The Parable of the Haunted House – especially noticeable in the Lukan account – talks about a demon-possessed man and a demon-possessed house. Luke 11:24-26: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” The house is haunted by more demons than it was in the first place. This is in the Parable of the Haunted House.
There are many important things to come out of this Parable of the Haunted House. We obviously don’t have time today to spend on them all. One of the key things to come out of this parable is that God is more important than anyone in the Christian’s life.[2] This is especially highlighted in the Markan account (Mark 3:20-35).[3] If even one’s own parents are opposed to the life and work of Jesus, Christ goes as far as to model disowning one’s parents when his mother and brothers came to interfere with his work, to take charge of him and/or arrest him Jesus replies, “Who are my mother and brothers?” (Mark 3:31-34; Matthew 12:46-50; Luke 11:27-28, 8:19-21).[4] We are not to be distracted from serving the Lord by anyone (cf. Matthew 10:38-39, 16:24-24; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23-24, 14:26-27, 17:33; John 12:25; 1 Corinthians 15:31; cf. also Gospel of Thomas 55b).[5] This is very important.
There is in Matthew and Mark’s record of this parable also the important, significant, and controversial statement about the one unforgivable sin, which is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:32, Mark 3:29).[6] This sin is almost certainly not a once-off and in this context here, especially in Mark’s version, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit appears to refer to anyone who gets in the way of the work of the Lord or anyone who consistently attributes the work of God to the devil. Luke speaks about sweeping the house clean and then the spirits returning to haunt to the haunted house once more.[7] This is similar to John’s words about the apostate and those who walk with Christ but later reject him (1 John 2:18-26, 5:13-20, 2 John 1:7-11; cf. Matthew 10:14, 12:31-32; Mark 3:29-30, 6:11; Luke 9:5, 12:10; Acts 13:50-52; 2 Peter 2:17-22). These ‘rejecters’ appear to be the ones who have committed the unforgivable sin (cf. TSA Doctrines 7 and 9).
Each of these interesting points we can all talk about later if you like but today I would prefer to concentrate on something else in this, the Parable of the Haunted House. Recorded in Luke 11:17-18 and Mark 3:24 and Matthew 12:25, “…Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? ...” And Luke 11:23 and Matthew 12:30 each record Jesus’ comment that “He who is not with me is against me” Jesus is drawing the line here. He is being quite clear. Jesus has had a serious accusation levelled against him. He has been accused of exorcising demons by demonic power himself.
He is accused of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Luke 11:15, Matthew 12:24, Mark 3:22). We are familiar with the term Beelzebub, right? Milton named one of his characters in ‘Paradise Lost’ Beelzebub. In Milton’s story he was the devil’s henchman but Beelzebub, here in scriptures, isn’t the right hand man of the devil.[8] Beelzebub is the devil himself. Beelzebub is another name for the Satan. We remember that the ancient Israelites – long before the time of Jesus’ birth in the New Testament – were often split between those who worshipped YHWH and those that worshipped the Canaanite god named Baal. One of the titles that Baal-worshippers used to call Baal was Baal-Zebul - which literally means ‘Baal the Prince’ (Cf. 2 Kings 1:6; Matthew 10:25; 12:24,27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18-19).[9] So the people who didn’t worship Baal gave the Canaanite god a related nickname. They called him Baal-Zebub, which sounds like Baal-Zebul, ‘Baal the Prince’, but in reality can mean Baal, Lord of the flies; Baal the pest; or Baal, Lord of the dung heap.[10] It wasn’t a favourable name, Baal-Zebub. By Jesus time, with Baal-worship finally relegated to the dustbin of history, they couldn’t let this good nickname go to waste; so they applied it to the devil; Satan inherited this nickname. Beelzebub, in the first century CE, was a common derogatory name for Satan.[11] Jesus in our text here is being accused of working for the devil.
In our society today we think nothing of people dressing up like evil characters or using the language of demon-possession and witchcraft: we hear it everyday on TV, radio, in pop culture and in casual colloquial language. I imagine that there will be on TV, tonight alone, dozens of movies and TV shows trivializing or glorifying evil. It is so common in our contemporary Canadian society that many times we don’t even twig when we hear references to sorcery or divination but it was very different in Jesus’ day (cf. Deuteronomy 18:10; 1 Samuel 28:9; 2 Kings 19:22; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Micah 5:12; Nahum 3:4; Galatians 5:20).Witchcraft is a serious crime. It was a sin punishable by death (1 Samuel 28:9, Galatians 5:20). These religious teachers who are accusing Jesus of being an agent of evil here cannot be left to make these remarks unchallenged. It must be addressed. They are accusing Jesus of divination, of witchcraft, of sorcery, and in those days (unlike today when many of our kids and grandkids or their friends will be watching cartoons shows relating to the occult or dressing up as devils and witches tonight) people won’t stand by and let that evil go unchecked.
Jesus doesn’t stand by and let these accusations stand. Knowing their thoughts Jesus tells them: “…Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges” (Luke 11:17-19; cf. Matthew 12:15-17, Mark 3:23-26). Jesus tells them that if he is driving out evil with evil than his opponents are doing the exactly same thing when they perform exorcisms and even more than that Jesus says that one won’t and even can’t drive out evil with evil: a house divided against itself will fall. He says, Verses 21-22, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils (Luke 11:21-22; cf. Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27)” And, Verses 24-26, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first” (cf. TSA Doctrine 9). These are the only two options. A divided house cannot stand. So just like an American president said not too many years ago as they were embarking on one of their many wars, “You are either with us or against us.” Jesus says, Luke 11:23, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”
Well, on this Halloween Day, on this Reformation Day 2000 years after the birth of our Lord, where do we stand? Are we with him or are we against him? I have run through a litany of the contemporary evils of the western world and of the English-speaking Empire many, many times. Canada was founded upon the word of God and now we no longer say the Lord’s Prayer in the House of Commons federally or even read the Word of God in our public schools. If whatever demons our ancestors had were exorcised when we chose to build our nation on the Word of God (the Godly principles of Isaiah 9:6: Peace, Order, Good Government and promise of Psalm 72 claiming this land as the Lord’s dominion from sea to sea) then I think in our lifetime, as we’ve left our historic values, those demons that were exorcised have returned, found our house swept clean and brought many, many of their friends.
Some of the legions of demons that currently haunt our nation have the same names as the deadly sins mentioned by Dante in his historic book (which would be very appropriate for Halloween entitled) ‘Inferno’, which he wrote many, many years ago. Some of our cultural demons include: Pride, the belief that we can do things on our own, without God (Psalm 10:4; 2 Chronicles 26:16; cf. Proverbs 16:18); Vanity, the desire to do what is right in our own eyes (cf. Judges 21:25) – it seems that our whole political system these days is based on this secularist sin; There is Lust, not only pornography, but you have noticed commercials and advertising these days? Sloth is another demon that seems to have made his home in our culture; has there ever been a less active generation in service in the history world than this one here? Just look at the declining membership not only in churches but also in service groups across this country. We have seemingly been raising a generation or two of people who would rather stay home and indulge themselves than get out there and do something. There is also Gluttony; did you know that the number of people in the world who suffer from malnutrition as a result of hunger is in excess of 1.2 billion and at the same time the number of people in the world who suffer from malnutrition as a result of over-consumption is in excess 1.2 billion?[12] We rich nations are mal-nourishing ourselves by eating the food that the underdeveloped nations so desperately need. That contains a scary symmetry. Did you know that children in our society are now suffering from adult onset diabetes? The adult onset diabetes is a direct result of eating too much bad stuff.[13] This can also relate to greed and the so-called deadly sin of Greed could also be the name of one of the demons haunting our national house here today: it seems that our whole economy depends upon greed.[14] I read once that if the North American societies went one day without spending any money on frivolities that our entire economies would collapse.[15] Ire/unholy anger is another demon; have we forgotten that ‘vengeance is mine…saith the Lord’ (Romans 12:19)? With this unholy anger comes an appetite for violence that I imagine would even make the Romans in their coliseum cringe: there is a not only a market for violent movies and television but people also watch real people brutalize each other in ultimate fighting or other such events and not only that but we Canadians allow our children to sit down and watch the never-ending violence that is on TV. Do you think that so many people would support international wars of aggression and violence if we weren’t conditioned from the time we were children to see revenge and even so-called ‘pre-emptive strikes’ as normal? As sure as in generations past God used great churchmen and women and faithful servants of our Lord as a broom to sweep this land clean of the demons that had plagued it; the devil has now found it well kempt and come back stronger than ever. Our nation, it seems, is haunted by many demons.
This we know not only applies to our nation, it also applies to ourselves as well. The sin spiral has many parallels with addictions for example. Any of us here who have ever struggled with addiction or who know others who have, we know that each time one becomes clean and then slips up, it becomes more and more difficult to become clean again remain that way. The metaphorical demons of addiction come in apparently stronger (bringing in more friends) each time we invite them in. It doesn’t need to be that way. Jesus can clean our haunted houses and when Jesus cleans our house we can let him keep it too (TSA Doctrines 6 and 10)! Pretty good deal.
So what can we do? Well, of course, we can do nothing to clean the house: Jesus defeated sin and death between the cross and the empty tomb (TSA Doctrine 6) but if we look back in our text at Luke 11:27, we notice that a woman who hears what Jesus is saying and who witnesses what Jesus is doing in delivering a man from evil; she calls out to him, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” Jesus then gives her an answer that should be our answer to the deliverance that he has offered each of us through his death and resurrection. Jesus replies, Luke 11:28, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11:23, “He who is not with me is against me.”
This is our choice that is set before us today. We can ask Jesus to sweep our life clean of the demons that haunt us and he will. But in that we have to choose whom we will serve. We can serve ourselves, our own lustful desires, we can serve the Enemy by inviting demons back in to haunt our lives again or we can serve the Lord and live life abundantly (TSA Doctrines 6 and 8). Today we must decide, are we with our Lord or are we against him.
Please remember too that any and all of us can ask our Lord Jesus to come and clean our haunted houses. Even if he has already cleaned it once or a hundred times and we have subsequently messed it up. While we still have breath in our body, we can invite him back into our lives to clean them up and sort us out and then, we can continue on to receive the Lord’s blessing of eternal life, Luke 11:28, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” As we do this, we will continue in the blessing of the Holy Spirit. This is holiness and this is a holiness that is available to all of us but we must choose (cf. TSA Doctrine 10). As Joshua said, when faced with this choice, ‘as for me and my house we will serve the Lord’ (Joshua 24:15) and I pray that that will be the same response for each and all of us today.
[1] available on-line at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfQzK7qUSE
[2] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Mark 3:20-35: The Family of God', presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps (February 17, 2008) Available on-line at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html
[3] Cf. C.L. Mitton. The Gospel According to Mark. London: Epworth, 1957, p. 26
[4] Cf. F.C. Grant, The Gospel According to St. Mark. Vol. 7. IB. New York: Abingdon, 1951, p. 694: “In place of broken family relations, ostracism and persecution, was the close and intimate relation to the Son of God.”
[5] Cf. Lewis Foster, ‘Luke’ in NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Mi : Zondervan, 2002), note on Luke 9:24, p. 1589.
[6] Walter W. Wessel, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Mark/ Book Version: 4.0.2l: The words of v. 29—"will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin"—have caused great anxiety and pain in the history of the church. Many have wondered whether they have committed the "unpardonable sin." Surely what Jesus is speaking of here is not an isolated act but a settled condition of the soul—the result of a long history of repeated and wilful acts of sin. And if the person involved cannot be forgiven it is not so much that God refuses to forgive as it is the sinner refuses to allow him. Ryle’s famous words are great reassurance to any who might be anxious about this sin: "There is such a thing as a sin which is never forgiven. But those who are troubled about it are most unlikely to have committed it" (J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [New York: Revell], 2:59). On the other hand, those who actually do commit the sin are so dominated by evil that it is unlikely that they would be aware of it.
[7] Ibid: "because they were saying, `He has an evil spirit'"—suggests an explanation for the unforgivable sin. Jesus had done what any unprejudiced person would have acknowledged as a good thing. He had freed an unfortunate man from the power and bondage of evil (cf. Matt 12:22; Luke 11:14). This he did through the power of the Holy Spirit, but the teachers of the law ascribed it to the power of Satan. Taylor (p. 244) says that the sin described here is "a perversion of spirit which, in defiance of moral values elects to call light darkness." Further, Mitton says, "To call what is good evil (Isa 5:20) when you know well that it is good because prejudice and ill will hold you in bondage, that is the worst sin of all. The tragedy of the `hardening of heart' (as in Mk 3:5) is that it makes men capable of committing just this sin" (Gospel of Mark, p. 28). Perkins, Pheme. NIB VIII: The Gospel of Mark, p. 547: The evangelist’s comment in V. 30 shows that the judgement saying is directed against those who have charged Jesus with using Satan’s power.”
[8] John Milton featured Beelzebub as seemingly the second-ranking of the many fallen cherubim in the epic poem Paradise Lost, first published in 1667. Wrote Milton of Beelzebub "than whom, Satan except, none higher sat." Beelzebub is also a character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678. See Absoluteastronomy.com, Beelzebub: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Beelzebub
[9] Cf. Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings. (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), p. 170 and R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: 2 Kings/ Second Kings Note 1:3, Book Version: 4.0.2
[10] Cf. R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Kings/Notes to Second Kings/Second Kings 1 Notes/Second Kings Note 1:2, Book Version: 4.0.2
[11] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, "2 Kings 1:6: Is it because there is no God in [this place]?” Presented to the Nipawin Corps 31 May 2009.
[12] Cf. Sheepspeak, ‘Be a Hero Stuff’, Monday, December 19, 2005 (posted at 1:53PM). Available on-line at http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html#113502200702877662
[13] ‘Overweight’ in PAEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 1 January 2004, pp. 152-154
[14] Cf. http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/ for more information about ‘Buy Nothing Day’.
[15] Cf. also John Wesley, 'The Use of Money': Sermon 50.
There are many important things to come out of this Parable of the Haunted House. We obviously don’t have time today to spend on them all. One of the key things to come out of this parable is that God is more important than anyone in the Christian’s life.[2] This is especially highlighted in the Markan account (Mark 3:20-35).[3] If even one’s own parents are opposed to the life and work of Jesus, Christ goes as far as to model disowning one’s parents when his mother and brothers came to interfere with his work, to take charge of him and/or arrest him Jesus replies, “Who are my mother and brothers?” (Mark 3:31-34; Matthew 12:46-50; Luke 11:27-28, 8:19-21).[4] We are not to be distracted from serving the Lord by anyone (cf. Matthew 10:38-39, 16:24-24; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23-24, 14:26-27, 17:33; John 12:25; 1 Corinthians 15:31; cf. also Gospel of Thomas 55b).[5] This is very important.
There is in Matthew and Mark’s record of this parable also the important, significant, and controversial statement about the one unforgivable sin, which is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:32, Mark 3:29).[6] This sin is almost certainly not a once-off and in this context here, especially in Mark’s version, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit appears to refer to anyone who gets in the way of the work of the Lord or anyone who consistently attributes the work of God to the devil. Luke speaks about sweeping the house clean and then the spirits returning to haunt to the haunted house once more.[7] This is similar to John’s words about the apostate and those who walk with Christ but later reject him (1 John 2:18-26, 5:13-20, 2 John 1:7-11; cf. Matthew 10:14, 12:31-32; Mark 3:29-30, 6:11; Luke 9:5, 12:10; Acts 13:50-52; 2 Peter 2:17-22). These ‘rejecters’ appear to be the ones who have committed the unforgivable sin (cf. TSA Doctrines 7 and 9).
Each of these interesting points we can all talk about later if you like but today I would prefer to concentrate on something else in this, the Parable of the Haunted House. Recorded in Luke 11:17-18 and Mark 3:24 and Matthew 12:25, “…Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? ...” And Luke 11:23 and Matthew 12:30 each record Jesus’ comment that “He who is not with me is against me” Jesus is drawing the line here. He is being quite clear. Jesus has had a serious accusation levelled against him. He has been accused of exorcising demons by demonic power himself.
He is accused of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Luke 11:15, Matthew 12:24, Mark 3:22). We are familiar with the term Beelzebub, right? Milton named one of his characters in ‘Paradise Lost’ Beelzebub. In Milton’s story he was the devil’s henchman but Beelzebub, here in scriptures, isn’t the right hand man of the devil.[8] Beelzebub is the devil himself. Beelzebub is another name for the Satan. We remember that the ancient Israelites – long before the time of Jesus’ birth in the New Testament – were often split between those who worshipped YHWH and those that worshipped the Canaanite god named Baal. One of the titles that Baal-worshippers used to call Baal was Baal-Zebul - which literally means ‘Baal the Prince’ (Cf. 2 Kings 1:6; Matthew 10:25; 12:24,27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18-19).[9] So the people who didn’t worship Baal gave the Canaanite god a related nickname. They called him Baal-Zebub, which sounds like Baal-Zebul, ‘Baal the Prince’, but in reality can mean Baal, Lord of the flies; Baal the pest; or Baal, Lord of the dung heap.[10] It wasn’t a favourable name, Baal-Zebub. By Jesus time, with Baal-worship finally relegated to the dustbin of history, they couldn’t let this good nickname go to waste; so they applied it to the devil; Satan inherited this nickname. Beelzebub, in the first century CE, was a common derogatory name for Satan.[11] Jesus in our text here is being accused of working for the devil.
In our society today we think nothing of people dressing up like evil characters or using the language of demon-possession and witchcraft: we hear it everyday on TV, radio, in pop culture and in casual colloquial language. I imagine that there will be on TV, tonight alone, dozens of movies and TV shows trivializing or glorifying evil. It is so common in our contemporary Canadian society that many times we don’t even twig when we hear references to sorcery or divination but it was very different in Jesus’ day (cf. Deuteronomy 18:10; 1 Samuel 28:9; 2 Kings 19:22; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Micah 5:12; Nahum 3:4; Galatians 5:20).Witchcraft is a serious crime. It was a sin punishable by death (1 Samuel 28:9, Galatians 5:20). These religious teachers who are accusing Jesus of being an agent of evil here cannot be left to make these remarks unchallenged. It must be addressed. They are accusing Jesus of divination, of witchcraft, of sorcery, and in those days (unlike today when many of our kids and grandkids or their friends will be watching cartoons shows relating to the occult or dressing up as devils and witches tonight) people won’t stand by and let that evil go unchecked.
Jesus doesn’t stand by and let these accusations stand. Knowing their thoughts Jesus tells them: “…Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges” (Luke 11:17-19; cf. Matthew 12:15-17, Mark 3:23-26). Jesus tells them that if he is driving out evil with evil than his opponents are doing the exactly same thing when they perform exorcisms and even more than that Jesus says that one won’t and even can’t drive out evil with evil: a house divided against itself will fall. He says, Verses 21-22, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils (Luke 11:21-22; cf. Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27)” And, Verses 24-26, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first” (cf. TSA Doctrine 9). These are the only two options. A divided house cannot stand. So just like an American president said not too many years ago as they were embarking on one of their many wars, “You are either with us or against us.” Jesus says, Luke 11:23, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”
Well, on this Halloween Day, on this Reformation Day 2000 years after the birth of our Lord, where do we stand? Are we with him or are we against him? I have run through a litany of the contemporary evils of the western world and of the English-speaking Empire many, many times. Canada was founded upon the word of God and now we no longer say the Lord’s Prayer in the House of Commons federally or even read the Word of God in our public schools. If whatever demons our ancestors had were exorcised when we chose to build our nation on the Word of God (the Godly principles of Isaiah 9:6: Peace, Order, Good Government and promise of Psalm 72 claiming this land as the Lord’s dominion from sea to sea) then I think in our lifetime, as we’ve left our historic values, those demons that were exorcised have returned, found our house swept clean and brought many, many of their friends.
Some of the legions of demons that currently haunt our nation have the same names as the deadly sins mentioned by Dante in his historic book (which would be very appropriate for Halloween entitled) ‘Inferno’, which he wrote many, many years ago. Some of our cultural demons include: Pride, the belief that we can do things on our own, without God (Psalm 10:4; 2 Chronicles 26:16; cf. Proverbs 16:18); Vanity, the desire to do what is right in our own eyes (cf. Judges 21:25) – it seems that our whole political system these days is based on this secularist sin; There is Lust, not only pornography, but you have noticed commercials and advertising these days? Sloth is another demon that seems to have made his home in our culture; has there ever been a less active generation in service in the history world than this one here? Just look at the declining membership not only in churches but also in service groups across this country. We have seemingly been raising a generation or two of people who would rather stay home and indulge themselves than get out there and do something. There is also Gluttony; did you know that the number of people in the world who suffer from malnutrition as a result of hunger is in excess of 1.2 billion and at the same time the number of people in the world who suffer from malnutrition as a result of over-consumption is in excess 1.2 billion?[12] We rich nations are mal-nourishing ourselves by eating the food that the underdeveloped nations so desperately need. That contains a scary symmetry. Did you know that children in our society are now suffering from adult onset diabetes? The adult onset diabetes is a direct result of eating too much bad stuff.[13] This can also relate to greed and the so-called deadly sin of Greed could also be the name of one of the demons haunting our national house here today: it seems that our whole economy depends upon greed.[14] I read once that if the North American societies went one day without spending any money on frivolities that our entire economies would collapse.[15] Ire/unholy anger is another demon; have we forgotten that ‘vengeance is mine…saith the Lord’ (Romans 12:19)? With this unholy anger comes an appetite for violence that I imagine would even make the Romans in their coliseum cringe: there is a not only a market for violent movies and television but people also watch real people brutalize each other in ultimate fighting or other such events and not only that but we Canadians allow our children to sit down and watch the never-ending violence that is on TV. Do you think that so many people would support international wars of aggression and violence if we weren’t conditioned from the time we were children to see revenge and even so-called ‘pre-emptive strikes’ as normal? As sure as in generations past God used great churchmen and women and faithful servants of our Lord as a broom to sweep this land clean of the demons that had plagued it; the devil has now found it well kempt and come back stronger than ever. Our nation, it seems, is haunted by many demons.
This we know not only applies to our nation, it also applies to ourselves as well. The sin spiral has many parallels with addictions for example. Any of us here who have ever struggled with addiction or who know others who have, we know that each time one becomes clean and then slips up, it becomes more and more difficult to become clean again remain that way. The metaphorical demons of addiction come in apparently stronger (bringing in more friends) each time we invite them in. It doesn’t need to be that way. Jesus can clean our haunted houses and when Jesus cleans our house we can let him keep it too (TSA Doctrines 6 and 10)! Pretty good deal.
So what can we do? Well, of course, we can do nothing to clean the house: Jesus defeated sin and death between the cross and the empty tomb (TSA Doctrine 6) but if we look back in our text at Luke 11:27, we notice that a woman who hears what Jesus is saying and who witnesses what Jesus is doing in delivering a man from evil; she calls out to him, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” Jesus then gives her an answer that should be our answer to the deliverance that he has offered each of us through his death and resurrection. Jesus replies, Luke 11:28, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11:23, “He who is not with me is against me.”
This is our choice that is set before us today. We can ask Jesus to sweep our life clean of the demons that haunt us and he will. But in that we have to choose whom we will serve. We can serve ourselves, our own lustful desires, we can serve the Enemy by inviting demons back in to haunt our lives again or we can serve the Lord and live life abundantly (TSA Doctrines 6 and 8). Today we must decide, are we with our Lord or are we against him.
Please remember too that any and all of us can ask our Lord Jesus to come and clean our haunted houses. Even if he has already cleaned it once or a hundred times and we have subsequently messed it up. While we still have breath in our body, we can invite him back into our lives to clean them up and sort us out and then, we can continue on to receive the Lord’s blessing of eternal life, Luke 11:28, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” As we do this, we will continue in the blessing of the Holy Spirit. This is holiness and this is a holiness that is available to all of us but we must choose (cf. TSA Doctrine 10). As Joshua said, when faced with this choice, ‘as for me and my house we will serve the Lord’ (Joshua 24:15) and I pray that that will be the same response for each and all of us today.
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Answers to introductory quiz: 1) Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church, 2) True, especially The Holy Ghost 3) True, see 1 Samuel 28 (the king was Saul, the dead person was Samuel, and the witch was the Witch of Endor) 4) God used Elijah to raise the son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17-23), God used Elisha to raise the Shunammite woman's son (2 Kings 4:32-37);There was the man they threw into Elisha’s grave (2 Kings 13:21). Jesus raised: the widow's son (Luke 7:12-15), Jairus' daughter (Luke 8:49-55), and Lazarus (John 11:43,44). God used Peter to raise Dorcas (Acts 9:37-40) and Paul to raise Eutychus (after Paul had bored him to death? Acts 20:9-12) 5) The man possessed lived among in the graveyard, among the tombs near Gerasenes (Mark 5:1,2, Luke 8:26-27) 6) True, Matthew 12:25-29, Mark 3:23-27, Luke 11:17-22.[1] available on-line at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfQzK7qUSE
[2] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Mark 3:20-35: The Family of God', presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps (February 17, 2008) Available on-line at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html
[3] Cf. C.L. Mitton. The Gospel According to Mark. London: Epworth, 1957, p. 26
[4] Cf. F.C. Grant, The Gospel According to St. Mark. Vol. 7. IB. New York: Abingdon, 1951, p. 694: “In place of broken family relations, ostracism and persecution, was the close and intimate relation to the Son of God.”
[5] Cf. Lewis Foster, ‘Luke’ in NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Mi : Zondervan, 2002), note on Luke 9:24, p. 1589.
[6] Walter W. Wessel, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Mark/ Book Version: 4.0.2l: The words of v. 29—"will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin"—have caused great anxiety and pain in the history of the church. Many have wondered whether they have committed the "unpardonable sin." Surely what Jesus is speaking of here is not an isolated act but a settled condition of the soul—the result of a long history of repeated and wilful acts of sin. And if the person involved cannot be forgiven it is not so much that God refuses to forgive as it is the sinner refuses to allow him. Ryle’s famous words are great reassurance to any who might be anxious about this sin: "There is such a thing as a sin which is never forgiven. But those who are troubled about it are most unlikely to have committed it" (J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [New York: Revell], 2:59). On the other hand, those who actually do commit the sin are so dominated by evil that it is unlikely that they would be aware of it.
[7] Ibid: "because they were saying, `He has an evil spirit'"—suggests an explanation for the unforgivable sin. Jesus had done what any unprejudiced person would have acknowledged as a good thing. He had freed an unfortunate man from the power and bondage of evil (cf. Matt 12:22; Luke 11:14). This he did through the power of the Holy Spirit, but the teachers of the law ascribed it to the power of Satan. Taylor (p. 244) says that the sin described here is "a perversion of spirit which, in defiance of moral values elects to call light darkness." Further, Mitton says, "To call what is good evil (Isa 5:20) when you know well that it is good because prejudice and ill will hold you in bondage, that is the worst sin of all. The tragedy of the `hardening of heart' (as in Mk 3:5) is that it makes men capable of committing just this sin" (Gospel of Mark, p. 28). Perkins, Pheme. NIB VIII: The Gospel of Mark, p. 547: The evangelist’s comment in V. 30 shows that the judgement saying is directed against those who have charged Jesus with using Satan’s power.”
[8] John Milton featured Beelzebub as seemingly the second-ranking of the many fallen cherubim in the epic poem Paradise Lost, first published in 1667. Wrote Milton of Beelzebub "than whom, Satan except, none higher sat." Beelzebub is also a character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678. See Absoluteastronomy.com, Beelzebub: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Beelzebub
[9] Cf. Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings. (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), p. 170 and R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: 2 Kings/ Second Kings Note 1:3, Book Version: 4.0.2
[10] Cf. R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Kings/Notes to Second Kings/Second Kings 1 Notes/Second Kings Note 1:2, Book Version: 4.0.2
[11] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, "2 Kings 1:6: Is it because there is no God in [this place]?” Presented to the Nipawin Corps 31 May 2009.
[12] Cf. Sheepspeak, ‘Be a Hero Stuff’, Monday, December 19, 2005 (posted at 1:53PM). Available on-line at http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_archive.html#113502200702877662
[13] ‘Overweight’ in PAEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 1 January 2004, pp. 152-154
[14] Cf. http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/ for more information about ‘Buy Nothing Day’.
[15] Cf. also John Wesley, 'The Use of Money': Sermon 50.
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