Acts 19:8-20:1 "Reasoning, Demons, and Christ"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray

for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me, actually, to know, as I'm preaching, how to

deal with the types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Let's just bow our heads in prayer as we prepare to think about God's Word written. Let's pray.

Father, your Word tells us that demons never miss church. And so, Father, I have no power in and of

myself as a human being, but as one who is your adopted child, your child by adoption and grace,

in the name of Jesus, if there are any demons or unclean spirits that are present here at this time,

whether indwelling us or speaking to us or harassing us or laying claim to us. And Father, in the name

of Jesus, may these demons be disinherited, removed, silenced, and bound. In the name of Jesus, may they

be cast far from this place and from us, never to return. And Father, we ask that you do not leave us

empty, but that the Holy Spirit would come with even greater power within each person who is here and

fill this place. That, Father, it will be Jesus alone who holds us and ministers to us, and that

it will be you alone who speak to us and that we listen. And we ask all these things in the name of

Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. And for many of you, that is the weirdest prayer

before sermon that you've ever heard in your entire life. And so I just want to say, today we're going

to talk about demon possession. Now, if you're wondering why on earth I picked a topic like that,

and some of you might think that that just shows I'm an uneducated hick, which is fine. We'll talk

about that in a moment. One of the things which we do here at the church is that we try to preach the

Bible the way it's written. And the Bible is written as books, usually, and so we preach through

either very big chunks of the Bible or through books. And that means I don't think in advance,

oh, what topics do I have like an itch to talk about? Oh, I want to talk about this. I want to

talk about this. I want to talk about this. I want to... No, no, no, no. What we do is we just go from

passage to passage in the Bible, and what the Bible talks about, we talk about and we think about.

And in fact, if you're a seeker seeking to try to figure out what Christianity is all about,

this is a good church to attend, because there's no fine print that, you know, you sort of get in

the door and they say, oh, yeah, by the way, you have to believe this. No, no, no. We just,

we talk about everything. We just want to be open to what God's Word says. And so since the Bible

talks about evil spirits possessing a man, we are going to look at that. So if you have your Bible,

and hopefully you do, please open it to Acts chapter 19, and let's have a look at this text

Acts 19 · chapter mention

together. And if you don't have a Bible, those sort of blue books over there are Bibles. You're

welcome to get out of your seat and come and pick up a Bible for yourself. The text will be on the

screen, but there's something about having your own Bible with you. I like you to be able to look

around to see if I'm trying to do something. I want to reason with you from the Bible and to the Bible.

And so we, I want us to be completely transparent to that. So let's look at the text. And the text

begins, we're going to look at Acts chapter 19, beginning at verse 8, a little bit earlier than

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Monique read. And just sort of here, a bit of a nerdy moment. The way Acts chapter 19, 8 to the

Acts 19 · chapter mention

end of the chapter is sort of structured, it's structured in a very interesting way. So this is a

bit of a nerdy moment for you grammar type of nerds. And you know who you are, and probably your loved

ones roll their eyes and say, yes, we know who they are. And the way it's structured is there's two

short summary accounts of what Christians have been doing. And there's summary accounts of just

generally what they've been doing. And then you have two stories following it. And the two stories

now look at it from the point of view of people outside the Christian faith and how they respond

to Christian success. And so part of it is in the world of spirits, and part of it is in the whole

world of reason. And so that's the way this, so we have two short stories about what Christians do,

what Paul was doing, and then two stories about how people responded to it who are outside the

Christian faith. And so Paul's in Ephesus. It's now in what we would call Western Turkey. It's one of the

most important cities in the Roman Empire, one of the largest cities as well. And Paul has been here,

and here we go at verse 8. And Paul entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly,

reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. That means about Jesus and what it means to

have him as your Savior and your Lord. Verse 9, but when some became stubborn, and in the original

language, stubborn is a very good word, but there's an older-fashioned phrase underneath it, which means

they hardened their hearts. But when some hardened their hearts and continued in unbelief, speaking evil

of the way before the congregation, Paul withdrew from them and took the disciples with him,

reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years so that all the residents

of Asia, we now call that Western Turkey, heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Now just sort of pause here. This is a bit of a summary statement. They're scattered throughout

the book of Acts, if you look at it just from a literary point of view. And it's a very,

very important thing. When it says there in verse 8, reasoning and persuading, that's the way Paul

always dealt with people. And that's the way Christians should deal with people, by reason and

persuasion. And reason isn't just being able to think very, very clearly. It's also, of course,

being able to identify the truth of different matters. And so you identify the truth of different

matters and subjects and things of importance, whether it be something in human experience or

something in nature or something in history. And you identify the truth and you reason and you

persuade. And that's how Christians are to be. I'm not saying Christians are always like that.

Far from it. Christians, to say somebody's a Christian isn't necessarily to compliment them.

It isn't the same thing as saying they're a good person. There are many Christians who aren't good

people. To say that somebody is a Christian means that they've given their life to Christ and are

following Him as their Savior and Lord. They are, in a sense, they've come to Him as a sinner,

broken and battered, and they've come to Him to have Him start to put them together.

But here's the point. In fact, you know, at the end of it, there's going to be sort of two big

points for the whole sermon. And one of them is Christians never give up on reason and prayer.

Never give up on reason and prayer. That's part of the way of, that's a fundamental way of being a

Christian, is to be committed to reason and be committed to prayer. And so we see that. And so

what we see here is a very common thing. When reason, and it's a very human problem, we see it

throughout history, we see it throughout the world today, and unfortunately some of us see it in our

own lives, is that we can't beat the reasoning. So, and we don't want to surrender or give in.

So what do we do? Well, we call them names, and we insult them, and we yell, and we intimidate them.

We do everything other than reasoning. And that's what we see here in a very, very mild way. But

they're very successful. The reasoning and persuading about Jesus is starting to have a very big impact,

not only in Ephesus, but all around. Now, what's the second thing that's successful? Well, the second

thing is going to make some of you think, George, if this second thing is in the text, then Christians

aren't reasoning. It's something else. Because if you believe any of these next little bits, it's a sign

that you've cut your head off, you've stopped thinking, you've kissed your mind goodbye.

It just doesn't go with reason. Well, what do I mean? Let's have a look at it. It continues in verse 11,

and the next summary statement, so to speak. Verse 11,

And God was doing extraordinary

miracles by the hands of Paul,

so that even

handkerchiefs or aprons,

or another word to put it would be

sweatbands, or

you see somebody working

maybe on their car or their garage,

and they have something around,

like something

they put on themselves so they don't get dirty,

and then you rub your hands on it to clean your hands maybe before you answer the phone. And so

that type of article of clothing,

verse 12 again,

so that even

handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched

his skin, Paul's skin,

were carried away to the sick,

and their diseases left them,

and the evil spirits

came out of them.

Evil spirits.

So what it's saying is that God, not Paul,

God does something by Paul's hand,

and the thing that he does

is as a result of Paul's prayers

that

people who are sick

get healed,

and people who have demons inside of them

have the demons removed from them.

That's what the text is saying.

Now, as I said,

some of you

will say

you can't talk about reason

and

persuasion and truth

if you also talk about something like this.

Well, a couple of things.

First of all,

I'm going to double down on it.

Those of you who know me

know that that's what I'm going to do.

What I'm reading,

it looks very fancy in this book,

of course,

but it didn't start out as that.

It started out as a man

who had been raised as a pagan

by the name of Luke,

who sometime

was trained as a medical doctor,

and sometime

in his middle years

became a follower of Christ.

So he would have been somebody

who would have worshipped Artemis

or Zeus

or some other god or goddess,

and he comes to a faith in Christ

and renounces all of that stuff

and lives as a Christian,

as a well-educated man,

a man of the Roman world

and the Roman Empire.

And he writes

an eyewitness-based biography

of the life of Jesus.

We now call that

the book of Luke.

And after he wrote

that eyewitness-based biography

of Luke,

he wrote what we now call

the book of Acts,

an eyewitness-based history

of the first 30 years,

approximately,

of the Jesus movement.

And both books

he wrote

while many eyewitnesses

were still alive.

And I've talked about this

a little bit,

but one of the things

which really shows

that he has this profound

concern for the truth

and that it really is

an eyewitness-based history

when the eyewitnesses

are still alive

would be seen,

I'm not going to comment

on it later,

but when you see later on

in the chapter

when it mentions Asiarchs

and what's often hidden

in the language

translated into English

is that when he goes

to different cities,

the different officials

are called different things

in those different cities

depending on their status,

whether they're a village

or they're a Roman colony

or they're the capital

of a province.

And every one of those places

have different types

of titles for people.

And in every case,

as we learn more and more

about archaeology,

we discover that Luke

got it right

100% of the time.

Now that's completely

and utterly

an impossible thing to do

unless he really

was an eyewitness

writing in those days

and he was concerned

with the truth.

Just to give you an example,

if we were to do

something very simple,

like say to you,

all of a sudden

you cannot use Google,

there's nothing like,

you know,

those of you who are old enough

remember encyclopedias,

there's nothing like that,

you just have to do it

from talking to your buddies

and I'd like you to write

something from 40 years ago

that talks about being

in a small village

in northern BC

and then talks about being,

let's say,

in Burnaby

and then talks about being

in Roxborough

in the island of Montreal

and then talks about

a little village

across the road

from Quebec City

and then something

in Halifax.

And when you talk

about all these things

from 40 years ago

and when you make reference

to the federal government,

you get all of the

government departments right

and all of the names

of the office holders

correct

and you can't use Google

and you can't use

any resource,

you just have to write it.

Now,

there might be one

super nerd

in the room

who could do that

but you know what?

There wouldn't be.

Nobody could do it.

I mean,

good grief,

40 years ago,

you might talk about

the mayor of Ottawa

not worrying that 40 years ago

was before Ottawa

was amalgamated

from 14 cities into one.

How are you going to get

all that stuff right?

Like,

it's completely impossible

but Luke gets it right.

It's one of the things

that shows that he's concerned

about it being

an eyewitness history

that's accurate.

I could go on and on

about the ways that

the more archaeology grows,

the more we see

the accuracy

of the writer.

So now we get to the fact

that some people

are going to have

a great problem

with the fact

that this is a story

that talks about

evil spirits

and the next story

when we talk about

how outsiders respond

to this

we're going to see

that Luke doubles down

on it.

And generally speaking,

the average for Canadians,

there's three types

of responses

to this idea

of a spiritual world.

One type of response

are the atheists,

the naturalists,

the belief that

there's only matter

and energy

and there's only

matter in motion

and there's only

the scientific method.

Anything other than that

is just complete nonsense

and that's one big section

of Canadians.

Another very big section

of Canadians would say,

yeah, of course we believe

that there's demons

and evil spirits

and all that type of thing

and we believe

in talismans

and amulets

and rituals

and all those things.

We believe in all those things.

We believe you can use

crystals and channel

and you can talk

to the dead.

There's another large group

of Canadians

who think that

and then probably

another group

are sort of the ones

who are a bit in between.

They're not all the way

with the atheists

but they're sort of dabblers,

they're sort of open,

they're not sure

if it's just sort of

a little bit like

a party trick

or it's just a fun thing

for conversation

and they're open

to the fact that,

you know,

there in a sense

would be somebody

like Joe Rogan

who's open to the fact

he rejects

the atheist worldview

and knows that there's

mystery and oddness

in the universe

and they're open to that.

So, I'm going to speak

to the second two types

in a moment

but I just want to say

something to,

if you're online

or if you're here

and you're part of that

materialist, naturalist group,

I want to say something

very brief to you.

First of all,

I'm really glad

you're either here

or you're listening

and I'd love it

if you sent me a line.

That would be

really, really wonderful

and I just want to,

some people don't know this

but I became a Christian

when I was in grade 12

and I've shared before

off and on

in different ways

however, the first,

the next, let's say,

almost 10 years of my life

I had six or seven times

when I almost walked away

from the Christian faith

and in almost every single

one of those cases

the primary thing

about me losing my faith

was the arguments

from people who were

what I would call

naturalists or materialists

who believe in the scientific method

in reason

that the world

is just matter in motion

in almost every case.

In fact, the very first time

when I probably,

one of the biggest times

I almost gave up my faith

was about seven or eight months

after I became a Christian

and it was specifically

by a very, very well-informed

critique

from a naturalistic perspective.

I know this sounds

a bit nerdy to a couple,

some of you,

I apologize.

I'm sort of speaking more

and maybe for some of you

if you have friends like this

it'll help you to speak.

I just want to say

one particular thing

to people who are like that.

friends who are like this.

Because you live in Canada

you're not aware of this

but there,

you have a problem

because you cannot actually

account for the existence

of the mind.

Hundreds of years

of philosophy

there has,

there is no successful

materialist account

of the mind.

I mean there's lots

of attempts at it

and there's a lot

of desire

for it to be plausible

but they all fail.

You see if you committed

to the idea

that all that exists

is matter in motion

the second you're committed

to that

you've excluded mind.

You've just excluded it.

And you see

to have a mind

that means

there has to be

something outside

of the flow

of cause and effect

that's not completely

outside of it

but is outside

of it enough

that it's not

completely caused

all the time

and it can look at

in a sense

cause and effect.

It can reason

and act

in cause and effect.

And if you believe

in a universe

where there's only

matter in motion

you cannot account

for mind.

You cannot.

And ironically

or tragically

the second you

account for mind

for some type

of a non

cause and effect

reality

that is

an essential part

of human beings

that allows you

to reason

the second you

account for it

you've opened

the door to angels

and to spirits.

It's unavoidable.

Send me an email

I'll buy you coffee

we can talk about it

but I'm going to

say listen

this is in fact

how most human beings

have normally thought

and there's a huge

problem

with the materialist

or the naturalist

project

can't even account

for the existence

of your own mind

and so we're going

to talk about

demons

and I'm going to

talk about something

about this

the other problem

with a spiritualist

view of the world

it's going to come

clear in the next

story

so if you turn

with me

to verse 13

what we'll see here

is how people

outside the Christian

faith

seen the success

of Christian

exorcisms

what they do

and they

live in a world

where they accept

that there are

spirits

and gods

and goddesses

and presences

and all of that

in the universe

and that some

of them are harmful

and so here's

what they do

verse 13

then some

of the

itinerant

Jewish

exorcists

undertook

to invoke

the name

of the Lord

Jesus

over those

who had

evil spirits

saying

I adjure

you

by the

Jesus

whom Paul

proclaims

now

what they're

doing here

is all the

language

of magic

and spells

and

which Luke

has captured

accurately

and so

basically

what they've

done

is they've

thought

they look

at Paul

doing these

things

and they

don't listen

to Paul

saying that

I'm nothing

I'm a nobody

I have no

power

I have no

authority

God's doing

everything

they don't

look at

that

they sort

of ignore

that

they look

at what

he's doing

and they

try to

develop

spells

and rituals

and powers

in light

of it

they've

tried to

take it

on to

themselves

and so

they just

they make

as if they're

making some

type of a

magical statement

a cult

statement

and they

use the

phrase

I adjure

you by

the Jesus

whom Paul

proclaims

but the

result is

verse 14

seven sons

of the Jewish

high priest

named Sceva

were doing

this

but the

evil spirit

notice not

the man

but the

evil spirit

answered them

Jesus I

know and

Paul I

recognize

but who

are you

and then

the story

continues to

double down

on this

idea of

an extreme

type of

demonic

possession

verse 16

and the

man in

whom was

the evil

spirit

leaped

on them

mastered

all of

them

and overpowered

them so

that they

fled out of

the house

naked and

wounded

their magic

didn't work

their occult

practices

didn't work

and verse

17 and

this became

known to

all the

residents of

Ephesus

both Jews

and pagans

and fear

fell upon

them all

in the

name of

the Lord

Jesus

was

extolled

now

I'm

spending

longer

on this

part of

the sermon

than I

will in

the next

I want

to say

a couple

of things

so the

first thing

about this

is now

I'm speaking

to those

who believe

in a

spiritual

world

those

the Canadians

that believe

in this

spiritual

world

they wear

amulets

and also

those who

sort of

dabble in

it

they might

do Ouija

boards

occasionally

they might

go to a

seance

they might

get some

crystals

to do a

little bit

of channeling

they do

different

things like

this

and so

generally

in that

whole

world

view

and it's

remarkable

how similar

that language

might change

a little bit

the rituals

might change

but there's

basically a

very common

world view

there where

there's a

belief that

in this

spiritual

world

there are

dark

darkness

type of

spirits

and then

there's

light

type

spirits

and then

there's

neutral

spirits

and that

there are

people

they come

to believe

who have

a special

type of

power

in negotiating

and accessing

that world

of spirit

and so

they know

the rituals

they know

the names

they know

the amulets

they know

the talismans

they know

the shrines

they know

the sacrifices

that are

required

to balance

those types

of spiritual

forces

which have

an impact

on human

beings

and that's

just generally

the way

that people

think about

it

and what's

going to be

a bit of a

shock to you

is that

Christians reject

that complete

model

completely

so what I'm

going to tell

you is

how Christians

view it

and then why

you should

listen to that

so here

if you could

put up the

first point

that would be

very helpful

if a spiritual

presence

funnels you

anywhere other

than Jesus

it is an

evil spirit

neither good

or neutral

if a spiritual

presence

funnels you

anywhere other

than Jesus

and by here

I mean Jesus

as revealed

in the Bible

it is an

evil spirit

neither good

or neutral

the Bible

does not

accept the

distinction

of those

three types

of types

of spirits

rejects it

completely

spirits that

say they're

good

are evil

spirits that

are neutral

are evil

spirits that

are evil

are evil

if you could

put up the

second point

that would

help to

bring this

out a bit

clearer

because Christians

believe that

there are

angels that

exist

in fact

the Christian

if you read

the Bible

it's fair to

say that

there are

angels in

the room

right now

that there

are angels

in the room

right now

we just

don't see

them

but they

are present

and here's

the second

point

angels

self-effacingly

usher you

to your

grace-giving

savior

and his

means of

grace

so in other

words if a

spiritual being

says that

they're the

angel Michael

and that

you're to

do this

and you

do that

you do

that

it's almost

definitely

an evil

spirit

because angels

if you read

the Bible

I'm not going

to go through

the Bible

text

they don't

point to

themselves

they point

away from

themselves

to Jesus

they point

to Jesus

as the one

who will give

you grace

he is the one

who will save

you and it's

by following

his words

and commands

the means

of grace

that you will

know your

freedom

and your

wholeness

and so

any spiritual

being that

funnels you

anywhere

other than

Jesus

in fact

is an evil

spirit

it only wants

to harm

you

there's a

very old

blues song

I've never

been able

to find it

but it has

a wonderful

line

don't give

the devil

a ride

he only

wants to

drive

don't give

the devil

a ride

he only

wants to

drive

and here's

the third

point

if you could

put it

up

the Lord

Jesus

never

teaches

you

methods

or spells

or rituals

or anything

like that

he never

teaches you

methods

or spells

he never

commands

talismans

or amulets

or shrines

or some

other type

of physical

object

as having

some type

of power

the story

that we

just read

the handkerchiefs

you need

to read

that as

a type

of ironic

comment

by Luke

the seven

professional

exorcists

could not

accomplish

what God

does

merely by

a dirty

rag

it's a

mocking

statement

about the

supposed

professionalism

and power

of the

exorcists

God

can use

anything

even a

dirty

rag

even a

dirty

rag

from

Jonathan

he can

use

from

Renee

that's

how powerful

our God

is

that's

how big

he is

that's

how weak

human

power

is

so the

Lord

Jesus

never

teaches

you

methods

or spells

he never

commands

talismans

or

amulets

what does

he do

he calls

you

to

union

with

himself

he

calls

you

to

abide

in

him

and

as

you

abide

in

him

to

pray

for

yourselves

and

others

in

other

words

out

of

that

abiding

to

pray

for

yourself

and

others

that's

what

he

always

calls

you

to

in

a

sense

he

always

calls

you

to

a

version

of

what

I

did

when

I

began

the

service

with

that

odd

prayer

of

exorcism

over

this

place

that's

what

Jesus

does

now

why

should

you

believe

this

why

if

you

are

from

a

native

or

Hindu

or

Buddhist

background

or

if

you

were

raised

by

Wiccans

or

you

were

raised

by

good

modern

secular

Canadians

and

you

dabble

in

things

like

crystals

or

the

odd

seance

or

some

other

type

of

odd

psychic

fair

type

of

thing

like

why

you

could

say

okay

well

George

just

because

Jesus

says

this

doesn't

mean

anything

to

me

I

just

think

he's

wrong

and

why

should

you

listen

to

Jesus

and

if

you

say

that

that's

a

very

good

question

it's

a

very

good

comment

all

I

can

say

is

this

if

you

could

put up

the

fourth

point

by the

way

the

fourth

and

fifth

points

are

the

big

points

of

my

sermon

the

gospel

is

the

good

news

and

I'm

quoting

I

can't

remember

the

name

of

the

song

brother

my

song

is

love

and

know

and

I've

slightly

adapted

a line

in that

song

from

the

1600s

I

think

it's

actually

a

very

old

song

and

it

is

the

gospel

is

the

good

news

of

love

to

the

loveless

shown

that

loved

and

lovely

you

might

be

that's

the

good

news

and

I'm

saying

a

little

bit

more

than

that

you

see

here's

the

thing

did

you

know

that

within

10

years

of

Luke

talking

about

Paul

in

this

story

Paul

will

die

a

gruesome

torturous

death

within

10

years

of

this

story

Paul

will

have

died

a

gruesome

painful

death

at the

hands

of the

Roman

authorities

and

he

could

have

avoided

that

gruesome

death

if

all

he

did

was

deny

one

fact

his

death

was

not

because

he

was

a

political

revolutionary

he

wasn't

some

type

of

religious

fanatic

he

only

had

to

deny

one

fact

and

if

he

had

denied

that

one

fact

he

would

live

what

was

the

one

fact

the

one

fact

was

that

Jesus

rose

from

the

dead

if

you

just

said

no

no

I'm

just

kidding

you

see

what's

not

of

any

type

of

debate

amongst

anybody

in

the

ancient

world

is

that

Jesus

died

a

death

of

crucifixion

there's

no

debate

about

that

what

is

of

no

debate

is

that

the

fact

that

the

tomb

was

empty

and

that

the

body

was

never

found

there's

no

debate

about

that

the

debate

is

why

is

why

is

the

tomb

empty

and

Paul

is

one

of

these

people

of

historic

witness

who

said

the

reason

the

tomb

is

empty

is

because

I

saw

the

risen

Jesus

I

talked

with

him

I

saw

him

on

more

than

one

occasion

and

the

grave

is

empty

and

the

body

is

gone

because

he

is

risen

and

he

went

to

a

gruesome

death

because

he

would

not

deny

that

fact

now

here's

the

thing

which

is

very

important

you

see

is

the

fact

the

matter

of

the

death

of

Jesus

upon

the

cross

is

not

just

some

weird

type

of

Christian

talking

point

it

is

first

and

foremost

the

most

profound

news

in the

world

it

is

the

news

that

God

showed

love

to

you

and

me

who

are

loveless

why

so

that

you

will

be

loved

by

him

and

become

lovely

that's

why

he

set

aside

his

glory

and

divine

prerogatives

that's

why

he

became

a

human

being

that's

why

he

lived

a

fully

human

life

that's

why

he

died

on

the

cross

that's

why

he

tasted

all

there

is

to

taste

of

death

that's

why

he

rose

from

the

dead

that's

why

the

gospel

goes

out

that's

why

there's

an

invitation

to

come

to

him

because

he

wants

you

who

are

loveless

to

know

that

you

are

loved

by

him

and

experience

his

love

and

grow

in

the

loveliness

that

comes

from

being

rooted

in

his

love

and

here's

the

important

thing

when

Jesus

died

upon

the

cross

and

experienced

all

there

triumph

over

sin

and

it's

a

triumph

over

shame

and

it's

a

triumph

over

all

hostile

spiritual

powers

amen

and

when

you

believe

into

him

and

he

enters

into

you

and

there's

a

union

with

Christ

that

is

the

true

defeat

of

all

hostile

spiritual

powers

in

your

being

and

if

Jesus

really

did

rise

from

the

dead

you

should

believe

what

he

says

you

should

believe

what

he

says

and

all

I

am

doing

is

saying

what

Jesus

says

there

is

no

neutral

spirits

there

are

no

good

spirits

there

are

only

evil

spirits

because

if

you're

coming

in

contact

with

an

angel

an

angel