Exorcism
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2023 · 17 September 2023
There’s only one use of the word exorcist in the New Testament and that’s in this passage. Jesus came into the world the Bible says “to destroy the works of the devil.” Now, we see His power over Satan at the cross where he bruises the serpent’s head. We see it also in Revelation where Satan is bound for a thousand years, then released, then thrown forever into hell.
We see the power of Jesus Christ over Satan displayed in His temptation. Satan tried to tempt Him and was unsuccessful on three occasions. In Matthew 17:14 it says, ‘When they reached the crowd, a man approached and knelt down before him. 15 “Lord,” he said, “have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16 I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.” 17 Jesus replied, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and from that moment the boy was healed.” The disciples asked Jesus privately why they could not do that.
Because only Jesus had absolute authority over demons. So He just spoke and the demon left. Mark 1:32 says, “When evening came, after the sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon-possessed.” Verse 34, “and He healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. And He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew Him.”
And later in Mark 5, Jesus met a man who was living in the tombs and who possessed an unclean spirit. Now when it says unclean spirit, it means that the manifestation of that demon is in the vilest areas. Verse 3-4, “No man was able to restrain him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had torn the chains apart and smashed the shackles.”
Verse 6-7, “When he saw Jesus from a distance, he cried out, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Don’t torment me!” Verse 10-12, “And they begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the region. 11 A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. 12 The demons begged Him, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.”
And Jesus gave them permission. It wasn’t just a case of Him casting them out. As soon as He appeared, they wanted out. What power to exercise over the Spirit world. “13 So He gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.” And here again, you see the power of Jesus.
One other passage shows Jesus has power over demons. Luke 4:33 says, “In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Leave us alone! What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God!” 35 But Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be silent and come out of him!”
And throwing him down before them, the demon came out of him without hurting him at all.” Luke 4:41 says, “Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.” Notice whenever Jesus dealt with demons, it was always a case of authority. Okay?
Now, Jesus gave this same power over demons to some of His followers. And when it says in My name, it doesn’t mean using the name of Jesus like a magical formula. It means on the basis of His power demons can be cast out. Luke 10:17 says, “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” So Christ granted to them the power specifically for those times.
They would go up to unbelievers and just cast out demons. Acts 5:16 says, “A multitude came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.” And this was by the apostles in verse 12, “by the hands of the apostles, signs and wonders were done.” So Jesus gave to His apostles power over demons.
Acts 8:7 says, “For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.” And this was Philip who was not an apostle but an Evangelist. Acts 16:18 says, “Paul turns around and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,’ and the demon came out the same moment.”
Now notice this. Jesus cast out demons by authority. Jesus passed that same authority on to His apostles. The apostles could cast out demons with a word and they were gone. Now this is an apostolic gift. Such a gift does not exists today. They had this gift for the purpose of confirming the Word. That’s shown in Hebrews 2:3- 4, where signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit were given to the apostles.
Now, all during the Bible demons existed. And demons still indwell people. Well, how did they get rid of them then? The answer that Jesus gave in Matthew 17 says, “These come out only by prayer and fasting.” And that was the same thing with demons. They could pray and fast, and God would hear and answer their prayer. But when Jesus came He had absolute authority over demons.
Today we don’t need any miracles to confirm the Word. God still does miracles, but not confirming miracles because the Word is already put here in our hands. You can judge any man’s message, whether it is confirmed by the Bible. In those days, you could only judge a man’s message on the basis of the supernatural works of God that accompanied him. So this is very important.
There’s a preoccupation today with getting rid of demons. The power of Jesus Christ alone, can overrule Satan. There is no other way. There’s no human power, there is no religious rite or ceremony, there is no formula and there is no exorcism that works. But what about all of these so-called exorcisms that are going on, being done by mediums and clairvoyants and such?” They don’t work.
But there’s no magical power in the name of Jesus. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the blood of Jesus Christ. But don’t reduce it to a formula that’s supposed to work some magic hocus pocus on demons. Well in the first place, when you’re dealing with an unbeliever, there’s only one way an unbeliever is ever going to get rid of demons. And that’s by receiving Jesus Christ.
It is the power of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit that cast out demons. Now where does the Spirit of Christ live? In me, right? Then whom do I need to cast out demons. For a Christian to get rid of the problem of demons is as simple as the area of confession and holiness. And Satan has convinced a lot of Christians into thinking that the Christian life is reduced down to a demon hunt.
You know who your biggest problem is? You. If I have Jesus Christ in me, do I have all of His power? Do I have all things that pertain to life and godliness? If Jesus Christ dwells within me, if the Holy Spirit dwells within me, I can deal with Satan in the power of Christ that is mine alone. Now, I may need some believers to point out sin to me, and to pray along with me.
Now the Holy Spirit can do that in my life. Well, what about all these exorcists? It seems to work.” Well, of course it seems to work because Satan wants people to believe that things are happening. Now, the word exorcism then doesn’t belong in the Christian’s vocabulary. Because that’s a problem of a person’s willingness to confess sin, not a problem of getting rid of the demon.
If you’re filled with Christ, you can’t be filled with Christ and something else. If you’re filled with the Spirit of God, controlled and yielded to Him, there’s no place for a demon. In fact it only appears once in the New Testament in verse 13. These are vagabond Jewish exorcists who try to use the name of Jesus to pull off an exorcism and it didn’t work. And before it was over they were sorry they tried.
True believers have nothing to fear. Now, if there’s a willful, protracted, unconfessed sin, you have given place to Satan. For instance, Ananias and Sapphira. But to reduce the authoritative truth of the power of Christ in my life, as it is like white Magic, it just gives Satan another tool to deceive me. The Roman Catholic Church has rites of exorcism and they’ve got all the secret formulas for it.
But that is not biblical. It is paganism tied into Christianity again, which sucks the blood out of Christianity. Christianity mixed with anything else is not Christianity. Monsignor Luigi Novarese, according to Newsweek magazine, “The official exorcist for the Pope and for the Pope’s diocese of Rome, estimates that he has performed the ancient rite, rituale romanum, sixty times.”
Paul in his third missionary journey started out in Antioch where he was the co-pastor with Barnabas and three others. And he started on his third journey in Acts 18:23. He spent some time in Antioch, and he departed, went over to Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples. Finally he comes to the town of Ephesus. Now he had been to Ephesus once before, at the end of his second journey.
Now, Ephesus was a really interesting place. It was the real heart of the Roman providence of Asia Minor. Ephesus ranked with Corinth as the two most important cities on the road east from Rome. It was a commercial center and it was a port city. And so it was a place where ships traded and where caravans traded. It was a rich place and it was an immensely populous place.
John was exiled there, off the coast a little ways, to the island of Patmos. The main feature of Ephesus was the temple of Diana. It was a prostitute kind of worship with orgies. It also was a sanctuary for criminals. And it was a place where sorcery and witchcraft existed and all kinds of perversions. In Ephesus Paul was really confronted with this power of the evil against the Gospel.
Paul still supported himself by making tents. But that wasn’t his passion. The reason the ministry in Ephesus was so dramatic and so dynamic was because of the Word. Where the Word dominates, Satan is defeated. The power of the Word in Ephesus, is in proclamation, it’s in confirmation, it’s in competition, it’s in conviction, and it’s in domination. Let us start with point one, proclamation.
The Word can’t do anything unless somebody proclaims it. Paul does that. Verse 8, “Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God.” Paul had already established good relationships with the Jews. They must have been controlled by God, because every other synagogue he went to, they hated him.
Here they say, “Hey, we’d like you to stay.” Well he came back and stayed three months which is long for Paul. There is a tense in the Greek known as the imperfect tense. This would be a tense of incomplete action or something that is still going on. So when we say, “He spoke boldly,” that should really be “he was continuing to speak boldly.” This is a characteristic of apostolic preaching.
And in the book of Acts, everybody is bold and bolder. Paul always asks for prayer requests for himself. He says in Ephesians 6:19, “Pray for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel.” It means that when you have a right to speak truth, you speak it with boldness, without fear. Confidence is the idea.
And what was he doing? Well disputing and persuading. The first one means reasoning, question-and-answer-type thing. And persuading means to convince by argument. In Acts 28:30 it says, “Paul stayed two whole years in his own house in Rome. And he welcomed all who visited him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness.”
It simply means he’s teaching all the features of Christ and who He is and what He does. So Paul starts out by teaching the Word about Christ. Verse 9, “But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.” The word hardened is in the imperfect tense.
Any kind of hardening is a process. A gradual rejection of Jesus Christ results in hardening. And so they gradually became more resistant, and finally their hearts were like rocks. They spoke evil. They cursed that Way before the multitude. But there’s the only way to God.” Well Paul said, “We better get out of the synagogue.” So he departed and disputed daily with them.
There’s an ancient Greek manuscript that says that Paul taught in this hall of Tyrannus from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. And it says he did it every day. In Ephesus, everybody worked until 11 and stopped to sleep, and start again at four because of the heat. Verse 10, “This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.” Let us pray.