Sermon 6-22–25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Gospel lesson for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 8:26-39 

Bad Actors Taken Out

If we’re going to take on today’s Gospel reading from Luke, we’ve got to do a little background work. Why was it so important that Jesus get involved with evil spirits? Indeed, do evil spirits exist at all? If they do, why are they here and what are they?

First, let’s recognize that all of us have been educated in a non-Christian religion. It’s called Philosophical Naturalism or Materialism. This is the idea that nothing exists except physical matter. Everything that exists has to be explained as a product or byproduct of the interactions of matter. Now, Materialism can never give us any reason for matter to exist in the first place. But, that doesn’t matter to Materialism. Pun intended.

Materialism has a very distinct propaganda. If you believe anything contrary to Materialist doctrine, you’re an uneducated, ignorant, bucktooth country bumpkin, or you’re a misguided mystic of some kind. However, not everything we experience on earth can be explained by godless Materialism — existence itself, for example. And then there are the weird mysteries and happenings of this world.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record Jesus’ visit to what is called the land of the Gerasenes. Luke’s record is today’s Gospel lesson. But Luke doesn’t tell us as much about the demon possessed man Jesus encountered as Mark does. Here’s what is written in Mark 5:2-5, “2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.”

A man that couldn’t be subdued. A man with superhuman strength and completely out his mind. How does Materialism explain this? The simplest way is to dismiss it because something like that can’t happen. But we see strange happenings even today. Several years ago police in Florida caught a man who had murdered another chewing off the face of the man he had murdered. Drugs were involved. But what was that? And is it much different from an insane man breaking chains with his bare hands and no drugs involved?

Materialism can attempt to deny demonic behavior by ridicule. But I think it’s the Materialists who should be ridiculed for arrogantly holding to doctrines that contradict real human experience down through the centuries.

So, if we go beyond Materialism, what do we have to admit about the universe we live in? There is a dimension behind the visible universe that is not normally seen. But it is there, and it’s even in the midst of us. Most of the time we’re blissfully unaware of the unseen realm. However, shocking events and experiences from the unseen realm can occasionally intrude into our bliss.

Now, Scripture tells us of a time at the very beginning when both the material realm and the spiritual, presently unseen, realm were not divided. Righteous Yahweh walked in the midst of His creation with righteous Adam and Eve. But, Scripture also tells us how Adam and Eve forsook righteousness with deadly results. Adam and Eve’s Original Sin in the Garden of Eden brought down Judgments from Yahweh that continue to shape daily existence on this planet. Several years ago I explored these Judgments in a Bible study of Genesis chapters 1 through 12 and came up with a list of 41 of them. 

Satan tricked Adam and Eve into grasping at equality with God. As a result, all we descendants of Adam and Eve are unfortunately born grasping at equality with God. The main way we do it is by defining good and evil for ourselves and then acting on our decisions. Of course, this leaves us free to do anything we want. And most of the evils of this world abound as a result.

But there was second event beyond the Garden of Eden that affected human behavior and experience. It’s only sketchily narrated in Scripture. But it’s corroborated and expanded in one particular Apocryphal book — First Enoch.

We read in Genesis 6:1-4, “1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.’ 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” The Nephilim were giant humans like Goliath, only bigger.

It has long been a puzzle who these Sons of God were who took human wives, and various theories have been put forward. But, we’re going to look at the three times the Sons of God appear in the book of Job. We read in Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.” This is repeated in Job 2:1 “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.” It’s clear from both these passages that the sons of God are spiritual creatures of the unseen realm, just like Satan.

In the book of Job, its protagonist, Job, is afflicted with multiple disasters even though he is a righteous man. Throughout the book, Job complains to his friends that he wants an audience with Yahweh to know why he has been afflicted to such an extent. At the books end, Job gets his audience with Yahweh, and here’s how it begins. As we read, pay attention to the third mention of the Sons of God. Job 38:1-7, “1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements —surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

With all that talk about foundations and measurements, did you perceive that Yahweh was talking about His act of creating the universe and the earth? If so, good. That’s the context. Now, who is with Yahweh as He’s creating this universe? The morning stars are there — whoever they are — and the Sons of God. This means that the Sons of God were created by Yahweh before He created the present universe. It’s clear, then, that the Sons of God are spiritual creatures who inhabit the unseen realms and were present when Yahweh created this physical universe. They’re not human.

In fact, the name by which they are called, elohim, god, is the same Hebrew word used to describe Yahweh Himself. The difference is that Yahweh is the lone Creator Elohim. Yahweh created His sons of Elohim. Therefore, like us, the sons of God are creatures of Yahweh. Like us, they are meant to serve Yahweh. And don’t confuse these creatures with Jesus, the only-begotten, divine Son of God.

Now, returning to Genesis, we have to ask: What were these Sons of God doing on earth? What were they doing taking human females as “wives.” And how was it possible for these spiritual beings to impregnate human women with genetically mutated human offspring? Scripture offers no answers. However, the book of First Enoch does.

First Enoch was never accepted as canonical — meaning official — by either Judaism or Christianity, although it came pretty close. It was certainly a well known book in the time of Jesus. And the New Testament, letters of Peter and Jude refer to an event narrated in First Enoch, namely the punishment of the rebellious Sons of God who disobediently came to earth. 

So here is what the First Book of Enoch has to say about these Sons of God. Enoch 6:1-2. “1 And it came to pass that when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. 2 And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’” Enoch 6:6, “And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon. . . .” Enoch 7:1-6, “1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. 2 And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: 3 Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, 4 the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. 5 And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. 6 Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.”

There has been much fuss lately about alien extra-terrestrials coming to earth. But this should be no surprise. Humans have encountered extra-terrestrials for millennia. Only, Scripture tells us that such extra-terrestrials did not “evolve” on other planets. Rather, they are creatures of the living God. Their place of dwelling is in the unseen realm — a realm that’s just a heartbeat away. Die, and we’re instantly there. This unseen realm with its inhabitants surrounds us all the time. It’s just unseen, because Adam and Eve’s sin broke the connection.

Now, the Sons of God were meant to watch over humanity in a good way. That’s why they’re called “Watchers” in the Book of Enoch. But, about two hundred of them rebelled against Yahweh and came down to earth in the days before the Flood of Noah. Somehow they interbred with humans and the results were disastrous for humanity and for the earth.

The Book of Enoch tells us that Yahweh punished the rebellious Watchers for their rebellion. He imprisoned them. And this is what Peter refers to when He writes in 2Peter 2:4, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. . . .” It’s also what Jude is referring to when he writes in Jude 6 “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. . . .”

Interestingly, when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, the very first beings He showed Himself to alive were the imprisoned Watchers. So we read this in 1Peter 3:18-20,  “18 For Christ also 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, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 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.” We confess in the Apostles Creed that Jesus descended into hell on the basis of these verses. He did so to proclaim Himself alive and victorious to the rebellious Watchers who were and are the cause of so much trouble on earth.

Having been imprisoned, the rebellious Sons of God no longer trouble us. However, their offspring — the Nephilim, the Giants — still do. The Nephilim were mortal, like us. They died. It’s their spirits that trouble the earth. We find this out in 1 Enoch where Yahweh gives Enoch a word to speak to the 200 rebellious Watchers. And so we read in 1Enoch 15:6-11, “6 But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. 7 And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. 8 And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. 9 Evil spirits had proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men, and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. 10 As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling. 11 And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst and cause offenses. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them.”

Now, Enoch is Apocryphal. It’s not Scripture. Nevertheless, it’s the best account of the origin of the evil spirits that we have. And we know from the New Testament that possession by evil spirits was definitely a problem in Jesus’ time. In several places, the New Testament mentions that Jewish exorcists were active in the time of Jesus. And exorcism is something that Jesus Himself performed many multiple times.

Indeed, Jesus was recognized for His exorcisms. At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He cast out a demon from someone in a synagogue. And so we read in Mark 1:27-28, “27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.”

But why did Jesus bother with the exorcism of evil spirits? And, after He died and was resurrected, why did Jesus first show Himself alive and victorious to the Watchers that Yahweh had imprisoned?

To answer the questions we have to look at the place and position we human beings hold in Yahweh’s creation. We are the apex of creation, even higher than the sons of God. We are favored above all the rest of Yahweh’s creatures. How do we know this? The entire first chapter of the letter to the Hebrews is devoted to this subject. Here’s a sampling from Hebrews 1:3-6, “3 He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’? [Psalm 2:7] Or again, ‘I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son’? [2Samuel 7:14] 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him. [Deuteronomy 32:43 from the Septuagint]’”

Understand something vitally important. Yahweh, the Son, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary as a sinless human being on earth — the Messiah. Jesus was resurrected from the dead in a human body. It’s a sinless, immortal human body, but it’s a human body. He ascended into heaven in that body. He is at the right hand of the Father in that body. And because Jesus successfully completed the work of Messiah — including not grasping equality with God — it is written of Him in Philippians 2:9-11, “9 . . . God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

This means that a real human being occupies the highest position in creation. Jesus is also Yahweh, the Son. Therefore, He is doubly at the highest position in creation. Hebrews tells us that Yahweh, the Son, did not come to save angels or the sons of God. He came to save humans. He became human to do so. What does it tell us about our status that Yahweh, the Son — our Creator God — would suffer and die for us? What does it tell us that as a real human Jesus occupies the highest place in all creation? It tells us that among all the creatures Yahweh created, we are the apex. But some apex — given how we live, behave and what we do, and the judgments we have to live under.

Jesus came to rescue us and establish our release from all that plagues us — sin, the devil, evil spirits, and death. He accomplished this through His obedience and death on the cross. He thereby atoned for sin and won forgiveness of sins for us. And He has distributed to us what He won through His Word and His Sacraments. Messiah’s Church distributes Word and Sacrament. And Lord Holy Spirit distributes the faith to believe the Gospel found in Word and Sacrament to all those being saved. This creates the important result known as the New Birth.

The New Birth is defined this way for us in Romans 6:20-23, “20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This means that those who have received the New Birth are no longer slaves of sin. Instead, we’re destined to be slaves of righteousness — pure goodness. We’re by no means there yet. We won’t be until the resurrection. But Yahweh has begun the process here and now in everyone who has received the New Birth.

And part of that process is deliverance from the internal ravages of the soul caused by evil spirits, either through temptations or most extremely by possession. The Good News we’re shown in today’s Gospel lesson is that Jesus has authority over even the most extreme cases of possession. Indeed, the Name of Jesus is above every Name.

Three years ago, an Orthodox Jewish woman came here during service complaining of demonic issues in her home. Some of you here were involved in ministering to her. I was up here leading service at the time. Why did she come here? Even in the Jewish community the Name of Jesus is known to have authority over evil spirits.

We proclaim freedom in the Name of Jesus — freedom from slavery to sin; slavery to the fear of death; and slavery to the devil and other evil spirits. In the Name of Jesus we proclaim a destiny fitting for the apex of Yahweh’s creation — eternal life in resurrected human bodies in pure righteousness. This is the Good News. Believe and partake. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.