The passage we have just read is from Mark chapter 1. As I have previously explained, the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Within the New Testament, there are books known as the Gospels. The Gospels are books written by those who saw and heard the works of Jesus, whom we believe in. Among these, the Gospel of Mark—which we have read today—was the first to be written. The Gospel of Mark was written by a man named Mark.

The opening words of the Gospel of Mark are there: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ!” To be more accurate, it says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!” Here, the word “gospel” appears. We often say that we hear the gospel when we go to church. Also, believers in Jesus say that they “preach the gospel” when they evangelize on the streets. And they say, “We are saved by believing in the gospel!” What Mark is saying here is that Jesus Christ Himself is the very beginning of that gospel.

Mark records this gospel in a very concise and focused way. The passage we read today is about the events that took place when Jesus began to actively proclaim the gospel. Until He was thirsty years old, Jesus lived as an ordinary young man in the countryside. People did not know that He was the Man who was special. They certainly did not know that He was the Son of God. No one thought of Him as God.

But when He turned thirty, He was baptized. We are also baptized when we begin our life of faith—burying the old man and living as a new man. In the same way, Jesus buried His past life as an ordinary man and revealed His identity as God. It was shocking because a man was claiming to be God.

But surprisingly, who recognized Him first? It was demons. Even though people witnessed what Jesus did and saw His amazing signs, they still did not believe that He was the One sent by God. Yet, as soon as demons saw Him, they immediately recognized who He was.

As Jesus began His public ministry, He first entered the synagogue in the region of Capernaum. A synagogue was the place where the Jews gathered for their religious life. Even today, there is Judaism, isn’t there?

As Jesus entered the synagogue and preached, suddenly one of the people listening cried out. It would be like someone shouting right now while I am speaking to you. What did the person shout? He said, “I know who You are—the Holy One of God! Did You come to destroy us?” His words were filled with both fear and a sense of anger, as though he felt wronged.

So Jesus looked at the man and said, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” At first, it seemed like the man himself was speaking, but it became clear that something was inside him. So Jesus said, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” Then the man suddenly began to convulse. He shook violently and collapsed to the ground. After that, he was restored to his right mind.

What happened? Something inside the man came out. What was that something? The Bible calls it an unclean spirit. It means the same as “an unclean demon.” So an unclean demon had been inside the man, but when it encountered Jesus, it exposed itself. Jesus had not even said anything yet, but the demon revealed its identity on its own. Then, when Jesus commanded, “Come out!” it obeyed His word and left.

The people who witnessed this were astonished. “What kind of teaching is this? Even the words of highly respected professors or religious leaders do not compare to this authority! It is like the authority of a king!” they said. They said because when Jesus commanded the demon to come out, it trembled and left—not calmly, but with convulsions. It was terrifying. So those who saw it confessed, “This is truly a new teaching with authority!” Because of this event, news about Jesus Christ spread throughout the entire region.

Such things still happen today. Jesus made a promise to those who believe in Him: “These signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons!” And indeed, believers in Jesus do cast out demons. Of course, some of you may not have heard much about this in the churches you previously attended, or in what you thought of Christianity. You might have thought, “Casting out demons? Isn’t that something only shamans do?”

Yet in this book, which is called the beginning of the gospel, the very first chapter already talks about demons. The Gospel of Mark has sixteen chapters. But starting from chapter 1, then chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, and so on—except for one chapter—each chapter mentions demons.

So in the gospel—the call to believe in Jesus—demons are something we must be very cautious about. This does not mean that believers have fellowship with demons; rather, we drive them out. In the past, we did not even know that demons were real. But demons fear Jesus and those who believe in Him, so they reveal themselves and leave. And when the demons leave, the diseases they brought with them also disappear. Those sicknesses were originally brought by the demons. This is a spiritual principle, and it is still happening today. This is the gospel.

The gospel is not a religion. You may have thought that Christianity is just one of many religions, like Confucianism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, or others. But that is a misunderstanding. Our Christianity is not a religion made by people. It calls us to meet the living God—truly encounter Him. It says we should accept the grace He has poured out for us and receive it. And it urges us to realize how desperate our reality is, and step away from it.

No matter how much people try to deny the existence of demons, the world is full of them. Whether you acknowledge it or not, demons go into people, torment them, and even try to kill them. Why? Because it’s comfortable for demons to dwell in a human body. Strange, isn’t it? Why do demons want to enter a human flesh? It’s because demons were originally beings with flesh. They are spiritual beings that once had flesh. So what are they? They are human. Demons were originally people. Even in dictionaries, a “demon” is defined as “a ghost of a dead person.” Almost every religion in the world, every superstition, even shamans, all acknowledge that demons are spirits of the dead.

But unfortunately, it is only within Christianity that this reality has often been denied. “There’s no such thing as demons in the world”—this is what many Christians have said. But when I carefully read the Bible, from the very beginning of the gospel, stories of demons appear repeatedly.

Before I came to Sungrak Church, I had followed a friend to church a few times and had even read the Bible. So when I first came to Sungrak Church and heard someone talking about demons being in the Bible, I said, “What do you mean demons are in the Bible? The Bible talks about only God, not demons. I’ve read the Bible before, and I never saw anything about demons!” But then someone opened the Bible and showed me. Starting from Mark chapter 1, page after page talked about demons. What was Jesus doing? He was casting out demons. And what did Jesus even say? He said, “If I have three days, for the first two I will cast out demons, and on the third day I will go My way—to die on the cross.” That means that as long as He had time to work, He focused on casting out demons.

There’s a verse in the Bible that says this: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and He went around healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Who did He heal? Those who were oppressed by the devil. That’s what the Bible says. One day, a woman who had been bent over for eighteen years came to Jesus. How did He straighten her? She was bent like the letter “C,” completely stiff. How could she be made straight? Would Jesus help her through physical therapy? No. Jesus cast out the demon. And the woman stood up straight—for the first time in eighteen years. What does this mean? The one who was bent over wasn’t really the woman herself—it was the demon that had been hiding inside her. And when the demon was cast out, the symptoms it had caused disappeared as well.

Imagine a transparent bottle filled with cola. Or think of a clear glass. If you pour cola into it, what color does the glass appear? It looks like cola. If you pour orange Fanta, the glass looks orange. It’s the same with people. When a demon that brings cancer enters a person, that person gets cancer. When a demon that brings a slipped disc enters, the person suffers from a slipped disc. But if you cast out that demon of cancer, then the cancer goes away.

A few years ago, I was working in my office when I got a phone call from my father. His voice was heavy. “Your mother has cancer,” he said. Colon cancer. It was a shock. No one in our family had ever had cancer before. That evening, I went to my parents’ house. My mother and father both have attended our church. But when I arrived, they were just watching TV. My mother had just been diagnosed with cancer, yet there they were—sitting, watching television like nothing had happened. I knew they were probably anxious and didn’t know what else to do but seeing them like that made me feel even more helpless.

I’m a pastor—but I’m also their son. I had to decide: do I speak to them as their child? Or do I stand before them as a servant of God who speaks His Word? I thought for a moment. And I decided that the important thing at that moment was not to comfort them, but to help them. So I chose to stand before them as the one who preaches God’s word and manifests His power.

I said, “Let’s have a short time of worship.” During the service, I told it like it is. I didn’t hold back—even though they were my parents. I said, “You have cancer. You might not live much longer. But of course, we want healing—we want you to live long and well. But let’s think from God’s point of view. If you’re healed and live another 20 years, what benefit is there for God? If you’re healed but still spend your days just watching TV and doing nothing for God or His kingdom, why would God need to heal you? Honestly, if you’re healed, I think you’ll just end up watching dramas for the next 10 years. I don’t see any reason to pray for your healing.”

Then I asked, “Do you want to live? Then give God a reason. Tell Him why He should let you live. If not, whether you die now or ten years from now doesn’t make much of a difference. If you die without believing in Jesus and without forgiveness, you’ll become a demon. If not, you’ll go to heaven. So going to heaven—whether early or later—doesn’t really matter.” I said it that way to shake them awake.

Could I have said that as just a son? No. I spoke as the one who proclaims the gospel. And I urged them to repent. As I spoke, my mother began to cry. My father was in agony beside her. Not long before, he had lost money in stock investments—something he had never done before. I brought that up too: “Why didn’t you focus on your faith? Why were you distracted and careless with your money? You hurt her…” Maybe that’s why my mother got sick.

My father’s eyes welled with tears, and I could see that he, too, was being led to repentance. Both of them truly repented. They cried out in prayer, “God, though we received Your grace, we lived so lazily and ungratefully. Please help us!” So I prayed a blessing over them and told my mother, “Mother, please stand up.” I remembered how Jesus rebuked the demon, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” I knew I had to do the same. So I stood her up and rebuked the spirit. And how should I rebuke it? “You unclean demon!” That’s how I should do it.

But how do you think I did it? Do you think I calmly whispered, “You unclean demon…” in a soft voice? This was my mother. She could’ve died. It just came out of me. Don’t be surprised—I shouted at the top of my lungs, “HEY! YOU UNCLEAN DEMON!!!” I really did. It came from deep inside me. And with that one shout, the demon was exposed. “Uuuhhhrrgh…” “Why did you come in?” “To kill her!” “Did you succeed?” “No—I failed! I was exposed!” “Get out!” She collapsed. The demon had left her. My father was standing beside us, shaking in fear. How scared he must’ve been. I said, “If you don’t want to become a demon too, you’d better take your faith seriously! Live it well!”

Then we heard someone at the door. Someone had opened the front door—and saw everything. Who was it? It was my older sister. She had heard the news and rushed over. She was the only unbeliever in our family, the one who had refused to receive Jesus. Since she was married and living separately, she had less influence on the family—but she walked in just in time to witness the whole scene. Perfect timing. I said, “You saw it, didn’t you? You heard the demon speak, didn’t you? You saw that it had entered Mom and given her cancer, and you heard it with your own ears. And you saw me cast it out in Jesus’ name. So what will you do? Are you going to become a demon too? Come in!” And I led her to accept Jesus. She confessed faith in Him, and as we prayed together, she even received the Holy Spirit that very day.

So we had come that day feeling heavy and worried because of the cancer. But that day, the demon was cast out. Then my sister received the Holy Spirit. My father repented. All of that happened in one day. And after that, there was great peace. Since the demon had left, I believed, “The cancer is gone!”

But the cancer had already built a home. And what was that home? The tumor. It was colon cancer, and the tumor was quite large. When we went to get it checked, the local clinic said they couldn’t perform the surgery. So my father started making phone calls, and through someone he knew, he was able to get in touch with a large medical center. They scheduled an appointment for a consultation. And do you know when they told us to come? Six months later. They weren’t even saying she could get treatment in six months—just that she could come in for an initial consultation after six months. How could anyone with cancer wait that long? If someone spends six months weighed down with fear and anxiety, those negative thoughts alone can grow and take over.

If it were someone without faith, they probably would’ve just waited or looked for another option. But I told my parents, “We’ve already cast out the demon. The root cause of the disease is gone. Now we just need to remove what’s left. If the demon hadn’t been cast out, the cancer would likely come back even after surgery. But now that it’s gone, you don’t have to worry. All we need to do is get it taken out. So let’s just go to the nearest hospital and get it done there.” And I found a hospital just ten minutes from my parent’s house. I called and asked, “Do you perform cancer surgeries?” They said yes. We checked again the next day, and they said they could do the surgery the following week. So my mother had her surgery just one week later. And thankfully, the doctor who came in to perform the surgery said, “Let’s pray together before we begin.” That’s when I realized—it was a Christian hospital. A month later, I visited my parents’ house. My mother was doing laundry, cooking, and taking care of everything around the house. It had been a major surgery, but it passed as if it were nothing.

Since then, with her life extended, my mother took on the role and worked hard for the church. When the church faced hardship, she even stayed at the church itself to help protect it. Now she’s over seventy, but she’s still serving actively. I’m so thankful. I really think God must look at her and say, “I’m glad I saved her.” I’m proud of her.

This is how it is when we’re attacked by demons. If we don’t know who the real enemy is, we’ll just end up getting hurt. And many people are destroyed that way. But even if we’ve been struck once because of our weakness, we can strike back twice, three times, even four times—until the enemy completely surrenders.

I was listening to the radio not long ago. The host was reading a listener’s letter on the show, and while reading, he ended up crying while reading it. And honestly, I couldn’t help but cry either.

It was about a young woman in her twenties who had set a wedding date. But before the wedding, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother was a single mom—she had lost her husband early and had poured her whole heart into raising her daughter. Just as she was about to marry her off, her daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer—even before the wedding could happen. And what happened to the fiancé? He didn’t stay. He left her. So she began the long battle against cancer. It took seven years to fight it, and thankfully, she recovered. Her mother went through so much to take care of her. Seven years later, that same man came back. They set another wedding date. But just a month before the wedding, the cancer returned—it spread to other areas. And once again, the man left. Can you imagine? One blow after another. It was devastating. And the mother—how much more painful it must have been for her.

So the mother sent that story in as a letter to the program. Her daughter had gone through two broken engagements. And the mother had gone through so much to take care of her daughter—watching her lose all her hair, not because she shaved it, but because it simply fell out. She had to go through radiation therapy, and it was all so hard.

In her desperation, the mother prayed to everyone she could think of. She prayed to Buddha in the temple, to Jesus, to the Dragon King, to the mountain spirits—she prayed to them all. That’s a mother’s heart. But that’s not how help comes. If we could receive help just because someone pities us, wouldn’t that be wonderful? But it doesn’t work like that. We must call upon the right one. The only one who can truly heal is God. The real root of these diseases is the work of demons behind the scenes. What’s the point of praying to the demons that caused the sickness?

Then something else happened to the mother. The mother—who had been caring for her daughter—was also diagnosed with breast cancer. However, she rejoiced. She was happy that she got cancer. Why? Because she thought her daughter’s illness had come to her instead. She felt glad. But not long after that, the daughter died. And now the mother is still alive, battling breast cancer herself.

As the host read this story, he began to cry. How could life be so cruel? This is what reality looks like. We think we’ll be getting married tomorrow, and then something we never imagined crashes down on us. She had finally set a second wedding date—and once again, disaster struck. Who can stop such things?

This is how demons work. What is the work they are trying to do? Their goal is to kill. Every time we cast out a demon, we ask, “Why did you come in?” And no matter which demon it is, they always answer the same way: “To kill her!” or “To kill him!” The demon that had entered my mother said the same thing—“To kill her!” It’s always the same. Even if it’s the demon of a relative or an ancestor, once it enters a person, it kills. Why? Because it gives you what it has. And what do demons have? Do they have money? Do they have happiness? Do they have joy? They have none of those things. The only thing demons have is death—and failure. So that’s what they give.

Now think about it. What happens if you stay close to a demon? Just like the saying, “Like father, like son,” if you stay close to a certain god, you become like that god. If you draw near to God, you become like God. You receive His joy, His power, and His resurrection. But if you stay close to demons, you end up like them—destroyed, tormented, defeated, discouraged, and depressed. That’s what happens.

The only way to overcome this is through the name of Jesus. That’s why Jesus came to this earth—He died and rose again. But He didn’t just die alone on His own. He was killed. It was the devil—the head of the demons—who killed Him. The devil used people to carry out the act. He thought he had won. And he didn’t just kill Jesus; he judged Him and executed Him legally. That’s why it’s more accurate to say, “Jesus was executed,” rather than just saying, “Jesus died.” Jesus was put to death legally. But God raised Him from the dead by His own law—by the law of heaven. He declared, “Why did you kill the one who had no sin? He’s innocent!” That’s what the resurrection is.

Since Jesus was resurrected, He was revealed to be without sin. And the devil, who had executed a sinless One, was exposed as a lawbreaker. In other words, the devil was already exposed as one who acted unlawfully. As a result, he lost all his legal authority: the authority to rule the world, the authority to control people, and the authority to put people to death. So now, the devil no longer has any authority.

So, before Jesus came, when demons cursed people and brought them death, it was part of their legal right. But now, after Jesus died and rose again, the devil’s acts of tormenting people and bringing diseases like cancer are no longer lawful—they are completely illegal. They no longer have any authority. They just pretend to have it. It’s like a corrupt police officer who’s been fired but still walks around flashing his badge, pretending to have power. In reality, he has none.

Then, what we need to do in that moment is say, “You’re already fired. You’re not the police anymore.” When we reveal the truth, we win. But if we still believe he’s a police officer, we end up submitting—“Yes, sir,” and we just take the beating. Why? Because we’ve sinned.

That’s what happens when we continue to acknowledge demons. But we know the truth: demons and the devil have already been judged. Jesus has already judged them. That’s why we overcome. And that’s why we have victory. So when disease or curses come upon us, we don’t need to fear them. When my mother got cancer, I didn’t panic or worry. I rebuked it. A Christian is a person who has such authority.

Many people misunderstand Christians because they don’t know this truth. They think Christians are just kind people, moral people, people who carry Bibles around, or people who enjoy singing hymns. But that’s not what a Christian is. That may be what’s visible on the outside—but inside, Christians are people who have overcome, people with authority, and people like kings. That is what it means to be a Christian. I bless you in the name of Jesus that you may become a true Christian.

That same authority—to curse demons, to silence them, to rebuke them—has already been given to you. It’s all been given. You’re just not using it yet. But from now on, start using it. And if the demon doesn’t leave when you rebuke it? Then pray more. When you pray, power will be manifested, and the work of God will appear.

So I bless you in the name of Jesus, that you may meet God every day, and that you may experience daily that you are a part of God. Let us pray.

God our Father, thank You for revealing to us the reality of the spiritual world. Thank You for letting us know the gospel. You have given us such great authority—please do not let us live deceived, continuing in failure or under curses. Instead, help everyone here to live with authority to curse demons, silence them, and drive them out. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.