Devotion

Children, there’s a song that says: If it’s in the Bible, then it’s truly so. And I know you regularly sing, Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. I wish we could say that everybody always tells the truth so you can believe everything everybody says. But that’s not true is it? Sometimes people don’t tell the truth. Sometimes people lie. In fact, sometimes you probably have been tempted to lie. If your mommy tells you not to eat any of those chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven that smell so good that you can already taste them and you go ahead and sneak one anyway and wreck your appetite, she usually figures it out, doesn’t she? Then rather than to tell the truth, you’re tempted to lie and say you didn’t eat any. So you add the sin of lying to the sin of disobeying your parents!

Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father: Make them holy by your truth, your Word is truth. (John 17) Even though we sometimes sin by lying, God never lies; he always tells the truth. How precious that is for us because in his Word he tells us: God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3) Can you say that with me? In fact, why don’t we all say that together! Because God sent Jesus into this world, he won’t punish us for our sins as we believe in Jesus –because he already punished Jesus for our sins –even our sin of lying that we might commit sometimes. So keep believing in Jesus your Savior and tell the truth!

Mark 1:21-28

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 them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil 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!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” 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.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Do you believe in demon-possession? A man I know has had many problems with demons. Oh, he’s had problems with his mental health from time to time, but he’s had just as many problems with his spiritual health. One time he asked me if I believed in demon-possession. I said I most certainly do –as there are many examples of it in the Bible, especially during Jesus’ time. Then he asked me if I believed there are people today who are demon-possessed, and again I answered yes. He asked me how we would be able to tell the difference between demon-possession and mental illness, and I told him that I believed it would show itself especially when someone was reading God’s Holy Word around the person.

A number of years passed and one day I found myself visiting him in a mental institution. He was having some serious troubles and the staff ushered us both into a padded, quite-sound-proofed visiting room. Since his mind was playing so many tricks on him at that time he very much desired the Lord’s Supper so he could at least be assured that Jesus was still with him and that he was forgiven of all his sins. I had brought my communion set along, figuring he would desire communion. We visited for a while. The insulation in the walls was thick enough that it seemed our words nearly were swallowed by the walls. Then it was time to begin our private worship service.

As soon as I started to read the Scriptures a man down the hall and a lady on the next floor down started to yell at the top of their lungs! At first I thought it was only coincidental. But when I stopped reading the Bible, they both stopped. When the man and I prayed the Lord’s Prayer, they both started in again –and the same thing happened when I spoke the words of institution of the sacrament and the blessing. Each time they yelled while I spoke God’s Word and stopped as soon as I was done.

When we finished our little service he asked me, “Well, pastor, did you hear that?” and I cruelly answered him, “What?” He said certainly I must have heard all that yelling whenever I spoke God’s Word, and I assured him he wasn’t dreaming it. It was rather obvious to us that while almost everyone in that hospital was there due to mental illness, those two must have been possessed by demons that really did not want to listen to God’s Word.

While they did not want to listen, today as we consider the text before us we declare:

The demons that possessed the man in the synagogue in Capernaum certainly knew who Jesus is. Despite the fact that there are many in our world today –even many theologians in other church bodies that deny the existence of spiritual forces –both good and evil –and deny that Jesus was anything more than a good person, the demons who possessed this man knew Jesus is God. James (2) tells us: You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that –and shudder. These demons knew they were in God’s presence –and were afraid! 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!

So how did it happen that this good churchgoer was possessed by a demon in the first place? We aren’t told, are we? Maybe he wasn’t a good churchgoer; maybe he only came that day because Jesus was there. Even though he was possessed he wasn’t afraid to come into the synagogue that day. He only spoke in fear when Jesus spoke. It was customary in those days that one of the leaders of the synagogue or a visiting rabbi or teacher was given the floor to expound on a portion of whatever scroll of the Bible they happened to be studying. That day Jesus taught the lesson.

Did it strike you that we aren’t even told what portion of the Bible Jesus taught? The only thing we know is what happened after he was done. We are told that the man said: What do you want with us so I take that to mean that either there was one demon and the man speaking –or more likely that the man was possessed by more than one demon. In either case, when they spoke, they demonstrated that:

They knew that by his very presence Jesus could destroy them. Recall the incident of the demon-possessed man who was called Legion and asked a very similar question on the opposite shores of the Sea of Galilee? We’re told: He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” (Mark 5)The demons begged to possess a herd of pigs rather than just be driven out of the man. Jesus saw it as an opportunity to teach two lessons at once. A Jew was not supposed to raise pigs since they were unclean by Old Testament law. So to teach the Jewish owner that he had done wrong Jesus allowed the demons to go into the pigs and all 2000 of them ran down a steep embankment into the lake and drowned.

There are modern recorded incidents where exorcists have been unable to get a demon to leave a possessed person. Even the Bible tells us the disciples had a similar problem with some (Mark 9) and Jesus told them: This kind can come out only by prayer. But Jesus was able to drive out any and all demons. He is different from all other exorcists. When he was about to re-ascend into heaven he declared; All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. (Matthew 28) He is El-Shaddai as we studied in Bible class on Wednesday evening. He is God Almighty and with his great power he can do all things, control all things, protect us from all danger, keep all demons from us. For, you see:

David wrote in Psalm 51: Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Paul tells us in Romans 5: sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. So while we are not possessed by evil spirits under normal circumstances, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the fact is that due to the sin which we inherit from our parents we are naturally friends of Satan and enemies of God! Paul says in Romans (8): the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. He also shows us in Ephesians (2) how impossible it is for us to change our situation: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins… Like the rest, we were by nature objects of (God’s) wrath. John tells us in his 1^st Epistle (4): He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. So by nature every person on earth is Satan’s friend and God’s enemy. But:

Romans 5 tells us: For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Paul also included in his letter to the Romans (10) how we came to believe this and so be saved: Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. And when he wrote 1 Corinthians (12): No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and lives in us and changes us from enemies of God to his friends, from orphans to God’s own children. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs –heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. (Romans 8) God the Spirit has led us to listen to his Word, given with the water of Holy Baptism, given with the words of the Lord’s Supper, given in the Bible. But he not only led us to believe;

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.” My dear friends in Christ, co-heirs of eternal life through Jesus: Since Jesus had and has power even over all the evil spirits that try to mislead us, listen to his powerful Word! Stay in that Word and share its power in life!

Almost a month ago I suggested to all of us that we need to consider a portion of God’s Word every day. I issued you a challenge that for the next 30 days we all read the Bible daily, that we memorize a verse a day, or that we post verses on our refrigerators. How are you doing? Did the suggestion go the route of New Year’s resolutions? Well, I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that if you didn’t do so during the past 29 days, I’m here to tell you that they’re passed, you can’t get them back and it would be pretty difficult to make up the difference in the next day! But the good news is that you have the next 30 days to change things! In fact, God gives us a bonus day this year –so you have 31 days from now to the end of February! Use those days wisely; through his Word we grow as individuals and

We don’t need Jesus here driving out a demon for us to believe in Jesus; God the Spirit has already worked the miracle of faith in our hearts. We don’t need a miracle –because if it’s in the Bible, then it’s truly so. Yes, we pray for all our fellow believers in Christ just as he prayed for us: Sanctify them by the truth, your Word is truth. (John 17) May God the Holy Spirit work in all of us the desire to keep on growing together in faith by staying in touch with God’s powerful Word of life! Amen.