a Grace Notes course Life of Christ 300 by Mark Perkins, Pastor Front Range Bible Church, Denver, Colorado Lesson 302 Grace Notes http://www.gracenotes.info Email: [email protected] Life of Christ 302 Contents Christ Casting Out Demons ........................................................................................................ 1 The Demand For a Sign Refused ..............................................................................................15 Life of Christ 300, Lesson 302 1 Either make the tree good and its fruit good, Christ Casting Out Demons or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the Accusations about Christ’s Use of Authority to tree is know from the fruit. Cast out Demons Brood of vipers, how are you being evil able Matthew 12:22­37. “ to speak good? For from the abundance of Then a man, demonically blind and mute, the heart the mouth speaks. was brought to Him, and He healed him, so The good man casts out good from the good the mute spoke and saw. treasure, and the evil man casts out evil from And all the crowds were thunderstruck and the evil treasure. were saying, ‘This man is not the son of But I say to you that every useless word David, is He?’ which men speak they will pay back And the Pharisees after hearing [this] said, concerning the word of it in the day of ‘This man does not cast out the demons judgment; except by Beelzebub ruler of the demons.’ for from your words you will be justified, And after knowing their inward fuming He and from your words you will be said to them, ‘Every kingdom after being condemned.” divided against itself is laid waste and every Mark 3:20­30. And He came into a house; city or house after being divided against and the crowd came together again, so that it itself will not stand. is not possible for them to even eat bread. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided And after hearing they went out from His against himself; therefore how will his side to seize it [bread]. For they were saying kingdom stand? that it was amazing. And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by And the Scribes who came down from whom do your sons cast out? For this reason Jerusalem were saying that He has they will be your judges. Beelzebub and that He casts out demons by But if by the Spirit of God I cast out the the ruler of demons. demons, then the kingdom of God has come And summoning them He spoke to them in upon you. parables, “How is Satan to cast out Satan?” Or how is someone able to enter into the And if a kingdom is divided against itself, house of the strong man and steal his vessel that kingdom will not stand. unless first he binds the strong man? And And if a house is divided against itself, that then he will plunder his house. house will not be able to stand. The one who is not with Me is against Me, And if Satan strives against himself and is and the one who does not gather with me divided, he will not be able to stand but he scatters. has an end. For this reason I say to you, every sin and But no one is able, entering into the house of blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the a strong man, to steal his vessels, unless first blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be he binds the strong man, and then he forgiven. plunders his house. And whoever says a word against the Son of Truly I say to you that every sin will be Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever forgiven the sons of men, and whatever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be blasphemies they blaspheme; forgiven neither in this age nor in the one coming. Life of Christ 300, Lesson 302 2 but whoever might blaspheme unto the Holy villages with Him, and the women’s auxiliary Spirit, he does not have forgiveness ever, but taking care of logistics. is guilty of eternal sin. In one of those villages, in a home, this took place. Because they were saying, “He has an Of course, crowds are following Him, hoping for a unclean spirit.” miracle, healing, or exorcism - and a few hoping Outline. for more teaching on the kingdom. And Christ comes to a house, and there the crowd The setting, Mark 3:20. gathers again. In fact it becomes so crowded that The healing, Matthew 12:22. they are not able to eat bread. The response of the crowd, Mark 3:21 and Literally, ‘It is not possible for them to eat bread.’ Matthew 12:23. Mark portrays this with the dramatic present tense The response of the Scribes and Pharisees, of the verb DUNAMAI. By doing so, he draws his Matthew 12:24 and Mark 3:22. readers in, as though they were part of the story, Christ’s reply, Matthew 12:25-32 and Mark 3:23- witnessing the events with him. 29. We would say something like, ‘They are packed Christ’s insight and summons, Matthew 12:25a into the house like sardines.’ and Mark 3:23a. The healing, Matthew 12:22. The parables of division, kingdom, city, and While Christ and the crowd occupy this house, a house, Matthew 12:25b-28 and Mark 3:23b-26. man who is demonically blind and mute was The parables. brought to him. The conclusions. Matthew employs the phrase The parable of the house of the strong man, DAIMONIZOMENOS TUPHLOS KAI Matthew 12:29 and Mark 3:27 KOPHOS. The principle of enemy-ship, Matthew 12:30. (1) The participle DAIMONIZOMENOS acts just like an adjective here, modifying TUPHLOS The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Matthew ‘blind’ and KOPHOS ‘mute.’ 12:31-32 and Mark 3:28-29. (2) So it wasn’t that the man was just blind and The reason for Christ’s reply, Mark 3:30. mute, but that he had that affliction because he Principles of the spoken word, Matthew 12:32-37. was demon possessed. (cf. Mute) The demon who occupied his soul made it so that The tree and its fruit, v.33. he could neither see nor speak. The abundance of the heart, v.34. (1) Umm, it was not that the demon himself was The treasury, v.35. blind and mute, but rather that he caused the state. The day of judgment and the spoken word, v.36. (2) A disembodied spirit cannot suffer from afflictions which are endemic to the corporeal The explanation of the principle, v.37. realm. II. Exposition. (3) It is reasonable to note that demons may cause The Setting bodily afflictions and illnesses. And it may even be that they can do so without possessing the This incident occurred during Christ’s itinerant body. ministry in Galilee, which is portrayed so well in Luke 8:1-3. In the ancient world the line of distinction between deaf and mute was often blurred. There was very He is evangelizing and preaching the kingdom of little done for those who could not hear, and so God, the twelve going around to the cities and impaired speech was the norm for the deaf. Life of Christ 300, Lesson 302 3 Now Christ healed the man. It does not say that (1) You can see why. Mark gives so little detail Christ cast out the demon, but rather that He about the event; only by reading Matthew do we healed the man. know what really happened in the house. This makes it seem like the man’s affliction was (2) Furthermore, Mark is somewhat ambiguous not a case of possession, but rather of affliction. with his pronouns, so that it is difficult to tell to So now there are three things that can happen to a what AUTOU and AUTON refer. person as result of demon activity: (3) The first part is a little easier, thanks to the (1) They can receive demon affliction in the form preposition PARA. This preposition is a people of some physical ailment. preposition - it generally denotes proximity to a person. If Mark had wanted to portray departure (2) They can receive demon influence in the form from a place, like a house, he would have more of false doctrine. naturally employed EK. (3) They can become demon possessed, and (4) So it is ‘They went out from his side...’ relinquish control of their body to demonic control. (5) But the next part, KRATESAI AUTON encounters difficulty. And Christ simply heals the man, so that the affliction is gone. (a) The translation of the aorist infinitive verb is not so difficult; it describes the intent of the The response of the crowd, Mark 3:21 and crowd: ‘in order to seize.’ The aorist tense Matthew 12:23. portrays their immediate and urgent intent to seize A must be said here about the harmony of these something. two gospel accounts. (b) The object of the verb is again a personal Mark portrays the crowd as hearing Christ; there is pronoun. Here is the difficulty: no reference at all to a healing from a demonic (c) The pronoun in the Greek will most often go affliction. back to the nearest antecedent that matches in Matthew gives the reason for the crowd’s gender and number. amazement and Mark does not. That is why (d) This particular form may be either the translators have found it difficult to translate masculine gender or the neuter gender. Mark, and they usually get it wrong.