New Testament Teaching on Deliverance from Demons — Dr. John Kleinig

Machine-generated transcript; may contain errors.

The New Testament teaching on Deliverance from Demons. Now, I want to focus on this now, for the reasons, but one of them is that most of these stories are part of the regular periphery that we preach on, the three electionary. And I don't think, at least in my experience, that most of them, my pastors and my generation, ever, when these came up, they would just preach on the gospel. I mean, the epistle or old, this, they will deliberately avoid these stories. And in this way, they deprive people of some very, very common personal. So I want to just focus on some of the very important things that are touching on here. First of all, just the challenge that we have. In the church, and quite a lot of you have been speaking to me over the last day or so about why it is that this teaching, which is about deliverance let's call it spiritual warfare, has disappeared from the church over the last 50 years, maybe a 100 years.

You can see it already. One of the big watersheds, as far as I can see, in your synod, was when you went from German to English. That was one, if I know you, Synod, and then up the other watershed, one foot was the mid 60s, with the growth and prestige of psychology. So many parts of my generation just don't know what to do with these stories because they've been intimidated by psychologists and the psychological dismissal of demonic experiences. They lose confidence, and, you know, they say, okay, people who have demanded experiences, somehow are mentally unhitched. How many times I've had people coming to me and almost shame pacedly talking about something like this. Look, I'm so grateful you've heard me.

I tried to talk to my pastor, but again and again, I could see mentally his finger going up, but doing this. And because we are uncomfortable, where do our members go, either they bottle up and that doesn't help, or if they're really desperate, then they go to anybody who provides help, and so they seek help from elsewhere. Now, in Australia, it's going to charismatic, pastors or congregations Pentecostals, some evangelical churches, but basically they've gone into the Pentecostal churches for this reason because their pastors haven't helped them. And they get the feeling that this pastor who's supposed to know something about spiritual reality is a spiritual dance. He just doesn't know ABC about spiritual reality.

And then we wonder why they leave the church. That's, on the one hand, there's the problem of psychology, and the intimidation of that many have felt from psychology. On the other hand, then you get people who are ignorant, and that if performing unauthorized and abusive exorcisms, And what does that do, and it makes the established church go further and further away. Basically, see, see, we told you this is all dangerous stuff. We don't want to have anything to do with this thing, yeah. However, one of the great gifts to the church has been missionaries who've gone to the mission field, and to do missionary work anywhere in Third World you're confronted with this almost every day. Somebody who's saying that we're working up in North Michigan, Michigan with Indians, who was that?

About confronting this very commonly up there, the whole spirit world, same with Aborigines. Same New Guinea, elsewhere. Now, these come back and they say that they tell the church, not only that this is real, but also they share their experience and their expertise, not their expertise, but how they've dealt with it. So this is a great gift to the church. I must acknowledge here just how much I've learned from missionaries particularly in New Guinea, among whom I've had some very close relatives who have worked in this area. Now, one of the problems we have is the term exorcism. I said before, that if I had my way, I'd banned it from use in the church, the only time that the word exorcism, the Greek word, is used, is in connection with those unauthorized, Jewish, codmen, who tried to use the name of Jesus, who call preachers, to exercise demons.

The usual term. Well this is casting out demons. And it's a neutral terms. It means, just, Iqbalo, getting rid of digments. Quite a different picture to what most people have of exorcism. It's interesting and instructive to see the variety of terms that I used in the New Testament, both for demonic entities. I'll explain my use of that term, and for vexation by them. So, New Testament can just talk about spirits. They are spirits. And that means that they basically don't have a material existence, or an evil spirit, those that occur in some cases but very commonly, most commonly, they're called unclean spirits, or a dumb spirit deaf and dumb, a dumb and deaf spirit, a spirit of infirmity, that comes once spirit of divination, but most commonly demon, the Greek is very interesting, it's daimonion, it's not a masculine or feminine.

Now, it's a new turnout, so really something like demonic thing. A demonic entity. Now, it's a depersonalized something. So it's not even in Greek, it doesn't even, it isn't treated as either a male or female person. It's treated as a theme. That's quite interesting. Unclean demon, and sometimes an angel. Now, look at the terms that the New Testament uses for people who are attacked by demons, and I'm not talking about attack by Satan, a person who has a spirit, possesses a spirit who has a spirit, that's very vague, a person having a demon, or most commonly being demonized. That's the commonest. Also, you find being troubled or vexed by a demon. Now, there are five very important accounts in the New Testament.

These are fundamental to our Christian tradition on this. There are five accounts of Jesus casting out demons. You probably know them well. There's a story that we had to look at, of that man who came to the synagogue in Capernaum, and Jesus cast the demon out of him. Okay? That's very well known. Then the second one is the gerosene demoniac, who is haunted by a legion of demons, and is quite violent. He lives in the cemetery. Apparently, he doesn't wear clothes. He's a feral kind of a man, and he has supernatural power, and he comes and falls at the feet of Jesus. Very interesting story. Then there's the man with the epileptic son, the story. Interestingly, is immediately after the transfiguration of Jesus.

While Jesus is on the mountain, with his three disciples, the other nine at the foot of the mountain have to cope with this problem. The father comes with a son who seems to be epileptic, but also demonized at the same time. So a demonized epileptic son. And they don't know what to do with him. And on that occasion, Jesus says, this kind can only be cast out by bypassing and prayer. Okay? Then very importantly, is the daughter of a Phoenician woman. We had that as a gospel couple Sundays back in the three election. Remember, she comes and begs for Jesus to have mercy on her daughter. She doesn't bring her daughter there. She prays to Jesus, or her daughter, and Jesus puts her off, and then he commends her for her great faith, remarkably.

Not in Israel, have a foundate like this he says. And then there is the curious case of a woman who had 18 year infirmity, and then back. I love this. That Jesus drives out the spirit from her and this happens in a synagogue on the Sabbath day. Now I'd like to comment on a few features here. The most important thing for me is that Jesus doesn't have any set spiel. There's no set ritual that Jesus uses. There's no single pattern, there's no single procedure here. Jesus deals with each case differently. Now, what should that tell us? That we are to do the same. You won't be dealing with each case in exactly the same way. You need to be attentive to all the circumstances of the case, and respond to that and deal with that.

So each case is dealt with differently. But there is one emphasis that goes all the way through, and that is the word of Jesus, and is teaching with authority. So Jesus emphasizes the issue of authority, and he always deals with a demon with a word. Now, this is unusual, if you have a look against the pagan backdrop. Now, there's lots of exorcists. People who drive out spirits everywhere in the ancient world, there's whole, you can, now, overhold pagan treatises on, you know, various prostigures for casting out demons. There's hundreds of these that, if you're interested in historically. The emphasis on these is that you've got to perform a complicated ritual using all sorts of very powerful substances, things but there's very little emphasis on the word and the spoken word in these.

So that emphasis are there striking. Next, it's interesting how, in a number of cases, say, yes, three of these cases there's an emphasis that the Jesus deliverance of a demonized person is an act of mercy, an act of grace. A person who doesn't have the right to expect this from Jesus, but it's sheer grace, it's sheer mercy. So, the Sarah Phoenician woman, who's a pagan woman, appeals to Jesus' mercy for her daughter, for father, with his epileptic son, appeals to the mercy of Jesus, and the same son, the same father in Mark, appeals to the compassion of Jesus, which is the same. Now, a number of other very interesting creatures. And the first one is the first. The next three are very important.

First of all, notice the liturgical context of two of these five cases. It's the Sabbath of holy time, and the context is a holy place. Now, the gospel writers mention that, not just as I will, bit of historical information, what are they signaling to any reader, that just as Jesus drove out demons on the Sabbath in the, similar congregation, you can expect Jesus to do the same thing in the Christian church, in the divine service. But notice it's not all of them aren't low given that liturgical location, but two of the five have that very clear liturgical setting. Two of the five also occur in pagan territory. Now, in Indian territory, it's territory that's devoted to the worship of idols wherever you have idols, you will automatically have demons, and the idols will make the land unclean.

So, according to teaching of the Old Testament, Pagan territory is unclean territory, because it's the territory of pagan gods. So, the Gerazine, demoniac, and the Syra Phoenician woman, both of those are unclean people living in an unclean place. But it's interesting that Jesus quite deliberately goes into these unclean places. What's amazing about that? Jesus is the holy one of God. And he goes there. He puts his holiness at risk, if you like he desecrates his holiness to save people who are trapped in their impurity. Now there's the great exchange occurring. Jesus takes their impurity, so that he can give them his holiness. There's the role of prayers emphasized in three cases, the father who brings his son, the Jesus, okay?

When Jesus says, in this mind, will come out only by prayer, or the alternatory bypassing and prayer. Most significantly, you have the prayer of the Phoenician woman, so a Finnish woman, she comes and asks Jesus to have mercy on her and to heal her daughter. And she prays, she intercedes for her daughter. And then there is the Jerocene demoniac who comes to Jesus, and falls down in front of him in an act of prayer. But the thing that is most striking in all these cases is that Jesus loses the word of God to deliver people from unclean spirits. Just to go through this again, and it's worth emphasizing this. Jesus uses performative utterances to cast out demons. Now, all your utterance is a word that does what it says, so it's a powerful effective word, a formative utterance is an utterance that does what it says.

So, we've already had that look at the first one, Matthew 8, verse 16. He drove out the demons with a word. Notice the scene down there. And notice the reaction of the people, to the case of Jesus, use of the word, in Mark, they say, What is this? A new teaching, and with authority, he rebukes the unclean spirits, he silences them, and they listen to him. For Luke, they were amazed at his teaching, for his word was with authority. Under authority, he speaks the word with authority. And again, what is this word? For with authority and power, he rebukes the unclean spirits, and they come out. It's also instructive to see what verbs are used to describe these performative outlooks. Now, the one that is most, translators and interpreters have most difficulty with, it's the word, the epitemar, or mine, translated as rebuke, and that's quite a good translation, but I think most of us here rebuke, in a different sense, to what is intended, in the New Testament, when you rebuke somebody, you tell somebody to stop saying or doing something that is out of order.

Let's say I'm a teacher, and I've asked a question, and this student here answers the question, and Mary blogs over here talks while this person is talking, I say Be quiet. I'm rebuking Mary Bloggs, because she is talking out of order. She's allowed to talk, but she's talking out of order, so I rebuke her. Or another student is on the desk, as I'm teaching, takes out the iPad and texts somebody, and I said, put the iPad away. I'm Rebuki person. So when a person steps out of line, out of order, it's speaking a word that puts them back into order. So it's usually, either having to do with speech or activity. The MIV translates it as, he said sternly, or he, sometimes they say sheltered, and that has the idea that Jesus is angry.

So rebuking doesn't necessarily mean that Jesus is angry. He just tells, he puts things back in order. It's used in the Old Testament. And the septagent, for God's response to the threat by evil, hostile chaotic powers. You know, when the forces of chaos threaten God's good creation, God rebukes them, it puts the water that's about to obey the land, he rebukes the waters, he puts them back in their place, which is the seas. Right? It's too high. It's very interesting. They're in the Old Testament. It has to do with order and chaos. Putting things back in order again. So the purpose of a rebuke is the restoration of right order. Now, the one that I find most interesting is the verb epitomal, which is to put, to command, to put back in place, and to do it out loudly.

As I said before, so I touched on this but it's very significant. You have the Greek word tuxus, which means order. And then you have tus sign, which is to put in order, to assign to something to its right place, to given command for a person to take the right place. Now, that's your seat, sit there, or why don't you sit there? That's epitomat. That's tough time. And then epi, tas sign, is to put a person who's left the right place back to the right place. So, let's say you've got a group of soldiers that are lined up the battle, and one guy steps out of line, the opposite puts the dive back into his assigned place in the battle lineup. You get the basic thing? So this is order picking. So when Jesus, you know, usually they, New Testament translators, translations, Jesus commanded the demon to do something that's not wrong, but it misses the nuance here that he puts the demon back in the demonth place, when the demon belongs, and restores his good order.

Now, there's also the word for charging the demons, which was an authority thing telling them what to do or where to go. Now, a couple of general theological summarine points, the 1st one, I've made and already, and I can't repeat strongly enough, the New Testament stories connect casting out demons with preaching, in such a way that almost synonymous with each other. They're not synonymous, but it sounds like it. There are two sides to the same coin. When you preach the gospel, you are casting out demons. And you can't, he's cast out demons without teaching the gospel. So those 2 things go together as 2 sides of the same ministry of the word. Secondly, in Matthew 1228. Jesus connects the Holy Spirit with the casting of demons.

He talks that I, by the spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come by you. So Jesus makes quite explicit that the power he uses, not the authority he uses. He's the father's authority, but the power that he uses to cast out demons is the Holy Spirit. So wherever Jesus is at work casting out demons, there, the Holy Spirit is at work. And, what's quite clear is the implied connection between word and spirit and word, which is very, very important cross lutions. And this is something that we need to, I remind our brother, Protestant brothers and sisters, who disconnect spirit, word and word, and spirit. That in the New Testament, they are inseparable. Holy Spirit word. If you're going to do your ministry by the Spirit of God, it means doing it by the word of God.

And if you do ministry, with the word of God, you're doing it with the Spirit. Where the word is, there's the spirit. If the word's not there, you can't be sure that the spirit is at work then. That's fundamental to Lutheran theology and it's fundamental, not just to Lutheran theology, but if you like Orthodox theology, too. And that's where we differ radically from all other Protestant denominations, but the different who either disconnect the spirit from the word, or Calvin associates the two together. They track together. They track together, but they are never identical. And so you get a completely different teaching on the ministry of deliberance from other Protestant churches. Now, the result of deliverance, it's interesting.

If a person's delivered from demons, they are healed, they are saved, they are restored, and it's a lovely, lovely term they become sound minded again. Their mind, their thinking becomes healthy. What demons do is to scramble your brain just to, say, drug scrabble your brain, so the work of the Holy Spirit in delivering people from a demon is to heal the mind to heal the spirit, and to restore sound minded mindedness. Lastly, wherever, oh, I put it another way, deliberance, the ministry of deliverance is not something by itself, you know, it's not, you know, you can have a sort of a parachurch ministry that stands by itself. It's not as if Jesus had, you know, a number of different strings to his bow and one of the strings was deliverance.

Deliverance is part of the core business and it is a sign, in this age, that the kingdom of God has come. So, it's an every act of deliverance is an eschatological sign. It points to Jesus' death, resurrection and Jesus' death and resurrection points to the final act of deliverance in the last judgment. So every act of deliverance is an act by which the last judgment, God's straightening out, stuff in this world, is already beginning in this age, it anticipates the age to come. It's to use the words of Jesus, the sign that the kingdom of God is here already now in this age. Hence, you'll see this most of all on the mission field. Wherever God's kingdom is brought by the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments, there it confronts the demons and confronts Satan.

And one of the signs then that's manifest all over the place on the mission field is the deliverance of people from demons. Just, if you get a chance, and you get to know some of your old missionaries who come back from the mission, they'll just get them talking about this, and they will keep you going for hours, most of them, on stories about the experience in this area.