Confident in God: The Strong Man Parable Unfolded

Have you ever skipped over a Bible verse because it seemed too obvious? Julie shares how God surprised her with unexpected depth in the Parable of the Strong Man's House — a "flyover verse" she'd always dismissed.

Discover why Jesus is stronger than your enemy, the danger of a swept-clean but empty heart, and how to guard against renewed spiritual attack. This episode will inspire you to dig deeper into Scripture, trusting that God will reveal more of Himself when you seek Him.

Resources: 

 https://confidenceingod.com/resources/

 Recognizing Jesus

EPISODE TIMELINE

0:00 - Welcome & Introduction
 0:10 - God's Faithfulness to Reveal More
 1:00 - The "Flyover Verse" Concept
 2:27 - Introduction to the Parable of the Strong Man's House 
 2:55 - Reading Matthew 12:29
 3:08 - Reading Luke 11:21-22
 3:55 - Considering the Context
 4:16 - Jesus Addressing the Scribes & Pharisees
 4:32 - The Parable's Placement in Jesus' Teaching
 5:01 - Jesus' Explanation Continues
 5:26 - The Unclean Spirit Returns
 6:07 - Jesus Explains Blasphemy
 6:32 - How I Studied This Parable
 7:02 - Beelzebub: Master of the House
 7:43 - Why the Warning About Evil Spirits Returning?
 8:39 - Understanding Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
 10:16 - Key Takeaways Begin
 10:28 - Takeaway #1: Jesus Is Stronger
 10:38 - Takeaway #2: Let Jesus Continue Working
 11:00 - Takeaway #3: Don't Mislabel God's Activity
 11:14 - Encouragement: Don't Fly Over Scripture
 11:46 - Closing Prayer
 12:34 - Resource & Related Episode Mention
 13:29 - Closing Scripture & Sign-Off

Total Runtime: 13:38

Transcript

0:00

Hello and welcome to the Confidence in God podcast. I am your host, Julie McGhghy, and our goal today is to help you walk with confidence in God. God is so faithful! He just keeps showing us more and more of Himself and His word if we just keep seeking Him. So today I wanna tell you a little bit about an experience that I recently had in which God just showed up in such a way in my studies actually, that He surprised me. Currently our church is involved in something we call the 31 Days of Consecration. And in that we have various people assigned different parables to present at 6:00 AM in a Zoom meeting that is recorded. Those people who don't get up at six o'clock, they can listen to it later. I was assigned a one or two verse parable. It depends on which gospel you read, whether it's one verse or two. There was no title of its own to this parable. The meaning seemed very obvious. And so I must admit, I kind of treated it like a flyover verse. You know, you've, you've heard a flyover states, those states, we tend to fly over from one very popular location to another very popular location. And people don't tend to pay a whole lot of attention to those flyover states. Well, I always treated this parable like a flyover verse, if you will. Then God showed me how much depth there actually is to this parable and the surrounding text. Now, for those people who are listening that have also been listening to the 31 Days of Consecration Devotions, this podcast episode will contain much the same information I shared in a recent devotion, but it is set in a context of God's faithfulness to draw us deeper into His Word. Before I introduce the parable to you, I invite you to check out a resource titled Five Steps to Experience More Confidence in God. You can have instant access to it by going to confidenceingod.com/resources. In this resource, you'll learn how you can live a more confident life. That confidence will help you see how God draws you deeper and deeper into His Word and opens your mind and heart to it as you seek Him. I'll drop the link to the resource in the show notes for your convenience. I am going to share with you what I learned when I pursued God's help in understanding more deeply this very short parable that is often referred to as the Parable of the Strong Man's House, even though that title does not appear in any of the, Bibles that I consulted. I'll start by reading the short parable from two of the gospels. Because Mark's account is very similar to Matthew's, I will not read Mark's. Matthew stated it like this in chapter 12, verse 29:"Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first binds the strong man? And then he will spoil his house." Now Luke being a doctor, of course, he needed to add a little bit more detail. And in doing so, this short parable ended up being two verses in the book of Luke, chapter 11, verses 21 and 22, When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and he divides his spoil." So did Jesus just state the obvious? It is a flyover verse, right? Anyone who has watched or read crime dramas knows that it takes someone stronger than the occupants of the house to come in and take the possessions of the house, unless of course the house is unoccupied. Even in Luke's account of the parable where he added a bit more detail about the occupant of the house being armed, it's still obvious based on what we generally know. But let's consider the context. This is where God began showing me the depth of the parable and why he taught it. Jesus was speaking to the crowd, however, he was specifically addressing the thoughts of certain people, the scribes, Pharisees, and possibly others who agreed with them, who had declared Jesus had cast out a demon by Beezebub. Now, Jesus stated the parable right smack between other explanations about the people's accusations. He first explained how it would be impossible for Him to have cast out a demon by Beezebub because every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation or is brought down or collapses. If He cast out a devil by the finger of God, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon them. Now right after that explanation, which I must admit, may in itself even seem a little bit obvious, He then makes a statement that is obviously a parable without even identifying it as such. Thus, no title of its own is in scripture, and this is where we see the parable of the strong man's house that we just read. Luke reports then that Jesus also explained that when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man and seeks rest, but finds none, the spirit will return to the person and find its swept and clean. Now, doesn't it sound good that the person's heart is still swept and clean? That sounds good, right? But the spirit then brings seven spirits more wicked than himself, and enters into dwell there. Thus, the person is worse off than at the first. Now, I confess that has always confused me a bit because I always thought it was good that his heart remained clean and swept out. Then finally, Jesus goes into an explanation about blasphemy explaining that blasphemy against man can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Ghost has no forgiveness and is in danger of eternal damnation. So what do we learn from all of this, particularly when we were looking around the context? How does a parable in the midst of Jesus addressing the accusations of His casting out a demon by Beezebub make sense? Well, I'll share what I learned just by digging deeper in prayer and using a study Bible. I didn't consult blogs available on the internet. I didn't consult AI. I just prayed and let God lead me to His Word, and I consulted the study notes contained in the study Bible that I felt God had led me to also. In Jesus' time, the name Beelzebub meant,"master of the House." Jesus made this meaning explicit when speaking of the strong man's house, the stronger man who was able to plunder the house was Jesus. He was stronger than the devil's that occupied the house or Beelzebub the master of the house. Satan was able to safeguard his demon possessed victims, or in the language of the parable, the goods of the house, only until Jesus came along. Hallelujah. Here he comes, and he's always faithful. Why did Jesus warn against an evil spirit being cast out, then searching for rest but finding none and returning to the person with seven more wicked spirits? At first glance, as I mentioned a moment ago, it seems good that the evil spirit finds the house swept and clean when the spirit returns. Apparently the person had not fallen back into sinful or even evil habits, right? But what didn't the spirit find? He didn't find the Holy Spirit residing there. So Jesus was explaining, and this is what we get out of this part of the context, that a person has to let Jesus continue to work in his life to secure his newly rehabilitated state, or cleaned out heart against renewed spiritual attack. Then why did Jesus address blasphemy? As I studied this parable and its context, I learned how to differentiate between blasphemy against a man and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Had Jesus' actions, like many of his teachings to the crowd, not been clear that it was God acting or teaching, then the people's accusations would only be a blasphemy against man. They would've been blaspheming against Jesus, the man who was teaching. Since it was clear the casting out of a demon was the act of a loving God, then the accusation was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. So what do we get out of this part of the context? When and where sin and the enemy are being obviously defeated in the name of Christ, one should be very careful not to grossly mislabel the activity. It doesn't matter if the person doing it is somebody with a great name and reputation known to have great anointing or gifting from the Holy Spirit, or if it's a totally unknown person using a method that you would never expect God to use. Again, if it is sin and the enemy being obviously defeated in the name of Christ, be very careful to not mislabel that activity. Isn't it amazing that God can teach us as we pursue Him and His word through prayer and Bible study? Here are the takeaways from this one or two verse parable and the context surrounding it. Jesus is stronger than our enemy, who can only safeguard his demon possessed victims until Jesus comes along. A person must let Jesus continue to work in his life to secure his newly rehabilitated or cleaned out heart against renewed spiritual attack. And be sure you give that Holy Spirit access to every room in your heart. Don't withhold anything because anything withheld will be subject to renewed spiritual attack. When and where sin and the enemy are being evidently or obviously defeated in the name of Christ, be very careful not to grossly mislabel the activity as that of man only. And the purpose of me sharing this with you today is to encourage you that when you read God's Word and maybe you don't understand it, or something that it says just seems too obvious to be meaningful, don't just fly over it. Pray about it. Consider the context surrounding it. Consult a good study Bible and read the comments about the particular verse as well as all of the context. God will honor your efforts in seeking to know Him better. And I do wanna take just a moment to pray with you and for you. Precious Jesus, we thank you for the power of your word. We thank you that it, it just moves within us and it, it helps us, Lord Jesus, to know you better. I pray precious Jesus, that you will just help us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only, and that we will rely on the fact that you are stronger than our enemy, and we praise you for that precious Jesus, hallelujah. And that we will continue seeking you, precious Jesus. So that. You will have access to our entire hearts. We will withhold nothing, Lord Jesus, so that you can continue growing and moving in our lives. Thank you, precious Jesus. Amen. So, as I mentioned earlier, I invite you to check out a resource titled Five Steps To Experience More Confidence in God. It will help you live a more confident life as you search to know Jesus better just click the link in the show notes and click on the resource. Also, if you wanna learn more about how Jesus is stronger than the enemy that wants to keep us from growing our relationship with Jesus, you might find the episode titled, Recognizing Jesus Power Amidst Life Struggles to be helpful. I'll include a link to it in the show notes as. So that's it for today. If you find these podcast episodes helpful, please take a second to subscribe to our show so you'll be notified when future episodes come out and share it with your friends and loved ones. Also, it would be great if you would rate or review our show that way more people can find out about it. Until next time, let's be confident in this that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.