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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
"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 unoccupied,
swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it 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. That is how it will be with this
wicked generation."
Matthew 12:43-45
Matthew 12:43-45
“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.”
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd
called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave You birth and nursed You.”
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word
of God and obey it.”
Luke 11:24-28
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be
to God.
I think we all can relate to a time when we lived our lives in a way that was not pleasing to the Lord. It’s bound to happen to even the best person as sin and Satan have a way of exploiting our weaknesses and causing us to act, speak, or think in ways contrary to God’s word and will.
So how does this happen in the first place? How do we fall prey to Satan and end up in the grip of his sinister intent for our lives?
Well, we can start by looking in our “house” and check out who is living inside.
For if we truly wish to show Satan that the “No Vacancy” sign is up inside our hearts and minds, then we simply must let Satan see that the Light (capital “L”) is always on, that the Lord is always at home inside us.
Jesus touches on this very issue as we look at today’s scripture passages from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Let’s look again at the words from Matthew’s account here:
I think we all can relate to a time when we lived our lives in a way that was not pleasing to the Lord. It’s bound to happen to even the best person as sin and Satan have a way of exploiting our weaknesses and causing us to act, speak, or think in ways contrary to God’s word and will.
So how does this happen in the first place? How do we fall prey to Satan and end up in the grip of his sinister intent for our lives?
Well, we can start by looking in our “house” and check out who is living inside.
For if we truly wish to show Satan that the “No Vacancy” sign is up inside our hearts and minds, then we simply must let Satan see that the Light (capital “L”) is always on, that the Lord is always at home inside us.
Jesus touches on this very issue as we look at today’s scripture passages from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Let’s look again at the words from Matthew’s account here:
"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 unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it
goes and takes with it 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.
That is how it will be with this wicked generation." Matthew 12:43-45
You’ll recall that Jesus had been verbally sparring with
the Pharisees and teachers of the law, calling out the religious authorities of
the day as not being connected to God because they couldn’t even recognize that
God’s Son had indeed come to earth, the Messiah predicted by the prophets of
old.
The problem was that the Pharisees and teachers of the law weren’t as interested in people following God as they were people following them and their legalistic counsel and discipline. For if the religious leaders were fully in tune with God, there would be no questioning of Jesus, no challenging of His ways, and no attempts to try and discredit Him. Rather, the Pharisees and teachers of the law would be exhorting, worshipping and praising Jesus amongst their people, proclaiming Him as one with the God they had devoted themselves to. They would be welcoming Him to come and teach in their synagogues, to heal their people, and to drive out demons.
The problem was that the Pharisees and teachers of the law weren’t as interested in people following God as they were people following them and their legalistic counsel and discipline. For if the religious leaders were fully in tune with God, there would be no questioning of Jesus, no challenging of His ways, and no attempts to try and discredit Him. Rather, the Pharisees and teachers of the law would be exhorting, worshipping and praising Jesus amongst their people, proclaiming Him as one with the God they had devoted themselves to. They would be welcoming Him to come and teach in their synagogues, to heal their people, and to drive out demons.
In other words, they would have praised and promoted
Jesus for having the power and authority to do all the things that they couldn’t.
Unfortunately, they didn’t happen because the Pharisees
and teachers of the law didn’t have that mindset, not even close.
And so the Jewish religious leaders never truly did anything under God’s authority or validation. His power was not in them because they didn’t really believe in Him, although they claimed to. This is why Jesus spoke the following words, painting the work of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as being fruitless:
“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 unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it 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. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
What was Jesus getting at?
And so the Jewish religious leaders never truly did anything under God’s authority or validation. His power was not in them because they didn’t really believe in Him, although they claimed to. This is why Jesus spoke the following words, painting the work of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as being fruitless:
“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 unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it 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. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
What was Jesus getting at?
It was pretty simple.
His point was that anyone who had been exorcised by the
religious leaders of the day was not really healed. For even though an evil
spirit would depart a person being treated by a Pharisee or teacher of the law,
that person wouldn’t be safe because the lack of godliness within the religious
authority would lead to a void within. The healed person would only remain that
way temporarily because instead of the void left by the spirit filled by God,
instead the person would remain empty and unoccupied, vacant for an evil spirit
to return, this time bringing seven more wicked spirits along. All these
malevolent spirits would move and make themselves at home, repossessing the person
and making them worse off than they were before.
So in essence, what really got done?
The answer is nothing. Such was the ineffectiveness of
anything the Pharisees and teachers of the law were doing.
So what is the point for us today? What is Jesus getting at when it comes to how we are living our lives?
So what is the point for us today? What is Jesus getting at when it comes to how we are living our lives?
I believe He is telling us that we have to be careful
when it comes to doing away with a sinful way within our hearts and minds. We
can’t just eliminate that sin from our lives and leave a void within without
filling that void with the Lord, with His Spirit and Word. If we do that, then
there is no room for the sin to return. If we don’t, then it can reenter our
hearts and minds, often driving us to greater levels of wicked living.
We can clean our “house” and ensure it remains clean
inside but we can only do this through Jesus, the One who makes evil flee just
by the mere mention of His name. Make your “house” the Lord’s “home” and you
can always ensure that Satan and evil will never be able to move in.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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