They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but Jesus would disagree! And so would the apostle Paul.
The Bible illustrates how each one rejected demonic promotions. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Why would the enemy call attention to his enemies?
Here’s an incident involving the Lord Jesus.
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24”What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are–the Holy One of God!” 25”Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching–and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28News about Him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. – Mark 1:21-28
Not a typical church service! First, Christ’s message astonished the assembled because they’d never heard teaching with this degree of authority before. Sure, they’d listened to the Scriptures get read each Sabbath, but the comments of the readers, well, those were middling.
What the synagogue leaders lacked, Jesus possessed.
With force.
Second, the authority of Jesus amazed the congregation, but it panicked an evil spirit. What no one except this demon anticipated was that Jesus was announcing the kingdom of God and the end of the reign of the devil.
Did Jesus have the authority to proclaim this? Could He destroy Satan and his hosts?
Yes!
The impure spirit never doubted this for a second. Because he knew who Jesus was. He was right–Christ is the Holy One of God.
But the Lord didn’t want PR from a demon. He shut him up and cast him out. Jesus would allow people to question His identity and debate whether God sent Him. But He wouldn’t permit the deceiver to intrude and confuse.
That’s bad publicity!
Another occasion involved the apostle Paul.
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. – Acts 16:16-18
Jesus dealt with an interruption in a church service, but Paul got harassed on his way to a prayer meeting in Philippi! But wasn’t this woman right? Paul and his team were servants of the God of heaven and earth. And salvation was the heart of their message. So what’s wrong? What was irritating Paul?
Some Bible scholars point out that the word “way” lacks the definite article. In other words, the spirit controlling this woman didn’t say Paul and the others were communicating the way of salvation. Instead, they were describing a way to get saved. Not the only way, but a good option for those open to it. Most English translations go with “the way” but a few (like the NASB) drop the definite article.
While this is an important issue, it’s better to interpret what happened here in light of Christ’s confrontation in the synagogue. Again, it’s a matter of publicity. Like Jesus, Paul would not tolerate promotions from evil spirits. The truth in the mouth of a liar clarifies nothing; it complicates things. And Paul wasn’t going to permit a demon experienced in the realm of religious deception to encourage people to hear the gospel.
We don’t have to get bogged down in cases like this. Following the example of the Lord and the apostle, we must oppose our enemy’s every effort to involve himself in our ministry.
The gospel tells people that through Jesus Christ, they can escape the clutches of sin, death, and the devil. It also announces the demise of these adversaries. The blood of Jesus cancels sin, the resurrection of Jesus defeats death, and the restoration of the rule of King Jesus conquers Satan.
As we spread the gospel, we have the assurance that God will back up His Word with signs and wonders (see Mark 16:20). That’s all the publicity we need!
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