Bible Study series: Luke 11:24-26. We have to keep our house (our lives and souls) clean, when God sets us free. Don’t live in the same old pig sty of your past.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 11:24-26
24 Whenever the unclean spirit goes out from a person, it wanders through waterless places seeking a resting place, and not finding one, it then says, “I’ll go back into the house I left.” 25 It goes and finds it had been swept and ordered. 26 Then it goes and takes along seven other evil spirits and enters and squats there. And it happens that the ending of that person is worse than the beginning. (Luke 11:24-26)
Comments:
The more academic pastors say that this is just a common belief back in those days, so don’t learn any lesson about spiritual warfare from those verses. But I say these academics are wrong. We can learn about spiritual warfare and discipleship. And by the way, academic commentators say there are spiritual warfare lessons to be learned here, as well.
24:
The point here is not waterless places, but regions where humans do not live. However, if a preacher wishes to spiritualize the water, as in baptism or the Holy Spirit, then he is free to do so. The point is that evil spirits consigned to the earthly realms and are disembodied from people do not find resting places outside of people. Demons need to occupy and harass humans.
Then we learn that demons have a certain measure of free will and self-interest and mental ability to spot their own needs, so that this one goes back to the house or soul it left (literally “from which I left”).
25:
“ordered”: we get our word cosmos from it, and it means “put in order.”
So what does it mean to have a soul swept and ordered? It is clear or assumed that the person has been delivered by a Jesus follower. “Swept” and “ordered” mean his mind does not think an endless series of bad thoughts. They do not dominate him. His mind is being renewed. Also, his life is being ordered. He does not visit the old haunts where he did his drugs or drink his alcohol or visit unsavory places. He lives a clean life. The single demon cannot break through the cleaning and the ordering.
26:
“seven”: you can either take it numerically (a literal platoon of seven demons, plus the original one) or symbolically (seven is the number of completion, so it is a complete and powerful counterattack or second attack). I take it literally and numerically. It is the one demon plus seven, totaling eight.
This passage teaches us that demons can communicate with each other and plan and strategize their attack. Next, they can spot your former weakness by which one demon had gained a foothold and go strong for the attack. Then they harass your soul with temptation to compel you to give in to your old weakness. Your mind reels. You lose your perspective. Your mind focusses back on your old sins that were disordered and piled up dust and debris in your mind. You can’t stop thinking about your old life. The demons attack and provoke your old desires. “I just gotta have that old drug! “I just gotta have that drink!” “I just gotta go back and fornicate with my old boyfriend!” And you give in. Then your end is worse than your beginning (literally “first”). Getting desire under the control of the Spirit is very important.
9 Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control
But the good news is that you can be forgiven and restored, even after you give in to these eight demons. The rest of the Scriptures says so. So why didn’t Jesus talk about redemption here at the end of this true story? It is a stern warning. But you do not have to give in even to one demon or a legion of them.
We have to combine preaching or proclaiming and then have signs and wonders. If signs and wonders alone are done by street evangelists, then they miss the teaching element. Let’s hope that Matt. 12:43-45 and Luke 11:24-26 doesn’t take effect. After a demon is expelled from the homeless person or an average passerby, the demon goes out and looks for seven more demons to repossess the body, and the latter condition is worse than before. People need to be filled with the Word and fellowship, after their deliverance.
You can stand on these six foundation stones:
(1). Prayer and intimacy with Christ in your walk with him.
Bible Basics about Praise and Worship
(2). Get baptized in the Spirit. The single demon went to waterless places, which (as noted) speaks of the absence of the Spirit, since water symbolizes the Spirit (John 3:3-7; 7:37-39). But you don’t need to symbolize this passage to be filled with the Spirit.
Baptized, Filled, and Full of the Spirit: What Does It All Mean?
(3). Get water baptized.
(4). Scripture: you need to get Scripture to saturate your mind. Recall that Jesus fought his big temptation with Scripture (Matt. 4:1-11). Study it strategically—who God is, who Christ is, who the Spirit is. Find Scriptures that talk about your personalized weakness. Memorize them, so you can think about the verses when the temptation comes.
The Power of Scripture and Doctrine in the Church
(5). You must fellowship with other believers at a Spirit-filled, Bible-teaching and Jesus-following church. Then the people of God can pray for you when you are being demonically attacked.
(6). You must live the surrendered life before God. James 3:7: “Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
“squats”: it is a heavier verb than “lives,” but if you prefer the translation “lives” or “settles,” you can certainly pick that word. But “squats” makes it seems like an illegal breaking-and-reentry. The demons don’t belong there in the person’s house or soul, now that it had been swept clean and ordered.
GrowApp for Luke 11:24-26
1. How do you get your life swept and ordered, so that you can resist satanic attacks?
2.. Study Luke 4:1-13. How did Jesus fight and defeat Satan?
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1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 