21st Post - His Authority Continued - Matthew 12:25-29.

Part of this passage was used by Abraham Lincoln in one of his speeches. When Jesus said this the Pharisees were saying that Jesus was getting His power to cast out demons through Beelzebub (the prince of demons). This is what Jesus meant when He said "a house divided against itself can not stand." Satan wants to destroy life and make life miserable. Jesus wants to restore us to God and in doing so give us eternal life. Satan would not destroy what inroads he has already made, it goes against his character. Jesus also as God can not go against His character. This is what Jesus meant when He said "if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do you and your sons cast them out? To understand this we need to realize that the Pharisees were saying that Jesus was not the Son of God, but in league with the devil. If Jesus is the Son of God and is doing God's will, and the pharisees are saying Jesus is not God than whose side are they on?? This is why the Pharisees did not answer this question. Clearly the Pharisees are opposing Jesus here. This brings us to the last part of this passage. Jesus talks about a strong man and the need to bind up the strong man. Who is the strong man in this passage?? The clue to understanding this is to look at the whole passage. This is about the authority to cast out demons. If the demon needs casting out, that means he is already here. Compared to man the demon is the strong man. Compared to God, God is the strong man. Only a stronger man can bind up the strong man and plunder his goods. When the demon is in power he is in control and has possession of all. When God comes and binds up the strong man, he takes possession of all the demon had. This is what is meant by plundering his goods, God is taking control of everything the demon had. We will be discussing this further this week in class.