How Does Jesus Drive Out the Kingdom of Darkness?

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Good morning.

I'm Julie Brown.

And I am part of the El Cerrito Kensington Group and, when I can, Women Reading Women.

Today's scripture reading is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verses 11 to 26, as printed

Luke 11:11–26

in your liturgy.

A reading from the Gospel according to Luke.

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much

more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute.

When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.

But some of them said, by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.

Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to 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 Beelzebul.

Now, if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out?

So then, they will be your judges.

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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 armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

When an impure spirit comes out of a person, 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 person is worse than the first.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Good morning, Christ Church.

It's very good to be back here with my Christ Church family.

I missed you while I was traveling the last two Sundays visiting family and friends,

and really glad to have come back to begin the season of Lent with you all here on Ash Wednesday the other night,

and especially to also launch our Alpha course on Thursday night.

We had about 30-plus people, 30-plus guests who were there to just be in a season of spiritual seeking,

of exploring the Christian faith, people who are new Christians looking to build their life on a foundation of faith.

So we're so glad to be in this season of Lent, this season of our Alpha course.

And, you know, each year from Christmas to Easter, we preach through one of the four gospels in the New Testament,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And inevitably, when we do that, we run up against some of the hard sayings of Jesus that we struggle to understand.

And a lot of ink has been spilled trying to make sense about these most strange and enigmatic and perplexing things that Jesus ever said.

And what you just heard read is certainly one of those sayings.

It's hard to get.

But I liken the hard sayings of Jesus to hard candy.

You know, you don't want to, like, immediately bite on it.

But you just kind of want to put it in your mouth and start working it around and let it slowly kind of melt a little bit.

So that's what we're going to try to do in this sermon today.

But notice how our passage begins in verse 14.

It says,

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute.

And when the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.

So here's this dark power, and it's dehumanizing this human being.

And how is it dehumanizing this man?

It's diminishing the image of God in this man by stealing and killing and destroying his unique ability.

The unique ability that we human beings have been given by God to speak.

Right?

This amazing gift that we have to use language to relate to one another and to communicate with each other,

to articulate things that are good and true and beautiful.

That gift has been diminished.

It's been taken away.

And Jesus is restoring that to this man.

And yet his critics say in verse 15, it says,

And Jesus both agrees and disagrees with that statement because he says in verse 18,

If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?

I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.

And Jesus is assuming that there are dark powers in this world,

that those dark powers form a kind of hierarchy, an imperial hierarchy,

that they're organized as a kingdom against the kingdom of God and against the image of God,

and that Satan is the prince that's ruling over the top of that hierarchy that's oppressing human beings.

And Jesus says this in verse 20.

He says,

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, by the spirit of God, by the power and authority of God,

then the kingdom of God has come among you.

It's an amazing statement of Jesus' life and his mission,

that he's stepped out of eternity and into time,

that he's come down from heaven to earth and taken on human flesh in order to do just this,

in order to expel this dark kingdom from the world,

and to bring in the gracious rule and the liberating reign of the kingdom of God.

So I want to just kind of slowly work on this hard saying,

this hard candy of Jesus under three headings this morning.

I want to talk about the reality of dark powers

and the presence of a stronger power,

and then thirdly, the indwelling of a holy power.

So the reality of dark powers, the presence of a stronger power,

and the indwelling of a holy power.

When we think about the reality of dark powers,

some of you say,

Well, wait a minute.

You really want me to believe this?

When we look at the gospel and we find Jesus as a prophet who's speaking truth to power,

we say,

I like that Jesus.

Or when we find Jesus acting like a social revolutionary,

and he's empowering women,

and he's including the outcasts,

and he's lifting up the poor,

we say,

Yes, that's a Jesus I can really get down with.

But then we find Jesus talking about Satan,

and working as an exorcist,

and driving out demons.

This is just bizarre.

It's absolutely shocking.

And some of you say,

Well, I'm not sure I can accept this,

because I'm educated.

You know, I went to university.

I have an undergraduate degree.

I have a graduate degree.

I read the New York Times.

I read the Wall Street Journal.

I have a computer in my pocket with access to the internet.

I have chat GPT on my phone as a co-intelligence.

When you think about the last 150 years of human history,

all the progress we've made in education,

all the advances we've made in economics,

all the breakthroughs we've made in science and technology and medicine,

do you really expect me to buy into all this demon stuff?

Right?

Do you realize how primitive and how backward

this first century talk about evil spirits and dark powers sounds?

And I want to say,

Yes, I do realize how strange it sounds,

which is why I'm taking the time to talk about it.

For many, many complex reasons,

late modern, secular age, post-Christian people in the Western world

with their enlightened, materialistic vision of reality

struggle to believe in malevolent spiritual beings.

And if that is your paradigm today,

I would like to ask you to consider this,

that the policy of the devil

is to persuade you that there is no devil.

Or to put it a different way,

the devil's most clever deception is to convince you

that he's not there.

And Andrew and I, at least once a year,

we trot out this quote.

You know what I'm about to quote?

Delbanco, right?

Okay, Andrew Delbanco.

He's a professor at Columbia University.

He's a secular Jewish professor in humanities.

And he wrote a book in 1995

called The Death of Satan,

How Americans Have Lost the Sense of Evil.

And this is so relevant to us.

This is why we quote it at least once a year.

Here it is.

A gulf, he says,

a gulf has opened in our culture

between the visibility of evil

and the intellectual resources to cope with it.

We have jettisoned in the West

the idea of cosmic evil

or transcendent evil

or supernatural evil.

We don't believe in it.

In fact, we even,

we don't even like to use the word evil

because it implies moral absolutes

and value judgments.

So we use medical terms.

We talk about dysfunction.

We talk about pathology.

We don't use moral terminology.

But, Delbanco says,

he says,

as the 20th century has gone on,

it's gotten harder and harder

to say that holocausts

and ethnic cleansings

and serial killings

are just bad psychological

and sociological adjustments.

What we said 150 years ago

that all evil has natural causes,

has scientific causes,

is wearing thin.

I find this is a fascinating thesis.

He goes on.

He says,

the repertoire of evil

has never been richer,

yet never have our responses

been so weak.

We have no language

for connecting our inner lives

with the horrors

that pass before our eyes

in the outer world.

And he concludes the book.

Delbanco says this

at the end of the book.

He says,

my driving motive

in writing this book

has been the conviction

that if evil,

with all its insidious complexity,

escapes the reach

of our imagination,

it will have established

dominion over us.

If we no longer

have an imagination

for evil,

it will have established

dominion over us.

What he's saying

is that if you've been educated

and socialized

into a particular

plausibility structure,

into a particular paradigm

that denies dark powers

in this world,

then you are particularly vulnerable

because you don't have

the intellectual resources

and the imagination

and the language

to deal with the world

that we actually live in.

When I was traveling

this last week,

going from California

to Georgia

to New York

and back here,

I took as my companion

the Lord of the Rings.

I haven't read this book

in like 20 years,

so I decided

to start rereading it.

And I was reminded

of Tolkien's brilliance,

because he's got this chapter,

chapter two of the book,

it's the critical chapter

in the whole thing,

it's called The Shadow,

The Shadow of the Past.

And in chapter one,

he depicts the easy,

comfortable lives

of the hobbits

in the Shire.

But then in chapter two,

he reveals that

actually all the hobbits

in the Shire

are completely oblivious

to what's really going on.

They're oblivious

to the whispers

of this enemy

on this eastern land

of Mordor.

And the mood

in the Shire

is one of just

complacent ignorance

as these great evils

grow and become

like this ominous

sort of disquieting shadow.

And it's only

the most far-seeing,

it's only the most wise people

in Middle-earth,

like Gandalf,

the wizard,

who are able

to discern

the true contours

of the danger

that they face.

And so Gandalf,

what does he do?

He comes to the Shire

to counsel Frodo,

to warn Frodo,

and to kind of wake him up

to this malignant shadow

in this metastasizing darkness.

And I want to suggest

that that's what Jesus

is doing for us here.

What Gandalf does for Frodo,

Jesus is doing for us here.

He's revealing to us

that something dark

and something deadly

is at work in the world

that we disbelieve

or we take lightly

at our own peril.

So that when we read

these words from Jesus

in verse 20,

if I drive out demons

by the finger of God,

then the kingdom of God

has come upon you.

What do we do with that?

Right?

Where does that fit

in our vision of reality

in the world?

Do you trust yourself?

Do you trust

your plausibility structures,

your cultural paradigms,

your educational experience,

your formative institutions,

which have told you

there is no such thing

as demons?

There is no such thing

as a battle or a struggle

between the kingdom of Satan

and the kingdom of God.

Or,

will you trust

the Son of God

who's speaking here,

who made the world?

Right?

The Son of God

who took all the risk

upon Himself

to enter into this world.

The Son of God

who laid down His life

and died for this world.

The Son of God

who rose again

to authenticate

His authority

to interpret His world.

When you become a Christian,

when you say,

Jesus is my Savior

and Jesus is my Lord,

what happens is that

you're baptized

into Jesus' vision

of the world.

You're baptized

into His interpretation

of the world

where He says,

this is the fundamental conflict.

This is the fundamental thing

that's happening

in your life

and in the life

of this world

that I've come to engage.

The Apostle Paul

says it this way

in Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

He says,

for our struggle

is not against flesh and blood

but against the rulers,

against the authorities,

against the powers

of this dark world

and against the spiritual forces

of evil

in the heavenly realms.

And I think Jesus

is trying to get us

to take seriously

the reality

of the dark powers

that are at work

in the world.

So that's point number one.

Point number two

is not just about

the reality

of the dark powers

but secondly,

the presence

of a stronger power.

The presence

of a stronger power.

Jesus could not be more clear

that Satan's not only real

but that he's strong.

And He says it explicitly

in verse 21.

He says,

when a strong man

fully armed

guards his own house,

his possessions

are safe.

Jesus is saying there

that Satan is strong.

Right?

He's mighty.

He's powerful.

Jesus calls him

in other places

the prince of this world,

the ruler of this world.

Right?

He's fully armed

with defensive armor,

with offensive weapons.

And it says

he has a house.

That word house

is a palace.

It's a castle

of this dark warlord,

this heavily fortified

military installation

where Jesus is describing

this evil

and strong prince

who takes possession

of people

and he puts them

in his castle prison,

his castle dungeon,

and there

his unholy spirits

are holding people

there in bondage.

Right?

They're oppressed

and they're dominated

by the will

of this strong man.

And Jesus says

He has people

in His possession.

And how do people

come to be

in His possession?

Well,

Ephesians chapter 6,

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

again,

the Apostle Paul

says this,

he says,

put on the full armor

of God

so that you can

take your stand

against the devil's

schemes.

Right?

The devil

has schemes

by which he takes

possession of people.

And what are those schemes?

Well,

you can trace

sort of a golden thread

all the way back

to the beginning

of the Scriptures

in Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

where the scheming serpent

comes into paradise,

he comes into

the garden of God

questioning God's Word.

Right?

He's saying,

did God really say?

And he begins

to twist

and distort the truth.

He begins

to sow seeds

of doubt

and disbelief

in the heart

of human beings.

Is God really for you?

Isn't God

kind of holding out

on you?

And you can trace

that thread

of his schemes

all the way

into the New Testament

where the Apostle Paul

says in 2 Corinthians 11,

he says,

Satan disguises himself

as an angel

of light.

Satan disguises himself

as an angel

of light.

In other words,

his strategy

is deception.

And if you read

the letters

of the New Testament,

it's very clear

that this dark warlord

is at work

particularly

among the people

of God.

Right?

Because he wants

to distort

the truth

of the gospel.

He wants to add

to the gospel.

He wants to take away

from the gospel.

He wants to lead

God's people

into this ditch

of legalism

over here,

into this ditch

of licentiousness

over here.

He wants to lead

us into conflict

with one another

or compromise

with the world.

Right?

He wants to disrupt

our relationship

with God.

He wants to disrupt

our relationship

with each other.

He wants to discredit

our life

and our message.

He's got schemes

that need to be resisted.

And the question is,

do we take Jesus seriously

when he talks about

this strong man,

that he actually

is highly intelligent,

that he's immensely powerful,

that he's utterly

unscrupulous,

that he's a formidable

adversary

with deceptive schemes

that we must take

seriously?

How else do we

explain the brokenness

of this world,

right,

that's in bondage

to forces of sin

and disease

and injustice

and poverty

and hunger

and alienation?

How else do we

describe the eruption

of anger

and fear

and violence

and death

in this world

unless we take

Jesus' words

about the strong man

seriously?

But what's amazing

about this passage

is that Jesus

is not only telling us

about the strong man,

but he has the audacity

to say,

I'm stronger

than the strong man.

Right,

he says in verse 22,

but when someone

stronger attacks

and overpowers him,

he takes away

the armor

in which the man

trusted

and divides up

his plunder.

You guys still awake?

All right.

I know we had one less

hour of sleep last night,

so I'm just making sure.

Jesus says,

my life

and my mission

is a full frontal

assault

on the strong man.

Right,

when I touch,

when you read the gospels

and you see Jesus

touching people's bodies

with the power of God

and you see people

teaching people

and regenerating their souls

by the truth of God,

Jesus is saying,

look,

I'm attacking

and overpowering

the strong man.

I'm dethroning Satan.

I'm driving out

his kingdom.

I'm repossessing

what God

owns by right.

I'm possessing them

for the kingdom of God.

What is amazing

is the apostle Paul

says this

in Colossians chapter 2

Colossians 2:14

verse 14.

He says,

talking about Jesus' ministry

and the climax

of Jesus' ministry,

he says,

God has taken away

our sin,

our death,

and our condemnation

by nailing them

to the cross.

And he says,

in having disarmed

the dark powers

and the authorities,

God made a spectacle

of them,

triumphing over them

by the cross.

What Paul is saying there

is that Jesus' cross

is the decisive moment

of his attack

on the strong man.

Right?

On his cross,

Jesus looks as if

he's a helpless victim,

but something actually

much deeper

is going on there,

that on his cross,

Jesus is attacking

and overpowering

and overcoming

the strong man

by sacrificial,

self-giving love.

Right?

That on his cross,

Jesus is actually

disarming the dark powers.

He's taking away

the strong man's armor

in which he trusted.

And on his cross,

Jesus is making

a public spectacle

of Satan

and his dark kingdom.

On his cross,

Jesus is conquering

over that kingdom

of darkness

and winning a victory

for the kingdom of God.

And Jesus says

that he's dividing up

the strong man's spoils.

On his cross,

Jesus is dividing up

the strong man's plunder

by reclaiming men

and reclaiming women

so that people can live

in freedom again

according to God's

original design.

And through his resurrection,

Jesus is continuing

this work

of plundering

the strong man's spoils.

Right?

He continues this work

until he comes again

to fully drive out

the evil one

from this world

until he fully

and finally sets up

the kingdom of God

on earth as it is in heaven.

And so,

what does this mean for us?

What does it mean for you?

It's a matter of

utmost importance

and urgency

for you to know

whether you're

in the possession

of the strong man

or whether you belong

to the stronger one

who came to overtake

and overpower

and disarm

and plunder

the strong man.

Right?

The question for us is

who do I belong to?

Have I been transferred

from one dominion

into another dominion?

From one possession

into another possession?

From one safekeeping

into another safekeeping?

Again,

the Apostle Paul

says this in Colossians 1.

He says,

for he,

God,

has rescued us

from the dominion

of darkness

and brought us

into the kingdom

of the Son

He loves.

Is that how we see

the world?

Is that how we understand

our lives?

Third point

is not just the reality

of dark powers

and not just the presence

of a stronger power,

but finally is to talk

about the indwelling

of a holy power.

power.

The indwelling

of a holy power.

And this is where

I want to just look

for a moment

at the most particularly

strange,

at least for me,

the most enigmatic

and puzzling part

of this text.

And you're like,

we haven't talked

about that already.

But one thing

we haven't really

looked at is

where Jesus says

in verses 19 to 20,

He says,

other people

are driving out demons.

Other Jews,

other followers

of the Pharisees,

they're also

driving out demons.

And then He says

in verses 24 to 26,

He says that a demon

leaves the house

and then He comes back

and He finds it swept

and put in order,

but it's empty

and so He comes

and occupies it

with seven other

more wicked demons

than Himself

and the situation

is far worse

than it was before.

What in the world

is going on there?

Well, I think Jesus

is suggesting that

there are multiple ways

to get symptom relief

for our human misery.

but to not really deal

with underlying root causes.

Right?

He says, you know,

other people are dealing

with troubles

and miseries

and demons are,

you know,

taking off.

But they're not really

driving them out

like I am

by the finger of God

and the Spirit of God

and the power of God

so that the kingdom

of God is coming.

They're giving symptom relief

but they're not really

bringing the kingdom of God,

Jesus says.

And what does that mean?

It means that there's

actually many different ways

that we can change.

There are many ways

that we can get

the power to change

but there's only one way

to change thoroughly

and to change permanently.

Right?

Many of us have changed

because we've looked

to therapy

and we've looked

to self-help for change

and that was good.

We needed that.

Others of us

have looked to science

and drugs

and medicine

for change

and that was good.

We needed that.

Others of us

have looked to education

and knowledge

for change

and that was good.

That helped.

We needed that.

All of these are good gifts

of God's common grace

in our lives.

But I think this text

challenges us

not to be

overly simplistic

and overly reductionistic

in the way

that we approach

human problems.

Because obviously

we're psychological

and social beings.

Obviously we're biological

and physical beings.

Obviously we're intellectual

and rational beings.

But what this text

reminds us is that

we are not only

those things

we are spiritual beings.

And if we only deal

at the superficial level

of doing symptom relief

in our life

we're not going deep enough

to deal with underlying

root spiritual causes.

It's possible

Jesus says

to use other powers

to change.

And we might be

massively helped

by emotional catharsis.

We might be

significantly helped

by willpower

and just sheer

self-determination

and self-discipline.

We might be helped

by some kind of

support group.

And one demon

might say

oh my goodness

he's getting serious

about his life

I think I'm going to

take off

and leave his house

for a while.

And your house

lo and behold

is swept clean

it's put in order.

But if that's all

you've done

Jesus says

if that's all

you've done

your house

is swept clean

and it's put in order

but it's sitting vacant.

It's sitting empty

you're just inviting

trouble.

You're eventually

going to attract

vandals

and invaders

and squatters

who are going to

come and make

things worse.

If you're a kid

and you ever

discovered

an abandoned house

you know

and there's glass

in the window

don't you just want

to pick up a rock

and throw it

through the window?

Was that just me?

Jesus says

an empty house

is just asking for it.

An empty house

needs to be filled.

An empty house

needs a new

and a holy power

that keeps all

those old

and unholy spirits

from coming back.

I had a friend

who I met

in seminary

and he became

a pastor

and he no longer

is part of a church

no longer identifies

as a Christian

and he posted

on social media

recently

he said

these last three years

I've been in a state

of barely contained

panic.

Right?

I've not been sleeping

I've not been exercising

I've been pounding

ice cream

late at night

I've been binging TV

to distract myself

from my pain

I've been on four

different psychiatric

drugs

and I've often

wanted to just

go to sleep

and not wake up.

And he says

you know

the good news

is that my wife

and my kids

they rallied around me

and I restarted

exercising

and I got

on a clean diet

and I stayed sober

from alcohol

and I weaned myself

off this drug cocktail

and he's reporting

you know

I felt stuck

in despair

but now I'm happy

and I have hope again

and I rejoice

with him

that is such good news

his house

has been swept clean

his house

has been put

in order

but Jesus would say

the problem with that

is that your house

is still empty

your house

is vacant

there's nobody

in there

vandals

and invaders

and squatters

are just going to come

and make things

worse for you

what does he need

what does my friend need

what do I need

what do you need

Jesus says

we need a new

and a holy

and indwelling power

that's stronger

than all of those

dark powers

that can come

and fill

and occupy

our house

and our life

right

it's possible

to have your life

swept clean

and put in order

without the redeeming

presence of Jesus

and without the

regenerating power

of the Holy Spirit

it's possible

to engage

in a thousand

life hacks

to optimize

your life

maximally

but unless

the expulsion

and the removal

of dark

and dehumanizing

powers

is followed

by the filling

of your life

with the power

of the living God

you've not deeply

changed

your change

is only superficial

and temporary

you're just creating

a vacuum

inside of you

that can be filled

with more dark

powers

Jesus says

if you want to change

thoroughly

if you want to change

completely

if you want to change

permanently

you need to let me

move into your house

you need to let me

take possession

of all that you are

and all that you have

you need one

stronger than the

strong man

to come and take up

residence inside of you

right

you need the one

who drives out demons

by the finger of God

and who brings the kingdom

of God

to come

and set up his kingdom

in your life

what you need

is the spirit

of him

who raised Christ

from the dead

to come and be

that indwelling

power

and that indwelling

presence inside of you

enabling you

to live

the faithful

and fruitful life

that God

created you to live

there are other

sources of power

there are other

means of help

that can deal

with this particular

sin

or that particular

trouble

or misery

or demon

but Jesus

the son of God

has conquered

over sin itself

and he's overcome

Satan

himself

and what he offers

you

and what he gives

you

is not deliverance

from this sin

or from that sin

or from this demon

or from that demon

no what he gives you

is complete deliverance

what he's freeing you

from is all sin

what he's emancipating

you from is entirely

from the dominion

of Satan

what you need

is not a house

that's been swept

clean and put in order

what you need

is a house

that's occupied

by the presence

of the living God

a house that's full

of Christ

through the power

of the Holy Spirit

you don't need

a power

that will make

your house

swept clean

and put in order

but leave you

exactly as you were

before

where now you just

have to fight

and struggle

to keep it clean

where you grow

tired and weary

to keep it

in good order

and all those

old troubles

and all those

miseries

you have to fight

to keep them away

what you need

is the power

of the living God

and your house

increasingly filled

by the presence

and the power

of the Holy Spirit

so friends

if you're not sure

what the season

of Lent

these next 40 days

is all about

if you're not really sure

what to pray

I want to point you

to this simple prayer

in verse 13

and I'll close with this

Jesus says

if you then

though you are evil

know how to give

good gifts

to your children

how much more

will your Father

in Heaven

give the Holy Spirit

to those who ask Him

what I want to encourage

you to do

over the next 40 days

is just to ask God

to fill your house

and to fill your life

with the Holy Spirit

to say Father

you love to give

good gifts

to your children

and I'm asking you

for the best gift

please give me

the Holy Spirit

please give me

more and more

of your Spirit

please fill me

from the top of my head

to the tips of my toes

body and soul

with the Spirit

of Jesus Christ

Holy Spirit

come rest on me

Holy Spirit

come enter into me

Holy Spirit

come live in me

and dwell in me

and reside in me

and abide in me

Holy Spirit

come

come fill my mind

and my thoughts

come fill my heart

and my affections

come fill my will

and my desires

Lord

enable me

to be full

of the Holy Spirit

and to walk

in the Holy Spirit

to be led by

the Holy Spirit

friends

who's dwelling

in your house

who's taking up

residence

in your life

in your house

let us make this

our prayer

over the next 40 days

as we journey

toward Easter together

in the name of the Father

Son and Holy Spirit

Amen

Amen