Acts 19:13-15
Evil Knows Jesus
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.”14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”
Luke 4:31-37
Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit
31Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. 32They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.
33In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34"Ha! 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!"
35"Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" 37And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
Matthew 17:14-20
The Healing of a Boy With a Demon
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17 “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
St.Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles that evil knows Jesus...In the Gospel According to Luke, he writes that the evil spirit knows who Jesus is -He is the Holy One of God...It is interesting that evil, the evil one, and evil spirits recognize and know Jesus, but sometimes we as believers doubt and find Him afar...The evil one recognizes Jesus' divinity...For St. Luke to write this, we must think the evil one has some intelligence...He looks and finds ways, evil ways to do us harm...The evil one knows and recognizes that someday good will rule the earth -and he knows where he will spend his eternal life...
And I find it interesting that evil knows and can recognize Jesus, the One Perfect and Good...And maybe that is why evil recognizes Him...
Evil exists and it is real...You can look around the globe and find evil...Evil can surround a nation and also evil can be a part of our lives, if we are not firmly grounded in Jesus...It seems that the evil one can come out of nowhere and be in our lives...An example of this, is in Job's life...Job has death in his family, destruction, despair, and so much frustration, after he (the evil one) entered his life...And God even allowed the evil one in Job's life (Job 1:8)...So we must be on guard and prepared with the knowledge of Jesus...I think we must recognize evil for what it is...We cannot sweep evil under a rug, and think it will go away...Ignoring evil will not make it leave us and stay gone...So we need to have at least some knowledge and acknowledgement that evil does exist...
Evil is dangerous for those who do not believe in God...And God created us to know the difference between good and evil...Some of our daily temptations, can quickly turn into evil...
Evil can be overcome...Evil's antidote is Jesus...Jesus in His ministry showed His authority over evil and evil spirits...We need to have faith and pray to have power over evil...Jesus and His Father can deliver us from evil...