Be careful, the battle is still going
Mark 1:23-28 Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, 24 "Why are You interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One sent from God!" 25 Jesus cut him short. "Be quiet! Come out of the man," He ordered. 26 At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him. 27 Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. "What sort of new teaching is this?" they asked excitedly. "It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey His orders!" 28 The news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee.
Mark 1:32-39 That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. 33 The whole town gathered at the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and He cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who He was, He did not allow them to speak. 35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. 36 Later Simon and the others went out to find Him. 37 When they found Him, they said, "Everyone is looking for You." 38 But Jesus replied, "We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came." 39 So He traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.
It looks to me like Satan is running scared. There were so many demon-possessed people around, even in the synagogue, it looks like Satan is desperate and he is prepared for a show down. Satan's purpose was to distract, he wanted to distract those that needed to know the Messiah and keep them from hearing the gospel message and he wanted to distract Jesus from his mission.
Jesus didn't allow the distraction to work, Satan's plan was about to backfire and Jesus would use the opportunity to prove his power over Satan and the entire demonic army, Satan was desperate to thwart God's plan. There is spiritual warfare going on all around us, the devil will use people in our church to distract the preacher and distract the listener as well.
What better proof could you possibly get than the testimony of Satan's army, they knew without a doubt that Jesus is the Promised Messiah and on many occasions they let it be known.
I need to keep in mind that Satan has lost the war but he doesn't know that he lost already. He is trying to distract the church from being effective as possible, we need to remember that we are fighting in spiritual combat.
Help us Lord to persevere and keep on telling the good news despite the distractions that Satan throws in our way. Help the church to realize that we are fighting a spiritual battle that isn't about the physical fighting that we can see.
