Jesus' Miraclesಮಾದರಿ

Do Demons Attend Church?

The Bible records four occasions where Jesus delivered someone from the demonic. These divine deliverances reveal Jesus healing men and women, adults and children, and doing so both indoors at religious meeting places and outdoors in the wilderness. In short, Jesus can and does deliver anyone from the demonic anywhere.

We will start our study with a man in the church who has a demon. We do not know if he’s a believer or an unbeliever, but either way, he has somehow allowed demonic influence into his life.

To set the backdrop, Jesus was in Capernaum because He had been rejected in His hometown of Nazareth, so He left. He was teaching the Scriptures on the Sabbath with authority from the Holy Spirit, which left the people stunned. Luke 4:18 (quoting Isaiah 11:2) reveals that Jesus’ teaching was by the anointed power of the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news…”

In what was the equivalent of an Old Covenant church during a service, a man was present with an “unclean demon.” This shows that just because someone is in church does not mean they are in Christ. Furthermore, demons apparently attend church and cause disruption through people, something happening to this very day in every church.

This demon, like the other demons who encounter Jesus, knows exactly who He is, but they do not love Him. Unlike the disciples, who seem to continually struggle to fully understand that Jesus is God, the demon says, “I know who you are – the Holy One of God.” Furthermore, the demon fully accepts the authority of Jesus and knows what the Bible says about their eternal damnation, saying, “Have you come to destroy us?”

Can you imagine what the people in attendance were thinking? This had to be a wild day at church, one that had the entire congregation buzzing after the demon flung the man to the ground in the middle of the service. Jesus rebuked the demon, refused to allow it to speak and blaspheme God or lie, exercised His authority simply and calmly, and the man was delivered.

Have you, or anyone you’ve known, been delivered from demonic forces? What happened, and how did God show up in power?