One Sunday morning, Satan appeared before a small town congregation. Everyone started screaming and running for the front church door, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away. Soon, everyone was gone, except for an elderly gentleman who sat calmly. Satan walked up to the man and said, “Don’t you know who I am?” The man replied, “Yep, sure do.” Satan asked, “Aren’t you going to run?” “Nope, sure ain’t,” said the man. Perturbed, Satan asked, “Why aren’t you afraid of me?” The man calmly replied, “Been married to your sister for over 48 years.”
Even though tis was a make-believe joke, the devil loves to attend church. Or, at least his demons do. We even find that one did during the earthly ministry of Jesus. Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel of Mark was when he exorcised a demon from a man who was attending the synagogue at which Jesus was teaching in Capernaum.
Here’s the story:
And they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath day He entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, “Let us alone. What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Hast Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee and who Thou art — the Holy One of God!” And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Hold thy peace, and come out of him!” And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. (Mark 1:21-26).
Jesus was teaching with great authority. This is how the teaching and preaching should be every Sunday – with the authority of God’s Word. It is not the preacher’s opinion or personal stories that will change lives – it is God’s Word (just like Jesus’ words).
A demon was in the synagogue that Sabbath, waiting for an opportunity to disrupt the service. It is naive to think that we will be sheltered from evil in the church. The evil spirits and demons are fallen angels who joined Satan in his rebellion and thus became perverted and evil. though they cannot possess a Christian, they can oppress Christians. We all need to carefully not allow any evil to influence our decisions and actions.What is surprising to some is that though others did not know His identity, the demon recognized Jesus as the Messiah. This means that there are people today who can attend a religious meeting, be able to tell who Jesus is, and even tremble with fear of judgment – yet are lost!Belief of the facts and doctrines of Christianity will never save a soul. Such belief is no better than the belief of demons. They all believe and know that Jesus is the Christ. They believe that He will one day judge the world and send sinners to Hell. It is a sorrowful thought, that on these points some professing Christians have even less faith than the devil.
Jesus tells the demon to “Hold thy peace.” The Greek word is the same word used in Luke 8:24 when Jesus commanded the storm to ‘Be still’. A modern alternative would be ‘Shut up!’
To silence the demon was not enough, for Jesus wanted to free the man possessed by the demon. So Jesus next commanded, “Come out of him!” -again demonstrating His power and authority over Satan and his demons.
Even though the demon can control people, even in church, Jesus has ultimate control. If a person turns to Jesus, Jesus will silence the demons that influence us and deliver us from the sin that seeks to destroy us. For some it is like this man, immediate. For others the deliverance may take some time as Jesus slowly strengthens us and weakens Satan’s power in our lives.
May each of us make sure that the devil does not enter with us into church next Sunday. Prepare, even now as you walk with Christ through the week, to bring Jesus with you into your place of worship. If Jesus shows up people will be amazed at the words of Jesus and people will be changed by the work of God.
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