Matthew Chapter 17: 22-23

“Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.’ And they were exceedingly sorrowful.”

We explored the idea of demon possession last week, and I tell you that this topic has come up more often this week than I can count.  Hollywood and the like have tried to put on some TV shows over the past year in particular that seem to make evil seem good.  One particular show is called “Lucifer.” Yes, you read it correctly.  Basically, in this series, Lucifer is bored and takes a break from Hell to come to earth.  He is handsome and charming, and he is helping solve crimes.

The Antichrist will be charming, helpful and appear to solve some of man’s problems.  In doing so, he will win the admiration of the whole world and be given more and more power.  Be careful of dealing with evil; it appears to be benign and controllable until one day you wake up and you are the puppet.  Thankfully, Jesus is still the God who made and will condemn the evil spirits.  Call out to Him; humble yourself, and the devil will have to move out.

Today we will look at two short verses that remind us that Jesus often warned His followers what was coming.  He never sugar-coated what it was He was here to do.  Sadly, they just could not see the truth of why Jesus came the first time.  They were kingdom-minded and simply wanted to be out from under the rule of the Romans.

How many of us are blind the same way today?  We know that Jesus is coming; He has told us over and over that He is coming again. The signs are here but we just go on as if this truth is a truth for someone else.

The Hard Truth, verses 22-23

Jesus was not one to pull punches when He spoke to His followers.  He wanted them to be fully aware of what was going on.  He made sure that He warned them over and over that He was going to be tortured, killed and then raised from the dead.  In John 2:19, we could excuse them since Jesus used the metaphor of the Temple to speak about His coming death, burial and resurrection:

“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’”

But we find in this exchange in John 2, very early in His earthly ministry, that Jesus began to warn His followers that He was coming to die.  He was not about to release Israel from the grip of the Roman Empire; that would be thousands of years later.  By the time we get nearer to the end, as we see in Matthew 16:21, Jesus is just laying it on the line:

“From that time on, Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life.”

To us this seems to be plain and simple.  How much more clearly could Jesus have explained it unless He had walked with a cross on His shoulders for the whole 3 years of His ministry?  In Luke 9:22, we find these words from Jesus:

“saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’”

In Mark 9: 30-32 “They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.’ But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”

We see at the end of this set of verses that they did not understand, but they were afraid to ask Him about it.  In John 2:22, we see that they only began to figure it out after the resurrection had taken place.  In reference to after the resurrection, we find the amazing account of two of Jesus’ regular disciples who had travelled with Him for some time, meeting Him after the resurrection and still not recognizing Him.  We find this account in Luke 24: 17-27,

“Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.  But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.

“And He said to them, ‘What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?’ Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, ‘Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?’

“And He said to them, ‘What things?’ So they said to Him, ‘The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.

“Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.’

“Then He said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

Notice that we are told in verse 17 that these were ‘two of them.’  Who?  Jesus’ followers.  Two of them still had the kingdom of Israel mindset. See verse 21: ‘we were hoping that it was He was going to redeem Israel.’  They even admitted that some of the women had already testified about the empty grave, and yet still they doubted and were sad, as Jesus described them as ‘sad.’

These people were defeated and unable to comprehend all that had taken place.  They were hoping for a new Israel, and now they had the testimony of a few women how that the tomb was empty.

So Jesus began at the book of Genesis and told them all that was about Him.  The entire OT is about Him.  Jesus called them ‘slow of heart to believe,’ (see verse 25).  But these men had seen Jesus raise the dead, heal the sick, and cast out demons; and still they doubted.

In verses 28 and in that passage from Luke, we see that Jesus does something that they often saw Him do; He prayed before eating and then broke the bread and gave to them.  Then their eyes were opened, the Bible tells us.  We don’t know what got their attention.  Was it the nail prints in His hands?  Was it the particular way that He prayed?  Was it the way He broke the bread?

Whatever it was, they finally saw the risen Saviour; and immediately they went to tell the 11 that they had seen the risen Jesus.

Judgment is coming to us; 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20: 11-15

There were other warnings that Jesus gave to us as well.  The most obvious is that He would be coming again and, in particular, that this coming would entail judgment.  We find comfort in the promise of His return. Many church people gladly and loudly quote John 14:3,

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

We look forward to this, but, sadly there are many in the Lord’s churches today that refuse to realize that Jesus is coming again.  They refuse to acknowledge that certain absolute signs of His return are in place like the resurrection of the nation of Israel to her homeland with Jerusalem as her capital city.  Just this alone is a great reminder of God’s promises and power.

Everyone is excited to get their ‘mansion.’  And, man, do we make a big show about getting mansions; but not a lot of people understand that there is a judgment of the righteous first that must take place.

In 1 Corinthians 3: 11-13, we find this dire warning from the apostle Paul:

“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”

Did you get that? It says ‘each man’s work’ (verse 13) will be judged by fire.  This is not a salvation issue; only saved people are at this judgment.  We are warned that judgment will begin with the house of God first in 1 Peter 4:17.  Over and over, Jesus made this clear to us in His earthly ministry.

Read the parable of the Minas in Luke 19: 11-27, or the parable of the Talents in Matthew 25: 14-30.  In each of these, a man travels into a far country to receive a kingdom and leaves his servants to do his business until he returns.  Does that sound familiar?  He then returns to judge the work of those entrusted with his business.  Each one has to come before the master and give an account of how he did the master’s business.

Folks, we are the servants, Jesus is the master, and we will give an account to Him.

Like the disciples, some of us seem blind to this fact.  We carry on with the cares and pleasures of this world with no regard for the work of the NT church or the kingdom that we are responsible for.  We act as if Jesus will not return and make us give an account.

Some will say, well I am saved and that is all I care about.  Well, maybe, just maybe, you need to check that.  Just about everyone who received Jesus as Savior in the NT went out and told someone what He did for them.  Today we have so many tools for witnessing that one can certainly find a way to get the Word out.  But make no mistake; you will be judged on how you lived your life after you were saved.  Jesus made that very clear; and, just like the disciples, we seem to be blind to that.

The other judgment that we are warned about is for the people who reject Jesus.  In the parable of the Minas in Luke 19, some of the people make this statement, in verse 11, after the master leaves and heads to a far country:

“But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’”

They decided that they did not want this master to rule over them.  This did not change the fact that he was the master.  Kind of like when your teenage kids tell you they hate you, or when rebellious citizens in modern countries think they can decide that they will not obey the government.  That does not change the facts; Jesus is Lord of all, parents rule children, and the government does not really care about your opinion except once every 4-5 years or so, depending on where you live.

This was the answer to the rebellious citizens from the master, in verse 27:

“But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.”

They were judged harshly.  Well, those who reject Jesus as Savior will also be judged harshly. See Revelation 20: 11-15,

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.

“And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

So we have been warned.  Judgment is coming.  What will you do with Jesus?

Repent of your sins today, accept His loving and gracious gift of His life for yours on the cross, rejoice in the power of His resurrection and trust Him as your Savior.  For those of us who have trusted Him, we will be judged by Jesus.  This is an indisputable truth.

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Faith, Prayer and Fasting
Matthew, Chapter 17: 14-21

“And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.’

“Then Jesus answered and said, ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.’ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’

“So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’”

Last week we looked at the importance of prophecy in the Bible. Prophecy was used for many reasons, the first and foremost of which was God establishing that He is All Knowing and Ever Present. In so doing, He was able to tell us the past and the future as if they were one and the same, since He can see both. Prophecy was also used to establish that a situation was a God- ordained and God-sent situation. Prophecy authenticated a prophet; he had to be accurate 100% of the time.

God cannot be wrong; therefore, if the prophet is ever wrong, he is not speaking for God.

I encourage you to take the time to study Daniel 11, read it and then get out a good commentary or two and see how accurate that chapter is. God revealed things to Daniel that would happen after Daniel had been in the grave more than 100 years before they happened. In fact, one of the comments about the book of Daniel by Thomas Paine was about how accurate it was—and Paine is an enemy of the Bible.  Even God’s enemies cannot get past the power of God’s sight of the future.

Today we will look at a lesson about ‘fasting and prayer’. We will also look at the idea of demon possession. In fact, we will see that Jesus dealt with demons a lot. The disciples also were able to command demons to leave people; and after Jesus left they had encounters with demons.

The question to be asked is how prevalent is demon possession today?

My wife and I had this discussion just yesterday as we drove to an appointment. It would seem to me that some of the issues that we see today in many of the mental institutions may be demon possession. Certainly there are those who are genuinely ill physically. Depression and anxiety were suffered by righteous men as well. Just take a look at the life of Elijah. In 1 Kings 19: 3-5 we see this,

“And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, ‘It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.’ He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, ‘Arise, eat.’”

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah had one of the greatest victories in his ministry, and yet here he is just a chapter later suffering depression. He is tired; he just wants to be alone, and he is tired of the war with evil. He just wants to die. Please God, he asks, kill me. It was more than 40 days before God would get Elijah back in the fight. But he had a serious bout of depression.

He could not be possessed by a demon, as he was a child of God. We know that Light and darkness cannot inhabit the same space.  So, as a child of God, Elijah could not be demon- possessed; but nonetheless he suffered depression.

Demons Possession was/is real, verses 14-18

We are clearly told that Jesus rebuked the demon in verse 18, so there is no need for debate. This child was demon possessed. We are not sure how old he was, but he had been possessed for some time. The demon tried to throw him in water and fire often. We find this account repeated for us in Mark 9. In these verses we are told that Jesus asked the Father how long has this been happening, and the Father told him, from childhood. This tells us that children can be demon possessed.

In Mark 5: 1-20 we meet a man who lived amongst the tombs; he could not be bound, not even with chains, and the whole town feared him. When asked by Jesus, he said that his name was “Legion.” A Roman legion of soldiers was compromised of 6,000 men according to www.unrv.com – a website about Roman History. Imagine that in this man lived 6,000 demons. No wonder he was so overpowering!  Yet Jesus simply commanded them to come out, and they did so immediately.

The NT is peppered with accounts of demon possession; we find accounts in Matthew 8, 9 and 12; Luke 8 and 13, and Mark 9.

One of the cool things about these demons is that they all knew who Jesus was; they knew He was God and they knew that He was going to judge them. We see that demons were able to speak, move, think, see, know their surroundings, and converse. They are actual living beings called ‘devils’ or ‘demons’ depending on what translation you read. They are not to be confused with the Devil himself; he is the ruler of these demons, and it is he who often took on Jesus.

We are told after the account of Jesus’ temptations in Matthew 4 that Satan left him for a season. This simply means that Satan did not give up all together; he went and came back to deal with Jesus often during His earthly ministry.

Demons are a bit more sophisticated today. I don’t think that the raving lunatics are always the ones who are demon possessed today. Based on their actions and the deliberate nature of how some of our leaders and elected officials have turned their backs on God, I have come to the belief that a lot of these men and women are demon possessed, such is their hatred of God and His ways.

I have also seen many interviews with some of the music- and Hollywood stars who state that they ‘sold their souls to the Devil’ for fame. When one then assesses their work, one can see that there is a deliberate hatred for God and His ways from their sexual behavior to even the way that they disregard the Laws of the land. Many, not all, are heavy drug users, alcoholics and unable to stay out of legal troubles.

Some of the situations that we see with people who are out of control, unable to be tamed and/or constrained, might be that they are possessed.

I have never had a conversation with a demon. There are still some who say that they can cast out demons. I am not sure about that. We are taught in the book of Acts to be careful; the demons know who we are and they know who has power and those who don’t.

In Acts 5:5-8 we see that as Philip was preaching, the people of Samaria believed what he preached; and their demons came out of them. This is a reminder to us that the Holy Spirit and demons will not live inside the same person.

So, when the people believed the message of Jesus, they were redeemed. And immediately, when the Holy Spirit renewed their spirit, the demons moved out. If you want to cast out demons today, share the Gospel and lead people to trust in Jesus. In Acts 19: 11-16 we find this sober reminder,

“Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’

“Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’ Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

This is a reminder that the demons understand power and authority; they know who is in charge. These fellows thought that they could mimic the works that Paul did, not understanding that it was God who did it and not the apostle Paul. The demons confronted these seven sons of Sceva and explained that they recognized Jesus’ and Paul’s power but not these fellows. The seven men ended up in a fight with the demons that did not go well for them; they were soundly beaten.

Demons are not to be messed with. Jesus is the only One who has power over them, and they know that. The NT church has been mandated to “preach the Gospel.” This is all the power we need to cast out demons.

Faith Like a Mustard Seed, verse 20

The disciples who would become the apostles could not cast out this particular demon, though they had cast out demons before. In Luke 9: 1-2, Jesus sends out the 12 and gives them power over demons,

“Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

This happened before the feeding of the 5,000, so they had already been out in the field and had cast out demons. So they were surprised that they could not deal with this one. Jesus rebukes their lack of faith in verse 17,

“O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?”

Then He commands the demon to come out, and it does so immediately.

One of the things that we learn about faith is that it is not a stagnant thing. You are either growing in it or your faith is waning. Faith, like a muscle, must be exercised.

When we begin to read the account of Jesus’ journeys with the disciples in the Gospels, we will see that He was constantly expanding their faith. He deliberately put them in situations that demanded Him to do something ‘supernatural’. He allowed situations to arise that put them at the end of what their abilities were, so that they had the choice to depend on Him or give up. Fortunately, these men all learned to depend on Him; and the 11 went on to transform this world with His power and their obedience.

According to an online food calculator, 1 teaspoon of mustard seed weighs 0.1 ounces. Truly the seed is very small. Yet this is the example of how big our faith needs to be to move mountains.

I can honestly say I am one who needs to have his faith pushed to the limit. I need to be put into situations where I have no hope but in Christ. I am so glad that Jesus is still in the teaching and transforming business; and he does to me, and hopefully to you, what we see Him do with his disciples in the scriptures. He pushes, rebukes and then pushes again. He asks us to step out of our faith in ourselves and abilities and to trust Him. The ‘just’, we are told, must live by faith. God will not permit any less in our walk with Him.

I hate being moved out of my comfort zone – Hey God, this is getting uncomfortable now. I can’t see where I am going to land. I can’t see my safety net and I can’t see the end.

At times, trusting God can be uncomfortable; we try to figure out all the scenarios and look for salvation from one of them. But Jesus then throws a loop, and someone or something that you did not even count on is directed by Him to take care of the situation.

God must take us to places where we have to step out of the faith in self. He must drive us to the end of our resources and make us depend on Him only! If we are able to do it all ourselves, then why have a God at all—furthermore, the All-Powerful One! But since we have an All- Powerful God, it is essential for us to live by faith in His abilities and not ours.

These disciples had a crash course in ‘faith’; they had to learn and experience in a matter of a few year things that take you and I a lifetime to figure out.

What we learn from this account is that God does get annoyed at our lack of faith. In verse 17, an exasperated Jesus asks, “How long shall I bear with you?” He then rebukes them and commands the demon to leave the boy. But not long after that, Jesus is back answering their questions and showing them what they need to do. Jesus may get frustrated, but He will always revert to teaching and encouraging you.

Prayer and Fasting, verse 21

Over the past few months, we as a family and we as a church have begun to understand and do ‘fasting’. We have corporate fasts, and there are individuals that fast throughout the week as well. Some fast all day, some fast from breakfast to dinner, and some fast from things or entertainment. But we have begun to make fasting a regular part of our faith and practice thereof.

We asked for God to grow us as a church. And, like most pastors, the idea of numbers came to mind. But, while God did grow our numbers somewhat, what He did was grow us as His children. He brought in people to challenge us and lead us into this. I can honestly testify that this was not pastor-led, but rather the church members have led; and now they have begun to grow even more in this. God continues to grow us and our outreach from this step of obedience.

Let me be clear that I have not yet begun to cast out demons, and I am not sure if I ever will. But I/we have begun to see the power of prayer and fasting, and we now see it as an essential part of our Christian walk.

Jesus prayed and fasted a lot. The disciples prayed and fasted often, and the early church practiced this as well.

When I was a boy in Barbados, my pastor fasted every Wednesday. I did not do much of it in the majority of my Christian walk, but now I am understanding that part of the maturity that God calls us to is that of learning to fast. What Jesus made clear to these men and to us is that there are some things in life that only prayer and fasting will deal with.

As we approach the End Times— and surely we are closer than ever—the Lord’s churches and surely His people need to be more diligent about prayer and fasting. This is so that we can be spiritually prepared to be discerning and able to have such a relationship with God that He is able to instruct us and teach us.

You and I need Jesus more than any generation before us. There are more false ‘christs’ who have come on the scene, some very well-represented with large congregations. And, as Jesus said, it is very possible for even the elect to be fooled.

Pray, fast and grow.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Sean Gooding, Pastor Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church