In verse 12 we read that Paul exorcized demons during his Ephesian evangelistic campaign.
Verse 13 suggests that Paul carried on that work through the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul may have been smart, eloquent, bold, and any number of other wonderful things,
Paul said to demons, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ come out of that man.”
Our question this evening is rather fundamental, and one to which most of us already know the answer.
Why did those evil spirits have to leave their human hosts when Jesus commanded them to do so?
And why did they leave at the command of the Lord’s apostles?
The obvious answer is that Jesus Christ is their rightful Lord, and those Satanic angels had no power to resist or to disobey.
The Gospel of John concludes with a couple of intriguing statements:
John 21:25 says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”
Then the last two verses of the preceding chapter say,
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
A corollary to that might be that the apostles also worked more miracles than what have been described.
But the few that have been recorded, by both the Saviour and the Apostles, have been given to us in order that we believe on Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
In the light of those verses, isn’t it amazing that the Gospel of John does not tell us about a single exorcism?
Luke tells us about some of them,
but it’s Mark who gives us the most information about Jesus and the demons.
And yet the details that he provides help us to realize why it is that those demons MUST obey their Creator and why they obeyed the Lord’s servants.
Let’s think about those four references to Jesus and the demons.
Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.”
This took place at the beginning of our Lord’s earthly ministry.
People were just beginning to get to know Him.
and the rest of society had no idea Who it was that was living among them.
but He taught as though he knew exactly what every Old Testament writer was saying.
In fact he taught the people as if HE was the author of every verse quoted.
He probably didn’t even need the scriptures in front of Him;
after the initial reading, he could quote every word and every line with perfect accuracy.
“Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.”
The first thing to notice is that it was apparently the demon who initiated the confrontation.
It was not making a confession of faith, but a statement of fact, and there were no personal benefits for doing so.
“Art thou come to destroy us?”
There appears to have been only one demon involved in this case, and yet he refers to “us” a couple of times.
There are a couple of schools of thought about this:
But I tend to think that the demon wouldn’t really care what happened to his host.
There is a day coming when at the command of the Lord Jesus,
This creature knew that.
And when the Lord commanded him to depart that is exactly what he did, even if it was very reluctantly, like a peevish teenager.
The resultant point was that everyone in the synagogue was even further awestruck,
“And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.”
This is precisely what the Lord intended there in Ephesus.
Paul’s exorcism of demons in the Name of Christ, was designed to magnify the Lord Jesus.
And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.
And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.
And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.”
“But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,”
It wasn’t that he and the demons within him worshiped Christ in the positive and proper sense of the word,
“And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.”
And once again, they pled with the Lord not to torment them.
But why should those demons fear the torment of the Lord?
They probably had hopes – and even the promises of Satan – that it would not happen,
But now that they were face to face with Christ, they were in fear that it would begin that very moment.
Once again, the exorcism of this legion of demons brought attention to the Saviour, “and all men did marvel.”
But unfortunately, for that very reason, the Lord was not well-received in that neighborhood.
For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.
And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.”
In this case we see that neither the demon, nor its host, approached the Lord.
Here it was the mother of the demon-possessed child.
There is no point in speculating about how this child became demon-possessed.
But had this child been dabbling in the occult and thus invited Satan into her life?
Or was it something that the parents had brought upon their child?
I’m afraid that may be something that we’ll never know.
Had she tried heathen exorcists or had she wasted money on some vagabond Jews?
Down in the depths of my heart I tend to think that she had become a Christian.
But she obviously had faith that the Lord Jesus could cure her child.
And she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.
Notice that the Lord Jesus had authority over this demon even at a distance.
And notice that there doesn’t appear to have been any verbal commands given to the evil spirit.
It was just the will of the Lord, and the demon had no alternative but to depart.
When news returned to the disciples, you can be very sure that they were very impressed.
And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him.
And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them?
And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.
He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.
But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”
But one of the differences in this case over the last, is that the child was there as well.
Another difference is that this time, the demon doesn’t immediately surrender to Christ.
But when THE LORD JESUS ordered the child’s release the demon immediately, but reluctantly obeyed.
It appears to me that the order of events just proves that the apostles had no authority in themselves.
In this case it was simply not the will of the Lord that Jesus’ servants cast out this demon.
But upon the direct command of the Son of God there was an immediate cure.
And they know Him to be their Creator and the God of all creation.
They may be living in rebellion against the authority and deity of Christ, but they cannot deny it.
They may be trying to assist Satan in the overthrow of Jehovah, but as of yet they haven’t been successful.
When the Lord Jesus commands a demon, then that demon has no choice but to obey.
So when the men of God, acting under the authority of God, and carrying out the will of God,
commanded in Jesus Name that a demon depart,
once again that demon had no choice.
The seven sons of Sceva didn’t have this access to the authority of the Lord.
Paul did.
And thus the Name of the Lord was directly magnified through the Apostle’s ministry.
But the Lord was also indirectly glorified through the failure of the impostures.