s what he said in V.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!” Do you think Satan doesn’t know
that Jesus is the Son of God? Did you
know that Satan is a pretty religious guy?
Satan and his demons are really rather orthodox in some of their
beliefs. A.W. Tozer once said, “The
devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.” Listen to what James, the brother of our Lord
had to say in James
The question is, do you have the
same faith in Jesus as the Son of God as Satan and his demons have? Do you know Jesus? Have you confessed him as your Lord and
Savior? Have you asked him into your
heart? Jesus will never force himself
upon us. He doesn’t like the evil that
fights to control our souls, but he won’t do anything unless we recognize him
as the Son of God. And, he won’t do
anything unless we repent from our sinful life and turn towards him.
The 1st step in allowing
Christ to defeat the evil within us is to recognize that Christ is indeed the
Son of God. And, the 2nd step
is…
WE
WILL RECOGNIZE HIS AUTHORITY:
It is one thing to recognize Christ
as the Son of God, but we need also to recognize the authority that goes with
that Sonship. The people in the
synagogue were totally amazed by Jesus teaching. No one had ever heard a teacher with so much
authority. V.22 says, “The people were
amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as
the teachers of the law.” Let’s look a
litter closer at that word, “authority.”
The method of teaching that rabbis
in Jesus’ day was to quote earlier rabbis.
Their authority was in people who were long dead/gone. Basically, they would determine the laws/rules/customs
by what earlier people would say. “Rabbi
X would say such/such about the eating of meat.” And “Rabbi Y would say such/such about
working on the Sabbath.” All authority
in their teaching was acquired externally—outside of theirself.
And then, Jesus came along teaching by his own
authority. He didn’t quote anyone
because he was the authority—and the people recognized it. Jesus was definitely the authority. Let me read a verse from John’s Gospel that
you have heard a hundred times—John 14:6.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life…” What is Jesus saying? Does he say, “I know the way?” No he doesn’t, does he? He sounds pretty authoritive to me—“I AM THE
WAY!” Does he say, “He knows the
truth?” Hardly! He lays it out pretty strong—“I AM THE
TRUTH!” And, does he say, “I know the life?” Guess again.
Jesus says—I AM THE LIFE!” Jesus
is everlasting life. Do you recognize
the authority Jesus has as your Lord/Savior?
Do you recognize his authority to drive out evil from within you?
They certainly did in the synagogue that day when
Jesus spoke to the evil spirit in V.25—“Be quiet! Come out of him.” The people were amazed at Jesus authority as
the evil spirit was forced out.
That is the 2nd step of defeating the
evil that tries to control us. After we
recognize Christ as the Son of God, we must next recognize the authority that
comes with that Sonship. And finally, we
must…
WE
WILL SUBMIT TO HIS AUTHORITY:
There was no doubt as to who was submitting to whose authority, in this passage, was there? V.26-27 says, “The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 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 evil spirits and they obey him.’” When Jesus speaks, evil spirits listen! And, they respond to what he says—they have no choice.
Do you know that we have the
ultimate power to defeat the evil that holds us hostage? Let me illustrated with an old American
Indian tale. A chief was telling a
gathering of young braves about the struggle within. “It is like 2 dogs fighting inside of us,”
the chief told them. “There is one good
dog who wants to do the right and the other dog always wants to do the
wrong. Sometimes the good dog seems
stronger and is winning the fight. But
sometimes the bad dog is stronger and wrong is winning the fight.”
And a young brave asked, “Who is
going to win in the end?” And the chief
answered, “The one you feed.”
The dog that you feed is the one
that will win in this fight against evil!
In other words: If you never grow in your relationship with Christ—if
you seldom read his Word; if you seldom pray to him; if you seldom worship him;
or if you seldom fellowship with his people—which dog is going to win the war
going on in your heart? Evil is the name
of the dog, isn’t it?
But, if you seek to be with Christ,
reading his word, praying to him, worshiping him, and fellowshipping with his
people—no evil spirit will ever be able to stand up to him. Jesus will defeat the evil that seeks to
control us, but we must seek a relationship with him. And, we must submit to his authority. WE MUST SUBMIT TOTALLY!
Let me share one more story:
Alexander the Great conquered almost all the known world in his day. One day on the warpath, Alexander and a small
company of soldiers approached a strongly fortified walled city and Alexander
raised his voice and demanded to see the king.
When the king arrived, Alexander ordered him to surrender the city and
everyone inside to Alexander and his little band of fighting men.
The king laughed. “Why should I surrender to you? You can’t do us any harm with that small
army.” But Alexander offered to give the
king a demonstration. He ordered his men
to line up single file and start marching.
He marched them straight toward a sheer cliff.
The townspeople gathered on the wall
and watched in shocked silence as, one by one, Alexander’s soldiers marched
without hesitation right off the cliff to their deaths! After 10 soldiers died, Alexander ordered the
rest of the men to return to his side.
The townspeople and the king immediately surrendered to Alexander the
Great.
They realized that if a few men were actually
willing to commit suicide at the command of this dynamic leader, then nothing
could stop his eventual victory.
That’s the kind of submission Jesus seeks from
us. We must be willing to walk off a
cliff for him. Is that too hard for us
to do? Well, look at the cliff Christ
stepped off for us. It was called the
cross of
CONCLUSION:
Jesus will never force you to do something against your will. But, if you will just allow him to defeat the evil that is waging the war, he will gladly do it.
We just need to recognize him as the
Son of God.
We just need to recognize the
authority that goes with that Sonship.
And, we just need to submit to that
authority.
JESUS WILL BE THE VICTOR!!