It is common for Christians to think that there was far greater demonic activity “in Bible times” than there is today, but this isn’t exactly true. It is rather the case that a spiritual clash with demons occurs in a narrow window of time, namely, the early ministry of Jesus between his baptism and his final trip to Jerusalem. Expressed as a percentage, 85 percent of the discussion about demons takes place in just 3 percent of the Bible’s chapters. (1)
This period of Christ’s ministry is therefore a departure both from what came before and from what comes after. Grasping the significance of this outbreak of demonic activity is crucial to understanding the role of spiritual warfare in the church today.
Jesus’ Initial Encounter with Satan
Why is demonic activity so uniquely focused in this period? The short answer is that Jesus’ ministry should be seen as a cosmic smack down with Satan and his demonic minions.
Critically, in the desert Jesus defeats Satan by his obedience, the second Adam standing strong in the word of God in place of the first Adam, who fell. Christ’s defeat of Satan in the wilderness is analogous to David’s defeat of Goliath, and the demon horde plays the part of the Philistine army, fleeing for the hills in the wake of their champion’s defeat. Demonic activity is not typical of Christ’s church but uniquely focused on this period in redemptive history when the troops meet on the field of battle. A military parallel would be the shores of Normandy on D-Day, when Allied forces landed on the mainland of northern Europe in a powerful way. While significant battles were fought on the way to Berlin, the eventual outcome was all but sealed in those first brutal and bloody days.
In Mark’s Gospel, this collision between Jesus and Satan takes all of thirteen verses to develop: “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan … and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:9, 13). At the baptism of our Lord, the curtain of heaven is opened wide, or more precisely, heaven itself breaks into the created order. The clash between the kingdom of heaven’the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’and the kingdom of this world necessarily follows on its heels.
In Matthew’s account, Jesus overcomes the devil’s three temptations and declares victory with the simple command, “Be gone, Satan.” This is the exorcism in the Bible, of which the following dispossessions are mere ripples, and it is brought about by the faithful obedience of the second Adam. The angels come and minister to Jesus’again, heaven breaking in’and he proceeds to announce the coming of the kingdom of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). At this point in his Gospel, Matthew actually gives us the content of this kingdom preaching, in the form of the Sermon on the Mount, a new kingdom law for those now due to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
The timing of this initial encounter is important, coming at the very beginning of Christ’s public ministry. It establishes a close connection between the breaking in of the kingdom of God and the defeat of Satan and his minions; the one follows the other as night follows day. The kingdom of God cannot abide Satan, and Satan cannot abide the blinding light of the kingdom as it shines into the darkness. In the following encounters, the demons recognize Jesus for who he is’and mostly beg for permission to flee.
The Kingdom of God Has Come upon You
Jesus is the first gospel preacher, and the news of his defeat of Satan by his obedience in the wilderness is the good news he announces. This victory results directly in the preaching of the gospel and the announcement that the heavenly kingdom is now open for business to all who repent and believe. We often overlook this fact and minimize its significance. The good news was, of course, promised already in paradise and announced by the patriarchs and prophets. The content of the promise isn’t new. But it wasn’t a reality until Christ really brought it into being, and he is the first to preach it. In fact, when talking about the gospel promises in the Old Testament, the Apostle Paul invents a word to describe how the gospel was “pre-preached,” for the justification of the Gentiles by faith was merely foreseen.
Responding to charges that his power over demons is demonic, Jesus tells us that this new reality is ushered in explicitly by his defeat of Satan and his minions: “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20). The presence of the kingdom in their midst is predicated upon the casting out of the demons. This announcement comes after Jesus sends out the seventy-two, two by two, in Luke 10. Recall that the seventy-two return rejoicing: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” Jesus responds, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you” (Luke 10:18-19).
Jesus clearly sees Satan as having fallen in the preaching ministry of his disciples. There are no more demonic encounters recorded after this point in Luke’s Gospel, and two chapters later Jesus announces, “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course” (13:32). The casting out of demons is a discrete, completed portion of his ministry before he goes to his death in Jerusalem.
The Finger of God
Jesus believes that the defeat of Satan and casting out of his demons is a foundational moment in the establishment of the kingdom of God. He hints further at this constitutional character of this work when he says that he casts them out “by the finger of God” (Matthew says, “by the Spirit of God”). We find this exact phrase twice in the Old Testament, both in Exodus. In 8:19, Pharaoh’s magicians bear witness that Moses brought the plague of gnats “by the finger of God.” This plague is evidence of heavenly power, and the magicians know their demonic force couldn’t compete. And next, it is by the “finger of God” that the two tablets of the testimony, given to Moses on Sinai, are written. These words of the covenant are the very first written words of Scripture, and that they are written by the “finger of God” emphasizes that God’s people are constituted by a purely divine, written word.
Jesus knowingly refers to these two preeminent constitutional moments in the founding of the nation of Israel’the Exodus and drafting of the Sinai covenant’when he claims to have cast out demons and brought the kingdom by the finger of God. Not only is he claiming to have fulfilled the shadowy type by bringing the spiritual reality, but he is also drawing a similar connection between founding deed and constitutional word. The victory over Satan that brings the kingdom is extended by the preaching of the word.
This typological parallel also suggests why demonic activity is relatively absent from the Old Testament. What occurred in Israel’s conquest at the typological, national level’idolatrous nations being driven out of the Holy Land by the edge of the sword’now occurs in spirit and in truth in the hearts of his people.
The Cessation of Demonic Activity in the Gospels
Is Satan an onlooker at the foot of the cross? Both Mick Jagger and Mel Gibson put him there, along with a number of church fathers, including Augustine. Augustine called the cross “the devil’s mousetrap,” suggesting that Jesus served as a sort of bait in a device that conclusively crushed the serpent’s head. The dramatic temptation to put Satan at the scene of his ultimate demise is great, as the cross is clearly the climax of Jesus’ faithful obedience that bested Satan in the desert. Yet it is a temptation that all four evangelists resist. In the Gospels’ telling, long before the final act the evil one has already exited stage left.
His absence underlines the fact that the cross is no battle casualty, but a sacrifice planned from before the foundation of the world and executed according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. The sheep is led silently to slaughter, entirely of his own will. His life is his to lay down and to take up again.
That Satan has already been silenced before the march to Jerusalem and the passion and death of the Lord is significant for the church today. The spiritual encounters in Acts are minor aftershocks, connecting the apostolic ministry to the Lord, and the remainder of the New Testament gives us little instruction or expectation of any conflict like that found in Jesus’ ministry. Why? Because the strong man has been bound, and the church has been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom. Though it is true we wrestle not with flesh and blood, our weapons are truth, righteousness, faith, the word of God, and the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:10-20). This is why Paul asks for prayers from the Ephesians’not against territorial demons, but that he might boldly proclaim the gospel.
1 [ Back ] This is, admittedly, a fairly crude measure, based on the occurrence of the word demon in the English Standard Version. Of the seventy-eight occurrences of demon, seventy-five are in the New Testament and sixty-six are in the Gospels, all in the earlier chapters. There are, of course, a smattering of spiritual encounters described in other terms that don't use the word demon (1 Sam. 16; 1 Sam. 28; Gen. 3; Job 1-2), and aspects of idolatry are considered demonic. But it is well established that the ministry of Christ is a departure from previous Scripture in its focus on demons.
