“The Parable of a Haunted House”
10/6/24
Matthew 12:43-45 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
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I used the phrase “haunted house” in the TITLE because haunted means “to visit or inhabit something or someone.”
And in the parable, Jesus refers to the person’s body as a “house” where their soul lives.
So in a very real sense, this person’s body experiences a supernatural visit from a bad spirit that wants to dwell there and haunt it.
EXPLAIN CONTEXT
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So, while the parable is directly aimed at Israel, it is also a powerful insight into SPIRITUAL WARFARE.
Jesus describes for us the activity of the devil, how he thinks, and how he attacks the lives of people.
So we first note the demon that left the person decides to return.
And he finds his old house (their body and soul) “empty, swept and put in order.”
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Now, one would think a house that is empty, swept and put in order is a good thing.
—But instead it was a signal to the devil that he could return!
And not only that, but return with a posse of fellow demons worse than himself!
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So what are we to learn from this?
The KEY is found in the three things the devil notices about the house—It is empty, swept, and put in order.
So let’s unpack the three points of vulnerability the enemy noticed about this person’s soul.
First, it was:
I. Empty
This is the key condition and is the main problem.
—Empty things need filling.
When it comes to your soul, if good things don’t fill the empty spaces, bad things will.
And this seems to be the MAIN POINT of the Lord’s warning—an empty soul is a vulnerable soul!
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ILLUS: I recently read of a woman in Maryland who returned from vacation to find two squatters sleeping in her bed.
A SQUATTER is typically a homeless person that breaks into an unoccupied house and makes themselves at home, claiming the house is theirs!
And these two squatters refused to leave!
In this case the two squatters were not only living in the woman’s house but had also sold about $50,000 of her furniture.
It took the police coming to the house to get them out.
How did this happen to this poor woman?
When she was GONE—when no one was home—when the house was empty.
Squatters can’t get in if the house is occupied—they look for empty homes.
—An empty house is a vulnerable house.
An empty house invites not only squatters, but termites, rodents, roaches, mold, and all kinds of destructive things that thrive in EMPTY places.
An empty, unplowed FIELD will be turned over to weeds and thorns.
A GARDEN left alone will wilt and die.
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Now in the same way, the devil is a spiritual squatter.
It’s interesting that in the parable the devil calls this person’s body HIS house—“I will return to MY house…”
But its not the devil’s house, he’s just squatting!
And Satan takes advantage of empty souls.
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Now the first lesson here is: A soul without Jesus is an EMPTY SOUL.
You can try to fill it with all kinds of distractions and false solutions for the aching emptiness, but they won’t work…
Your soul was made to have relationship with God through the shed blood of His Son.
The facet is a soul without Christ is DANGEROUSLY empty.
—The Bible says, “A satisfied soul rejects even honey, but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”—Pr. 27:7
A hungry soul will feed on anything—drugs, alcohol, false religions, cults, sexual perversion—bitter things that don’t genuinely satisfy.
So here’s something to consider:
If by chance today you have not turned your life over to Christ, spiritual squatters of a wicked kind have you in their sights!
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But there’s also a warning in Jesus’s parable to the Christian!
The Bible continuously exhorts christians to keep their soul filled with the Holy Spirit!
It says, “Be not drunk with wine…but be filled (to capacity, to the brim) with the Spirit.”—Ephesians 5:18
Galatians 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit (filled with the Spirit) and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
—A spiritually depleted Christian is a vulnerable Christian.
A Christian that is living off the fumes of yesterday’s blessings has a spiritual gas tank on EMPTY and is vulnerable to attack.
Paul warned, “Don’t give the devil an opportunity…”—Eph. 4:27
When it comes to your soul, EMPTY can create opportunities a full soul wouldn’t even consider!
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The only GOOD EMPTY I can think of is the empty tomb of Jesus Christ!
Otherwise, we Christians are commanded to avoid an empty, depleted soul.
—Be filled with the Spirit and constantly fill your soul with God’s word:
Col. 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,”
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Now, keeping in mind this person’s empty soul, Jesus said their house was also:
II. Swept and put in order
In other words, from all outer appearances we would say they had put their life together,
gotten their act together,
removed some things like bad habits,
or irresponsible living,
or bad relationships, etc.
They may have gone through REHAB…Or some self-help, self-improvement programs and “BETTERED” themselves in the eyes of the world.
In fact, the phrase “put in order” is translated from a word meaning:
“To beautify,
having the right arrangement;
to outwardly adorn,
to make compellingly attractive, outwardly appealing.”
The English word “cosmetics,” comes from this Greek word.
So the “order” Jesus describes here is more about self-effort, and beauty, and outward impressiveness.
The focus of this person is to look good on the outside,
to impress others with how they dress,
how they carry themselves,
how things appear on the outside.
—This is our culture to a tee!
Everything is measured by outer success:
how much money you make,
how much weight you’ve lost,
how you wear your hair,
what you drive,
the house you live in.
It’s all external, like decorations on a Christmas tree designed to impress the eye.
—But while swept and put together, it’s still an EMPTY house.
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So all the outer trappings are like putting a bandaid over the emptiness.
—The empty house is still a vulnerable house.
And we note in the parable that the enemy sees its emptiness!
In fact, the enemy gives this person’s soul a once over and assesses its condition—it’s empty, swept, and put together.
And he comes away from his assessment with a conclusion—VULNERABLE.
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So he goes out, gathers up a posse of 7 other demons, and returns, and the last condition of the house is worse than the former.
Let me be clear—I am NOT saying a Christian is going to be in-dwelt by demons.
If you’re a born again child of God the Holy Spirit lives in you and there is no way God is going to share a house with a devil!
But if you don’t keep your soul filled with the Spirit,
filled with the Word,
and consistently in prayer,
you’re going to be weaker against temptation and in warfare.
So to anyone here that doesn’t know Jesus, let Him today fill your empty soul!
And to the Christian, are you staying full of the Spirit?
Are you filling your soul with God’s word?