Rabbi Schneider - Cast Out Demons
Today we're gonna be focusing on Jesus' ministry at the synagogue in Capernaum. It was an amazing feeling for me, beloved one to be standing in the same synagogue that Jesus Himself ministered from. During Jesus' lifetime as He was ministering in that synagogue, He cast a demon out of somebody. We read about it in the Gospels. I'm gonna be teaching today about the authority that you and I have over the powers of darkness from the same place, beloved, that Jesus exercise God's power over darkness. You're gonna be blessed, stay tuned and Shalom.
God bless you and Shalom, beloved ones. I'm with my friends here from Lion of Judah World Outreach Center at a place that is so historically rooted. It's just I'm thrilled to be here, I'm here at synagogue in Capernaum in Israel where Jesus taught and cast out the demon. The thing that makes our faith so exclusive, beloved, is that our faith is rooted in space and in time. It's rooted in real history that Jesus Himself was a real man. He was God in the flesh. The God man Christ Jesus, that the God of the ages, the God of eternity entered into time and space into humanity by stepping into our world approximately 2,000 years ago clothed in flesh and blood, living amongst us and He really, beloved, walked right here in this synagogue that you're sitting in now in Capernaum. So many incredible things happened here but today, I wanna talk about how in Jesus was in this very spot, He casted demon out of someone and what's incredible about it was, He didn't cast out the demon from some heathen somewhere on the other side of the world. He cast it out of a religious person that was in the synagogue.
Let's pick up in the Book of Mark now, chapter one beginning in verse number 21, hear the word of God. "They went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, He entered the synagogue and began to teach. They were amazed at His teaching for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes". It's interesting that when the scripture says here, "He was teaching as one having authority and not as the scribes". The tradition of the day is that, "A teacher would quote another teacher who would cquote another teacher. And everything was based on the teachers that had come before. But when Jesus taught, He didn't base His teaching on other Rabbinic teachers. He said, 'Instead, truly, truly I say to you'". And so Jesus once again, when I say Rabbinic, that's not the right word 'cause Rabbinism developed over time. But of course even in this age, for example, John the Baptist in John chapter one was called rabbi.
So there was a rabbinic tradition and it continues on, "They were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes". "Just then there was a man," get this now, "In their synagogue with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying, What business do we have with each other Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God". This reminds me of when I'm preaching the Gospel around the world and everything will be quiet and calm. The worship music will be playing, people would be worshiping and then I'll get up and I'll begin to preach the word of God. And nine times out of 10, as soon as I begin to preach the word, within 90 seconds demon start manifesting. That's exactly what happened where Jesus entered the temple, begin to teach, and as He begin to teach, the demon started manifesting. Continuing on. "Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying, What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God".
Often times, beloved, on the mission field, as that as I begin to preach, they will start rolling themselves on the ground. Rolling on the ground just as we see something happen here. This person just manifested in such a way that it would just create a total commotion. "And Jesus rebuked them saying, Be quiet and come out of him. Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him". And you know what, beloved you and I had the same authority that Jesus had. Jesus commanded the demon to be quiet. He commended the demon to come out. And you and I, we can walk in that same authority today when we're walking in confidence and in faith without wavering. The bible says that we've received an anointing, an anointing from the Holy One and the anointing that we've received is not a lie. Jesus said, "I'd given you authority over all the power of the enemy". But if we don't step out in faith and act, we're never gonna see these type of things happen.
Beloved, many times people are afraid to step out and actually do something and so they never see the supernatural. To see the supernatural, we have to step out and act. And then the manifestation of the supernatural is gonna come. "Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed". And we see again, beloved the same thing happened in our ministry. When people are delivered, people around that have never seen anything like this get amazed. In fact, I was just in Zambia. Similar thing happened when I was there. The pastors that invited me into Zambia, they had never seen anything like this before. They were part of a denominational movement that weren't used to operating in the gifts of the spirit and so it was all brand new.
In fact, there was a lot of skepticism in there, "Is any of this is real"? But what happened was, beloved, God proved it to him so powerfully that the first night there, there was a deaf mute that was supernaturally healed. He was 15 years old. He had never heard or spoken in he's entire life. He got healed the first night of the crusade. Now, to give authenticity to this, the 15-year-old sister was there. It was a boy that was 15 and his sister was 21. She had lived with him his entire life. The boy gets delivered, he gets healed, the sister comes up to testify. She said, "I'd seen things like this on television and didn't believe it". But now she said, "I've seen it for myself, this is real". And I said, "You mean, he's never spoken before"? She said, "Never in his entire life has he ever spoken, this is the first time". And the people were amazed.
Now get this. By the end of our time of ministry there, the pastor that invited me in, he was casting demons out of people. He saw me do it. He saw that it was in the scripture. He saw people getting delivered. We preached in this church the last day there. A demon started manifesting. They brought me over to cast the demon out of the person. I brought the pastor over. I said, "You do it". And what a thrill, he got to see himself operating in the power of the spirit of God. "Throwing him into convulsions," again, picking up in verse 26, "the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed so that they debated among themselves saying, What is this"? Same thing happens today, right? People get in environments where the gifts of the Holy Spirit are operating. What do they say? They say, "What is this? Is this real? Is this genuine? Is this God? Is this a demon"?
In fact, usually when there's a supernatural move of God, there's a lot of people that are watching and their saying, "What is this? This can't be God, it's too disruptive. God would never do anything like this. He would never disrupt anything". And they put God in a small box so that they say, "God is always a gentleman". How many of us have heard that before? "The Holy Spirits are always a gentleman". Beloved, that's just not true. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman by nature but you know what, when we don't listen to the soft knock, He comes in with a hammer sometimes.
Think about the apostle Paul. He didn't listen to the soft preaching of the Gospel so what did Jesus have to do? He had to come with a hammer. He knocked Paul off his horse. He knock them on his tuckus, his behind. Paul is laying on the ground. He's blinded. The Holy Spirit blind him and he can't see, he's terrified. He says, "Who art thou Lord"? And he said, "I'm Yeshua. I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting, now get up and it will be told what you must do for me". So the Holy Spirit does things, and people say, "What is this"? "Is this God"? "Is this the devil"? "What is this"? But I want you to know, If we're gonna experience a greater movement in the supernatural, we're gonna have to let God be God and not put Him in our own box.
The same thing happened, we saw in the Sea of Galilee. We were just on the boat on Galilee and we saw that when Jesus came walking to the boat on the Sea of Galilee, they were afraid. They thought it was a ghost. They didn't recognize Jesus because He came in an unfamiliar form. But of course, Jesus spoke to them, they realized this is Messiah. And they received Him into their boat, into their life and everything was calmed. And the point is, is that there's times that activity of God is gonna be operating in our life and we're gonna say, "What is this"? At times, we might even be afraid of it because it's outside of what we've experienced before. But we have to be open to the Holy Spirit, open to the supernatural and recognize that God is bigger than our boxes or sometimes, beloved, we're gonna miss him.
And you know what, we don't have to be afraid of being deceived. Because those of us that really have a heart to know Him, if we're really seeking God, if we're in His word, if we're in fellowship, if we're in prayer, if we really love Him, Jesus said, "If you ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, He's not gonna give you a scorpion. He's not gonna give you something bad when you're asking Him for something good". And so beloved ones, we have to be constantly expecting and believing and receiving what God's doing. "They were all amazed. They debated among themselves, What it is this new teaching? This one with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him. And it says, immediately the news about Him spread everywhere".
We see the same thing happening today, beloved one, When You and I stepped out in faith and we just pray for people that are not feeling well. In other words, you're a believer in Jesus. Most of you that are watching me right now in television, you're watching 'cause you're a believer in Jesus. And I thank God for those of you that are watching 'cause you'd just got curious. God bless you today. I believe Jesus is kissing you and want to do something very special for you if you'll open your life to Him. But many of you that are watching, you're recognizing the activity of God in your life. But you know what, if we don't step out and start praying for people, if someone tells us they're not feeling well, if we don't lay hands on them and pray for them and command the sickness to die, command the bacteria to wither, command them to be made well, we're not gonna see things happen and people won't be amazed. But when step out in faith 'cause Jesus said, "In my name, these signs shall follow those that believe, they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover".
But let me ask you a question, if you never lay your hands on the sick, taking authority over sickness and taking authority over the devil and saying, "Be well in Jesus' name". How will you ever gonna see somebody recover and how is anybody ever gonna be amazed? If you just say, "I'll pray for you" and walk way, how are people gonna be amazed? But if you lay your hands on someone and say, "In Jesus' name, I command you infection to die, I command this fever to go down, I command the root of this illness to cease and disease, and I speak whole this to you in Jesus name, be healed". When we do that, we're gonna see people healed.
We may not see everybody healed. We don't understand why some people experience the healing instantaneously, other's later, sometimes some seemingly don't get healed until they meet Him face to face, we can't answer that question but one thing I do know, don't let what you don't understand keep you from doing what you do understand. And what you do understand is that Jesus commanded us to go out in His name, to preach the Gospel, to lay hands on the sick and take authority over evil spirits in Jesus' name. So I want to encourage you, beloved, be bold like Jesus is bold.
And I wanna say this, it's also interesting to me that this demon that Jesus cast out, it was in the synagogue here in Capernaum. It wasn't in some far off corner of the earth where some heathen people were worshiping the devil, this was in a Jewish synagogue that a demon was cast out. This was from a seemingly religious person. And that point is, beloved, that even those of us that are striving to walk with God, we still have a fight against the devil. Paul said, Our fight, in Ephesians chapter six, it's not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and forces of spiritual darkness and wickedness. When Paul said, "Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against forces of spiritual wickedness". Who was he talking to when he said our fight? He was talking to fellow believers like himself, right? And what has Peter say, "Be strong, your adversity or your adversary," Peter said. "Your adversary," he said. The devil roams about like a lion looking for someone to devour.
When he said, "Your adversary". Who was he speaking of when he said "your"? He was speaking of believers. So we have an enemy in this world. We need to learn to stand up to ourselves, to recognize His reality, to see His activity in our life, to learn how to resist Him, and recognize, beloved, that there are people that you know and love, that love Jesus and they're struggled with the demonic power and you have the authority to release them from that. Let me ask you this question, if you know somebody, someone that you love that's obsessing all the time about some fear, where is that thought of obsession or compulsion coming from? Is it just coming from some type of natural phenomenon? No. It's coming from a tormenting spirit. And these tormenting spirits, beloved, that we and our love ones face, they don't just leave because we hope they'll leave. They don't just leave because we wish they'll leave. They leave when we stand up to them and take authority over them and command them to leave.
Demons aren't gentle. They don't respond to niceness. They respond to authority and they respond to power. And you and I have been blessed with the authority and the power of Jesus. Jesus said, I have been given all authority, that He has given us His name to operate in that authority. And so once again, the demons, beloved, that you may be struggling with whether it's a demon of fear, a demon of worry, a demon of doubt, a demon of passivity, a demon of a low self-image causing you to see yourself continually in a different light than the light that God sees you. A demon of scarcity.
Some people, they're always, listen to me, some people are always focusing on the fear of what they may lose rather than on focusing on the abundant God that wants to bless them. They're operating from a scarcity mentality. These things, beloved, come listen to me, from the thought realm and I want you to hear me very strongly now. Listen, thoughts are a thing. So sometimes when we think of a demon, we think of some archaic thing, we have a hard time relating to it, but I want you to know that demons manifest themselves, get this now, through the realm of thought. They are called the powers of the air.
So demons predominantly manifest through the realm of thought. For example, in the Hebrew bible in the Old Testament, we find that Saul was tormented by a demon. In the Old Testament we find that David himself was deceived. He have a thought. King David, David Melech, the king of Israel, this godly man had a thought. And the thought that he had was, that he should take a census, that he should number all of Israel. Now, the scripture doesn't tell us what the motivation of his heart was but my guess, it was had something to do with pride. He wanted to see how big his army was. This thought entered into his mind to take a census.
Now think about this, he didn't realize that the thought that he thunk to take a census was coming from Satan. But the bible specifically tells us in Chronicles that Satan... What Satan? The same Satan that we read about in the New Testament. The same Satan that Jesus cast out from the one who is in the synagogue here where I'm standing in Capernaum. The same Satan we read about in the Book of Revelation. That David, the bible says, was deceived by Satan to number Israel but when David was deceived, he didn't realize that the thought that he thunk to number Israel was coming from Satan. He thought it was his own thought. And so demons disguise themselves, listen now, beloved, in the realm of our natural thought life. We need to watch what we're thinking. If we're thinking thoughts of worry, thinking thoughts of fear, thinking thought of lust, thinking thought of betrayal, thinking thought of distrust and all the other negativities, listen to what I said, thoughts are things. Here me, thoughts are things. Thoughts don't come from nowhere, thoughts aren't the result of a test tube, thoughts aren't the result of a chemical, thoughts are from the spirit.
Listen to me, thoughts are things. Thoughts are spirit. And so, what we need to do is we need to recognize what are the thoughts that are going through our mind and take authority over the thoughts that are not lined up with who God is, but what is word says, with who the word says, He is, that He loves you and me, that He's tender towards us, that we're beautiful to Him, that we're created in His own image. That He's got a purpose and a destiny. That Jesus came to give us life and He came to give it abundantly. That we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. That He that gave us His only son will also with Him freely give us all things That He has given us a future and a destiny and a hope. That life is gonna get better and better for us, beloved.
That even though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. That the outer man maybe aging but the inner man is becoming younger and younger. If the thoughts that you're thinking don't line up with God's word. That means you need to stand up to the wrong thoughts, recognize where they're coming from, reject those thoughts and replace them with God's word. God said, "Cease my word and don't let anything else in". So even as Jesus, beloved ones, cast out the demon from that religious person that was sitting in the synagogue in Capernaum. I want you to hear me, you and I today are still in a struggle. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," Paul said, "But against principalities and powers of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places".
Peter told us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We're in a fight, beloved, and father has ordained that we're in this fight because as we exercise the muscle of faith, we get stronger. Just as physical muscles, listen to me, get's stronger through resistance. So to our spiritual muscle, gets stronger from resisting the devil. So our fight is actually a good thing. And Father has designed it that as we engage in warfare, as we fight, as we learn how to resist the devil, take authority over the lies of Satan by his word, what's gonna happen is we're gonna get stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger.
Now as I close today, I just want to say I feel God's compassion for everybody that's here today. I just feel the compassion of the Father and the compassion of Jesus for all of you today. He wants us to know that He loves us, that we're His sons and daughters. The bible says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God". And thus we are. Beloved, He loves you. He's destined you and I to be over comers. Greater is He that's in us, that He that's in the world, all we have to do is pick up our faith, pick up the word, pick up the sword, beloved ones, and fight.