Presented to Swift Current Corps, 31 October 2010; Corps 614 Regent Park Toronto, 01 November 2015; Alberni Valley Ministries (abridged), 31 October 2021 by Captain Michael Ramsay
This is the 2015 Corps 614 Toronto version, to view the original 2010 Swift Current version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2010/10/luke-1114-28-matthew-1225-29-parable-of.html
To view the 2021 Alberni Valley, BC Version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2021/10/luke-1114-28-parable-of-haunted-house.html
To view a video of the abridged 2021 version, click here: https://youtu.be/zkKz9y_uBoQ
Yesterday was October
31st so I thought that it would be good to start off with an October
31st quiz today (answers in footnotes):
a.
Bonus
Marks name the King, the dead person, and the witch
5)
The man
possessed by so many demons that they called themselves Legion, where did he
live?[5]
The parable – 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 all of them. One of the key things to come out of this parable is that
God is more important than anyone in the Christian’s life.[7]
This is highlighted in the Markan account (Mark 3:20-35).[8]
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, in order to take charge of 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).[9]
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).[10]
This is very important.
There is in Matthew and Mark’s record of
this parable also the important, significant, and controversial statement about
the unforgivable sin, which is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew
12:32, Mark 3:29).[11]
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.[12]
This is similar to John’s words about the apostate and those who walk with
Christ but then reject him completely so much so that they never return to 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 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.
Jesus 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.[13]
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–
were often split between those who worshipped YHWH and those who worshipped a
Canaanite god by the name of Baal. One of the names people who worshipped Baal used
to call him 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).[14]
Knowing this, the people who didn’t worship Baal gave the Canaanite god a
related nickname of their own. They called him Baal-Zebub, which sounds like
Baal-Zebul, ‘Baal the Prince’, but in reality means Baal, Lord of the flies;
Baal the pest; or Baal, Lord of the dung heap.[15]
It wasn’t a favourable name, Baal-Zebub. It was a derogatory name. By Jesus
time, with Baal-worship relegated to the dustbin of history, they couldn’t let
this good nickname go to waste though; so they applied it to the devil, Satan
inherited this nickname. Beelzebub, in the first century CE, was a common
derogatory name for Satan.[16]
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. There were on TV last night 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 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 watch cartoons or other shows relating to the occult or dress up as devils and witches) people won’t stand by and let that evil go unchecked.
Witchcraft is a serious crime. It was 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 watch cartoons or other shows relating to the occult or dress up as devils and witches) 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 exactly the same thing when they perform exorcisms and even more than
that Jesus says, one won’t and one can’t even drive out evil with evil: a house
divided against itself will fall. Jesus 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 day after Halloween Day, on
this day after 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. Even though Canada was founded upon Psalm 72, the Word
of God, now we no longer say the Lord’s Prayer in the House of Commons 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 revolves around this 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? 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?[17]
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? Adult onset diabetes in children is a direct result of eating too
much bad stuff.[18]
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 nation’s house here today:
it seems that our whole economy depends upon greed.[19]
I read once that if the North American societies went even just one day without
spending any money on frivolities our entire economies would collapse.[20]
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 against
foreigners 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 clean 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 to 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 which should be our answer to the deliverance 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 the choice 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 holiness is available to
all of us but we must make a choice (cf. TSA Doctrine 10). And, as Joshua said
on the very border of the Promised Land, when faced with this very choice, Joshua
said ‘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.
Let us pray.
---
[3] Answer 3: True (1
Samuel 28), King Saul went to the witch of Endor to contact the deceased
prophet Samuel
[4] Answer 4: God used Elijah to raise the son of the widow
of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17-23), God used Elisa 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), Lazarus (John 11:43,44); God used Peter to raise Dorcas (Acts
9:37-40) and Paul to raise Eutychus (after Paul had literally bored him to
death? Acts 20:9-12)
[7] 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
[8] Cf. C.L. Mitton. The Gospel According to Mark. London: Epworth,
1957, p. 26
[9] 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.”
[10] Cf. Lewis Foster, ‘Luke’ in NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Mi :
Zondervan, 2002), note on Luke 9:24, p. 1589.
[11] 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.
[12] 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.”
[13] 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
[14] 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
[15] 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
[16] 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.
[17] 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
[19] Cf. http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/
for more information about ‘Buy Nothing Day’.
[20] Cf. also John Wesley, 'The Use of Money': Sermon 50.
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