What Scares Demons?

Luke 4:31-34

So far Luke has been telling us about Jesus’ person. Now we're going to see His power over all others.  We're going to see His power over demons.  We're going to see His power over disease.  We're going to see His power over nature, and religious teachers.  That is all going to unfold in the fourth and fifth chapters of Luke and you will find a parallel section dealing with much of the same material in Mark 1:21-39.

We have met the real Jesus as to His person, now we meet the real Jesus as to His power.  He has power over demons.

vv. 31-34         It mentions His authority in verse 32, it mentions it again in verse 36: authority and power.  Now we already know that Jesus has engaged in a conflict with Satan, and proved His power over him.  But there's another question that remains, "Could Jesus overpower Satan for others?"  Remember, if Jesus is to save sinners, He's going to have to rip them out of the kingdom of darkness. 

And so, if Jesus is going to deliver people from their spiritual poverty, if He's going to release them from their spiritual bondage, if He's going to put an end to their spiritual blindness and their spiritual oppression, if He's going to 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.  Sinners are 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.

1 John 3:8

^…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

⁴ (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) ⁵ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,

The guards of the kingdom of darkness are the hosts of fallen angels that we know as demons. So when the Messiah comes, the battle is on. 

Demon possession: There is no record of it in the Old Testament, no record in the epistles, yet there's an explosion of demon-possession in the gospels attacking the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.  So you see it in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts, and I'll say more about it next time.  That is a unique and extreme form of bondage.

And while every sinner is not possessed by demons, every sinner is in the domain of darkness and has to be liberated by the Savior.  And this passage shows that He has power over demons.  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.  A 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.  Jesus can command the demons at will anytime, and they had to do immediately what He told them to do.  That's the point. 

Colossians 1:13

¹³ Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

v. 34        Now the evil spirits knew why Jesus had come. They know exactly who Jesus is.  They've known Him since before they fell out of heaven.  They were once holy angels. A third of them, according to Revelation 12, fell.  They know the story very well.

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.  And so 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 to whom Jesus has brought the message of release. 

v. 33        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. 

We've got to understand the dynamics that are working here. 

James 2:19

¹⁹ Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

It means they shudder.  You might think that you as a believer need to be afraid of demons.  Wrong.  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.  They're afraid.

We believe and have no fear.  Because 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? 

First, the preaching of the Word of God. 

Secondly, the purpose of the Son of God. 

Thirdly, the purity of the Son of God.

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.  Let's take the first one today.

Above all He was a preacher in terms of His ministry.  He spoke the Word of God.  Every time He opened His mouth, the truth of God came out. 

John 8:28

^… I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

v. 31        So down Jesus went from Nazareth where they tried to kill Him. He left Nazareth, went down the 2,000-foot altitude drop to Capernaum.  And it was on a Sabbath in Capernaum that He was teaching them.

Verse 32 says, they were not only amazed at His teaching but they were astounded because His message was with such authority.

His Word penetratingly true.  It was powerfully true.  It came with tremendous clarity.  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. 

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.  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?"  Have you ever felt like that, that I have been reading your mail?  And you want to know something? Jesus was coming right at him, because Jesus was coming with the force of the gospel of God that was going to shatter the kingdom of darkness and rescue the captives of Satan. The demon couldn't restrain himself. 

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, the 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.

In chapter 8 of Luke verse 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.  You want to shatter the kingdom of darkness?  Preach the gospel. Preach the message of deliverance and salvation.  It's a sad state the church is in today. It's pathetically sad, so much weak, insipid, shallow, trivial, man-centered preaching does nothing but aid and abet much of the enterprises of the kingdom of darkness. 

Luke 11:20

²⁰ But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.

That's what He is saying.  If you see Me cast out demons, you know 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.

I hope that I cause already fearful demons to panic over the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ working in the souls of the sinners that belong to the kingdom of darkness to transfer them out of that kingdom into the kingdom of God's dear Son. 

Paul said, "I preach the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation." And that's what the demons hate most because it tears the sinner out of their clutches.