Demons (Acts 16:16-19)

I was eight years old in 1973 when the movie The Exorcist came out. I remember seeing advertisements for it and hearing my mother bemoaning the lostness of the modern world. I asked her if we were going to go see it and she nearly came out of her skin. The film touched off an international furor, with reports of demonic possession and requests for exorcism from the Roman Catholic Church skyrocketing. Now, 50 years later, demons and exorcism remain high in many people’s fears and fascinations.  Over the last few years in particular, there has been a spate of movies, TV shows, podcasts, and, yes, video games centering around demons and the demonic. Especially in Pentecostal circles, but not only there, deliverance ministry continues to capture people’s minds and attentions. To put it bluntly, demons are a big deal in our culture today.

Of course, the subject of demons and exorcism was not invented by Hollywood in 1973. Wherever there have been human beings throughout history, there have been reports of evil spirits, along with specific charms or procedures or rituals that shamans or priests or grandmothers prescribed for dealing with them. And of course, there are demons galore in the Bible.

In the good providence of God, we find ourselves this morning in the 16th chapter of the book of Acts. Here we will find the apostle Paul dealing with, you guessed it, a demon. So even if the subject of demons or demonization seem frightening or absurd to you or me, God expects us to deal with it right now. He’s the one who put this in his word. Now it’s up to us to come to grips with it. We can do so in a way that tries to avoid the subject or sweep it under the rug as quickly as possible, or we can trust that God tells us about this encounter because we need to know about it. He loves us, and he wants us to know the truth about demons. That’s what I believe, and I know that’s what most of you believe too. So let’s just dive in.

READ Acts 16:16-19

Acts 16 ¹⁶ As we were going to the place of prayer…

• w/ Luke … back to the fishin’ hole

FOUR vital facts about demons

Demons and demonization are real

Luke does not tell this story as if he is making up a fairy tale. He speaks about an evil spirit and its power over a helpless young woman and its expulsion from the girl by the power of the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul – an exorcism.

¹⁶ As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

Skeptics who do not believe the Bible scoff at this story, because they have a prior commitment. Around here we absolutely do not. We take it as a straightforward account of an actual event that really happened in Philippi A couple thousand years ago.

There are two classic quotes from CS Lewis, taken from the prefaces to two separate editions of his book The Screwtape Letters, that I need to share with you.

1. The first quote has Lewis, one of the best-educated men in England in his day, explaining why he doesn’t at all feel embarrassed to say that he believes the Bible on this point

The proper question is whether I believe in devils. I do. That is to say, I believe in angels, and I believe that some of these, by the abuse of their free will, have become enemies to God and, as a corollary, to us. These we may call devils….

I believe this not in the sense that it is part of my creed, but in the sense that it is one of my opinions. My religion would not be in ruins if this opinion were shown to be false. Till that happens—and proofs of a negative are hard to come by—I shall retain it. It seems to me to explain a good many facts. It agrees with the plain sense of Scripture, the tradition of Christendom, and the beliefs of most men at most times. And it conflicts with nothing that any of the sciences has shown to be true.

2. The second quote is a classic warning about how to avoid making the two worst mistakes you can make when you’re trying to decide what you believe about devils (demons)

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors

Demons actually exist. And lots of people are becoming more open to admitting it’s true. Have you read many testimonies about the “entities” that people often encounter while they’re using psychedelics? They see and interact with beings who seem at first like angels but often after time turn terrifying and demanding. You should hear what some of the brightest thought leaders in our society our saying about these entities. There’s more there than just the projection of a drug-addled mind. There’s something there. And I’m saying that the thing that is there is a demon.

The mere existence of demons doesn’t usually bother us that much, though. The more disturbing thing is the idea of demonization. People sometimes call this demonic “oppression” or “possession.” The Bible, though, simply says that someone has an evil spirit in him, or just has a demon (like this poor girl has a spirit of divination), or is demonized. Sometimes the Bible authors talk about what demons can do to demonized people (like torment them). Other times they focus on what the demon can do through them, like this young woman could tell the future by demonic power.

What usually bothers people most about the idea of demonization is the thought that we could be under the complete control of something that actually lives in us, without our permission or even awareness, like a virus or a tapeworm. I get that. I don’t like the idea either. We absolutely have to talk about that horrifying element of demonization. And we will, thoroughly, in just a moment.

All I need to say here is this: if you are concerned that you or someone you love is demonized or has a demon, please talk to me before you leave here today. There is no way I can stand up here and give you 3 easy steps for handling your demon in a kind of demonization DIY. There are no simple instructions for self-exorcism. You need help. People who know about such things tell us that the vast majority of people who fear that they have a demon don’t. Usually they have mental health issues related to things that have been done to them or that they have done to themselves. Other times they’re just freaked out by the thought that demonization is even possible, and they find themselves in the grip of fear about it. However, sometimes they really have a demon. Either way, they need help. If that’s you, then you need help. Talk to me, please.

Demons and demonization are real

Demons are behind the occult

¹⁶ As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 

These verses make it clear that this girl’s demonization and her occult gift were directly related. The occult arts always are connected to demons, even when the medium or the psychic or the witch or the fortune-teller deny it, even if they’re not even aware of it. Demons are behind the occult. Always.

God command his people to stay away from occult arts like witchcraft or necromancy or fortune-telling or seances or astrology or the paranormal or anything like that. They are of the devil. They are satanic, demonic, deadly and wrong. They were clearly forbidden to God’s people under the Old Covenant, and are clearly forbidden now under the New Covenant. This is only the first time the book of Acts will make the point. And it will come up also in the epistles and even in John’s Apocalypse. It’s just everywhere in the Bible.

If you want to know why I am so opposed to images of fortune- tellers or crystal balls or witches or ghosts at Halloween or any other time, it is because God is opposed to them. The reason he is so opposed to such things is not that demons are make-believe fairy tales that don’t actually exist. Go back and review fact #1: demons really exist.

And they really are behind the occult. And that is why God forbids it. Let’s go on.

Demons are silent slavers

Yes, this story does center on a girl who is a slave. Slavery was as ubiquitous in the ancient world as electricity is in ours. Thank God that the British Empire and the United States America were willing to spill so many rivers of legal ink and oceans of their own blood to outlaw and eliminate slavery in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is grievous beyond words that so much slavery still exists in the world. Yet it is usually hidden, illicit, illegal in the western world. Christians should be grateful for the progress that has been made toward eliminating the enslavement of humans by other humans, and should redouble our efforts to finish the job.

But this story is not about the enslavement of humans by humans. It is about the enslavement of humans by demons. Demons enslave people and hold them in bondage. Sometimes that enslavement is spectacularly obvious, like with this girl. Far more often, it is completely silent and surreptitious. We’ll see that too in this story. So let’s get back to the passage.

¹⁶ As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. • • • • ¹⁹ But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

I hope you see this. It’s not just the girl who was enslaved to the crooks who owned her and to the demon that inhabited her. It’s those crooked men themselves, who were enslaved to the money they were making, and to the demon behind the whole thing. Oh, I’m sure they would have objected vociferously to the idea that they were the slaves of an unseen taskmaster. That demon would have just laughed at them and sunk his talons in even deeper and pulled his chains even tighter, and licked his lips even faster.

As we said earlier, what usually bothers people most about the idea of demonization is the thought that we could be under the complete control of invisible spiritual powers without ever giving our consent or even being aware of it. It really is far too much like a virus or a tapeworm. Or bone cancer.

The Bible repeatedly makes the point that all of us are in some sense under the control of the devil and his minions, with or without our awareness or consent. He deceives us. He outflanks us. He attacks us. He manipulates us. He dominates us. But that’s not even the worst of it. The reality is, when everything seems calm and quiet and pleasurable, that might well be the time when we are most under the control of the Wicked One – and not even aware of it. If he is not persecuting us or attacking us, it probably just means that he’s happy with us. We’re performing well for his team, advancing his agenda adeptly.

If you think about it, this idea that something or someone might be controlling us against our will is particularly objectionable to us here in America. After all, the autonomy of our own sovereign self is all-important to us here in the land of the free. And that in itself shows you how totally under the control of the Wicked One our culture has fallen – and multiplied millions of individual souls within this country. Instead of being thoroughly committed to doing God’s will, we are most passionate about doing our own will. And the end result is that we wind up doing the devil’s will. We make ourselves his minions.

READ Eph 4:25-32

If you really want to know that you are safe from the devil’s control, then follow Jesus closely, stay full of his Holy Spirit, and deal with sin quickly when it comes up.

What that means is that you need to carefully study the Book that he has inspired so that you can know what he wants and see things from his perspective. Otherwise, you’re probably just seeing things from the perspective of the world, the flesh, and the devil. You’re probably just seeing things the way the Massuh wants you to see them.

Demons and demonization are real

Demons are behind the occult

Demons are silent slavers

Demons use truth to hide the truth

Watch what this girl, driven by the demon who lives in her and controls her, does with Paul.

¹⁶ As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

Wait a minute! What this girl was yelling was true: Paul and his team were servants of the most high God and they were proclaiming to the people of Philippi the way of salvation. Why would Paul have been annoyed at her about that?

Actually, the average person on the street in Philippi probably would have thought that the girl was saying that these men were servants of the false god Jupiter, known by the name of Zeus to the Greeks and worshiped in both cultures as the king of the gods. Just about everyone in Philippi would have thought the most high God was Zeus.

Do you see what just happened? A demon took a term that sounded familiar and correct, and used it to tell a black and satanic lie. Demons use truth to hide the truth.

It’s also worth noting that in the Greek text, the word “the” is missing before the word “way.” So it’s quite possible that the demon was driving this young girl to say that Paul and his team were proclaiming a way of salvation. Yet what Jesus said was “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except by me.” almost no difference at all except all the difference in the world. Demons use truth to hide the truth.

One of the most remarkable ways the demons use truth to hide the truth is in what is called deliverance ministry. Deliverance ministry is a kind of Christian preaching that downplays sin and repentance in order to play up the reality of demons and sell a service of exorcism and deliverance. That would be staged exorcism and fake deliverance, available for a price. And their whole ministry is devoted to just this.

I am not saying that nobody ever needs exorcism. Clearly this girl did. It’s worth noting that the apostle Paul simply turned around and spoke to the demon and commanded it to leave and it did. There were no special incantations no gathering of people around the girl to hold her down, none of the usual trappings of modern deliverance ministry. There was just the power of the Holy Spirit and the spoken word of the apostle of Christ commanding the demon to leave. That’s what real exorcism is like.

Yet so many in this modern world are building up a entire empires around the idea of pedaling deliverance. It’s literally diabolical. Demons use hysteria about demons to deceive people and distract them from the real need of the hour. People need to repent of their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit. Then they need to shape their entire lives around what Jesus Says through his apostles.

People need to learn what he teaches by his Holy Spirit in the written word of his apostles, and let that word shape everything about their worldview. Jesus, speaking through his Word, tears down strongholds and builds up his people in his truth.

It is in his teaching that people find freedom. That’s what he said:

John 8 ³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Where Jesus comes, where his Holy Spirit takes up residence, specifically as believing disciples abide in the Word of Christ spoken by his Holy Spirit in the Bible, demons must flee, and people are set free. We don’t need deliverance ministries. We need the Deliverer, Jesus Christ.

I’m telling you, demons use truth to hide the truth.

FOUR straightforward facts

Demons and demonization are real               Demons are behind the occult

Demons are silent slavers              Demons use truth to hide the truth

conclusion

There are no traditional stories relating to us what happened to this young girl after Paul cast the demon out of her. The Bible doesn’t tell us either. It’s possible her owners just sold her to somebody else and she disappeared into the mists of history. But I would rather like to imagine that she began following Paul around for real to hear what he had to say about this Jesus Christ in whose name he had been able able to set her free from her slavery.

She would have heard that this man Jesus of Nazareth was actually the only-begotten Son of the true Most High God. he came down to us from his father above, born as one of us so that he might live the life we should live but can’t, and then die the death that each of us has earned by failing to love the one true God with all our heart soul mind and strength. She would have learned from Paul that this man Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb, and that there in the grave he proclaimed to the devil and all of his minions their eternal defeat and everlasting ruin. And she would have heard the glorious news that after three days the Lord Jesus rose from the grave in power and Glory, and forty days after that ascended to the Father’s right hand, where he sits and reigns to this very day. And Paul would have explained to her that this Almighty risen Lord was eager to become her savior and her friend if she was just repent of her sin and put her faith in that crucified, resurrected, glorified man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eternal Father, in this very moment, we turn again from our sin and ourselves to you and your glory,

Trusting only in your Son’s sacrifice for our sins to make us right with you.

We want to shelter ourselves in the shadow of his cross,

Bathe ourselves in the blood that he shed there for us,

Robe ourselves in his righteousness,

Renew ourselves in his resurrection,

Lose ourselves in his Lordship,

And find ourselves in his friendship.

We want him to become for us, for today and forever, wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and salvation.

For he is the One who suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,  in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.