There are a great many times when the preacher should feel inadequate for his task.
He is expected to preach the whole counsel of God, and to expound the scriptures that are given to him,
But many times those scriptures only begin to reveal the subject.
Sometimes those subjects are so far above him that his faulty mind cannot begin to grasp them.
I think that the subject before us this evening is just one of those cases.
We know that demons exist, because the Bible reveals that to us.
But whether they are here this evening, and what they are attempting to do we are not told.
We aren’t told what they look like or what they sound like.
We know their beginning and their ending, but not their middle so to speak.
We have the opportunity and the responsibility to study a subject like this as far as the Bible reveals it.
But I think that to study it any farther than the scriptures, would put us in immediate peril.
To go beyond the Bible would actually put us into the very camp of the Devil.
As children of God, our souls are secure in Christ, but that is not necessarily so with our lives and bodies.
Only fools venture in the angels of God fear to tread.
This will not be much more than an outline this evening,
Because our scripture doesn’t give us much more than an outline.
In regard to this spirit of divination, let’s think about the PERSON, its PURPOSE and its POWER.
Even though we touched on the damsel this morning let’s return to her once again.
I mentioned just a moment ago, that we should not go beyond the scripture in studying demonology.
I can’t tell you exactly how this young lady became possessed,
It is very likely that she had at some point been dabbling in demonism.
In other words, she very likely invited this possession.
In fact I tend to look at her handlers and owners as probably more ungodly than she was.
They were religious pimps.
I think that there is something far worse than an harlot or whore – the pimp who manages her.
This is unusual language.
This was a special and specific kind of demon.
If you could read this in Greek you’d see that this damsel was possess by “the spirit of Python.”
There is a deal of Greek mythology involving Delphi.
Sometime in the ancient Grecian past, the god Apollos either killed or became protected by the snake Python.
In mythology Apollos was the god of music, medicine, poetry and – PROPHECY.
His home became the site of the famous Oracle at Delphi.
The primary staff at Delphi were priestesses.
Now, remember that in their society, they not only saw nothing wrong with this they considered this business highly respectable.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that little girls were taught from infancy that to be a priestess at Delphi was and extremely high honour.
I can’t tell you for sure, but it is reasonable to assume that the damsel at Philippi had visited Delphi and perhaps even presented herself for the priesthood.
And it is very likely that she was overcome and became possessed by one of those demons.
712 times the word “ekh-o” is found in the Bible, but it is usually translated as one of the forms of “have.”
In other words, demon possession is when an evil spirit “has” someone.
Perhaps even the idea of ownership might be involved.
And more often than not, I would believe that the person was “given” to that demon in some fashion.
It seems to me that some of the commentaries would like to down-play the demonism aspect of this history.
Even the venerable John Gill said that this girl only “pretended” to tell the future.
But unless she was reasonably accurate once in a while, she would eventually be rejected as a fraud.
Some point to Plutarch, who was born about this time, and who said that to have the “spirit of python” was to be a VENTRILOQUIST.
Here is where the waters get kind of muddy:
When a person is demon-possessed, that demon often speaks, without using the person’s mouth or voice.
I know that I don’t do this very often, but I’d like to read a couple of paragraphs from “Dark Secrets of the New Age” by Texe Marrs.
“The seven hundred people packed into the Seattle auditorium have paid $400 each to hear Ramtha.
Then Ramtha comes forth.
He speaks marvelous words, exhortng the audience to know that each one of them is God and that nothing they do is evil, because there is no good and evil in human nature.
He scorns the teachings of Jesus, cynically proclaiming that because each person is God, they do not need anyone else to teach them.
Ramtha also reveals that “in the seed of Lucifer lies God and divineness.”‘
“Surely,” one woman exuberantly exclaims, “Ramtha is the Voice of Truth speaking to this last-days generation. The New Age is here and we are now God!” Hearing this, a man nearby says simply, “I love Ramtha, I love myself, I love everyone.”
Invisible, he speaks in a husky male voice through J. Z. Knight, a Seattle, Washington housewife
Who claims that Ramtha last lived on earth thirty-five thousand years ago.
She further says that he was the great Ram, “the God” of the ancient Hindus.
They are “proof” of the existence of an invisible world inhabited by millions of spirits either awaiting reincarnation into a human body or existing in spirit indefinitely as part of a hierarchy led by the “Christ.”
It is this “Christ” and his hierarchical cohorts in spirit who plan soon to materialize on earth and usher in the New Age Kingdom of peace, unity and prosperity.”
They said that often when they gave their prophetic utterances, they did not actually speak.
They said that a voice would could out of the woman’s belly or even worse, and give its pronouncement.
A modern ventriloquist is said to be able simply to throw his voice, or make it seem that his voice came from somewhere other than his mouth, like the puppet that in his hand or something else.
That was what the demon-possessed oracles at Delphi were doing, but it wasn’t a matter of trickery.
It was actually the voice of a demon, and he didn’t require human vocal cords in order to speak.
Are there any modern ventriloquists who are actually demon-possessed? Who can say?
John Gill goes on to say that when the Septuagint translation was made of the Old Testament, that the word for “ventriloquist” was used to describe people like the witch at Endor, who was possessed by a “familiar spirit.”
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 says:
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”
Was this what the demon-possessed woman of Philippi was doing?
Also some of the accounts of the Delphi oracles tell us that the priestesses spoke with shrieks and other-worldly screams.
Could this damsel, when she was crying, saying, “These men are the servants of the most High God,” been using the horrible screams that are associated with demonism in the movies?
The word that Luke used in Acts 16:17 was “krazo” ( krad’-zo )
And Strong’s first definition of “krazo” is “to croak; of the cry of a raven; hence, to cry out, cry aloud, vociferate.”
Is Luke trying to tell us here that this woman was shrieking in an unworldly or animal-type voice?
This is scarey, no wonder Paul was grieved.
We can do nothing more than to speculate.
What do you think was the tone of voice used by the woman or her demon?
Was it an affected sincerity, or was it total mockery?
Was she trying to make the ministry of Christ into a joke?
I personally think, since Luke didn’t tell us otherwise, that she was try to suggest sincerity.
So what was the purpose of this demon’s attempted sincerity?
I think that there was no doubt but that he was try disrupting these saints from going to their prayer service.
Satan hates and fears the prayers of the saints.
He would do anything that he could to keep you and me from praying.
Especially in group or church prayer.
I think that this demon was trying to discredit the ministry of the saints, by trying to link the truth with his lies.
When the whole city knew who this woman was, then whatever she said about the Lord would have brought Him down.
There is no way that an open sinner, of any sort, can glorify God without real repentance and true faith.
Perhaps this demon was attempting to validate his own ministry by linking it to that of the Lord’s missionaries.
But Paul wouldn’t stand for that even for a second.
We can’t really say for sure what this spirit of Python was trying to do.
In fact, it might have been that he was acting contrary to his own will.
He might have been forced by the Spirit of God to speak of the missionaries in this way.
Because after several days of drawing the attention of the city to the servants of God,
They proved that they really were the Ambassadors of God, and the city would have a hard time disproving it.
That doesn’t mean that Paul knew that it was the will of the Lord in this case.
Well, he had the power to take possession of the body of a human being.
That should be a terrifying thought to anyone who is not a child of God.
If you were hiking in the back country of the Frank Church wilderness in central Idaho,
You should be.
These are situations that could be quite terrifying.
But the power of a cougar or grizzly – the ability of a huge predator to kill or maim us –
In another Biblical case, the demon actually through it host into a fire.
But no demon, not even Satan himself, has power over, or against, the Lord.
Think about the uproar that this woman was causing after several days of this shrieking.
And then after she had drawn the attention of whole community, Paul turned and commanded the demon to leave her.
Against the authority of God, it was powerless to say “no.”
“And he came out the same hour.”
Matthew 10:1 says, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”
You and I have nothing to fear in demons, or even in Satan himself.
That is not to say that we can’t sin against our Lord and to be helpful to Satan’s cause.
That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t draw nigh unto God and resist the Devil.
But we cannot be indwelt by Satan or demons, because we are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
And furthermore we cannot even be touched by them without the expressed permission of our Saviour.
In other words, Paul didn’t hold up a crucifix in front of this woman and with a bold but fearful voice command the demon to depart, hoping that he wouldn’t attack or enter him.
There was no fear or need to fear, because that demon was under the complete authority of Christ.
Not only is our Saviour our Creator,
But He is Lord over every part of this creation, including the spirit world.
Just as the angels of Satan bow before Him, we must bow before him as well.