The Strong Man Bound
Introduction: A Declaration of War
We come now to a passage that is not a quiet, stained-glass moment. This is a battlefield. This is a collision of kingdoms, a clash of ultimate authorities. In our therapeutic and sentimental age, we like to imagine Jesus as a mild-mannered teacher of ethics, a sort of first-century guidance counselor. But that is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible is a warrior, an invader, a king who has come to conquer a rebellious province. And this passage is one of the clearest declarations of that spiritual war.
The scene is set with a profound act of mercy and power. A man, doubly afflicted by demonic power, is brought to Jesus. He is blind and mute, trapped in a world of darkness and silence. Jesus heals him completely. The evidence is undeniable. The man can see and speak. The reaction of the common people is exactly what you would expect. They are astonished, and they ask the right question: "Can this man really be the Son of David?" They see the power, they see the mercy, and they connect it to the messianic promises. Their minds are open.
But then we have the Pharisees. Their reaction is not one of honest inquiry or even skeptical reservation. It is a calculated, deliberate, and blasphemous lie. They cannot deny the reality of the miracle, the raw power on display. So, they do the only thing they can do. They attribute the works of the Holy Spirit to the prince of demons. This is not a mistake. This is a worldview commitment. They are so invested in their own system of self-righteousness and control that they would rather make a league with Hell than bow the knee to Heaven's king. This is the heart of all unbelief. It is not a lack of evidence; it is a suppression of the evidence in unrighteousness.
Jesus' response is a masterful display of logic, theology, and spiritual authority. He exposes the sheer stupidity of their accusation, and in doing so, He reveals to us the nature of His mission. He has come to bind the strong man, to plunder his house, and to establish the kingdom of God right in the middle of enemy territory. This passage, then, is not just about an ancient argument. It is about the fundamental nature of the gospel. The gospel is not a truce; it is a declaration of victory. It is not a suggestion; it is the announcement of an invasion.
The Text
Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. And all the crowds were astounded, and were saying, “Can this man really be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.” And knowing their thoughts He said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
(Matthew 12:22-29 LSB)
The Indisputable Fact and the Willful Lie (vv. 22-24)
We begin with the miracle and the two starkly different reactions to it.
"Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. And all the crowds were astounded, and were saying, 'Can this man really be the Son of David?' But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, 'This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.'" (Matthew 12:22-24)
The power of Christ is on full display. This is not a minor ailment. The man is under demonic oppression, resulting in physical blindness and muteness. He is a picture of humanity under the dominion of Satan: blind to the truth of God and mute in His praise. Jesus liberates him completely. The effect is instantaneous and total. The evidence is public and irrefutable.
The crowd responds with wonder. Their question, "Can this be the Son of David?" is the correct one. They see a power that aligns with what the prophets had said the Messiah would do. They are reasoning from the evidence. They are not yet committed disciples, but they are on the right track. Their hearts are not hardened.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, are the religious establishment. They see the exact same evidence as the crowd, but their conclusion is perverse. They do not deny the supernatural power. They cannot. Instead, they re-label it. "This is not the power of God; it is the power of Beelzebul." Beelzebul, or "lord of the flies," was a Philistine deity, here used as a name for Satan, the prince of demons. Their accusation is that Jesus is the chief demon, commanding the lesser demons. This is a deliberate act of spiritual treason. They are looking at the blazing light of the sun and declaring it to be the deepest darkness. This is the sin that Jesus will go on to describe as unforgivable, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is a settled, high-handed rebellion that calls good evil and evil good.
The Logic of the Kingdom (vv. 25-27)
Jesus, knowing their thoughts, dismantles their accusation with impeccable logic.
"And knowing their thoughts He said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges.'" (Matthew 12:25-27 LSB)
First, Jesus appeals to common sense. A kingdom, a city, a family, if it is engaged in civil war, will collapse. It is a universal principle. If Satan were in the business of casting out his own demonic foot soldiers, his entire enterprise would fall apart. Satan's kingdom, though wicked, is ruthlessly pragmatic. He is not insane. The Pharisees' accusation is not just malicious; it is profoundly stupid. It fails the most basic test of logic.
Second, Jesus turns their own assumptions back on them. He asks, "by whom do your sons cast them out?" He is referring to Jewish exorcists, some of whom operated with varying degrees of success, likely invoking the name of God. Jesus' point is a sharp ad hominem. "If my exorcisms are demonic, what about yours? Are you willing to condemn your own people as satanic agents?" Of course, they are not. Therefore, "they will be your judges." Their own practices and their unwillingness to apply their standard consistently will condemn them. They have been caught in a web of their own making. This is what happens when you abandon reason in the service of hatred.
The Invasion Has Begun (v. 28)
Having demolished their argument, Jesus now presents the only other logical possibility, and it is a world-shattering one.
"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." (Genesis 1:3 LSB)
This is the central claim. The two options are exhaustive: either the power is from below, or it is from above. Jesus has shown the first option to be absurd. Therefore, the second must be true. He is casting out demons by the Spirit of God. And if that is true, the conclusion is inescapable: "the kingdom of God has come upon you."
This is the language of an invasion, a surprise attack. The verb means to arrive suddenly, to overtake. The kingdom is not some future, ethereal reality. It is not a vague sentiment in the hearts of men. It is a present, powerful, conquering reality that has broken into human history in the person of Jesus Christ. His ministry is D-Day in the spiritual war. The King has landed on enemy-occupied soil, and He is pushing back the frontiers of darkness. Every demon cast out, every disease healed, every sinner forgiven is another beachhead taken for the kingdom of God.
This is the foundation of our optimistic, postmillennial eschatology. The kingdom is not in retreat. It is not losing. The King has already come, the decisive battle has already been won, and the kingdom is advancing, growing like a mustard seed, leavening the whole lump of humanity. The Pharisees thought they were guarding the borders of Israel, but they were blind to the fact that the true King had already breached their walls.
Binding the Strong Man (v. 29)
Jesus concludes with a powerful and illuminating parable that explains the strategy of His invasion.
"Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house." (Matthew 12:29 LSB)
The "strong man" is Satan. His "house" is this world, the domain over which he has usurped authority since the fall. His "property" or "goods" are the souls of men and women held captive by him in blindness and sin. Jesus is the one who is stronger, who has come to enter the house and plunder it.
But notice the strategy. Before you can plunder the house, you must first bind the strong man. This is precisely what Jesus came to do. His entire life of perfect obedience, His resistance to temptation in the wilderness, His authority over demons, all culminated in the cross and resurrection. At the cross, Christ met the strong man in battle, and He decisively defeated him. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (Col. 2:15). He destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14).
The binding of Satan, which John sees in Revelation 20, is not some future event. It happened at the first coming of Christ. Satan is bound in this specific sense: he can no longer prevent the gospel from going out and deceiving the nations, keeping them in pagan darkness. Before Christ, only Israel had the light. Now, because the strong man has been bound, the disciples can be sent out to all nations to plunder his house, to rescue his captives through the preaching of the gospel.
Every time a sinner repents and believes, it is another piece of furniture being carried out of the strong man's house. Every time a church is planted, it is a forward operating base established in enemy territory. Every time a Christian family raises their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, it is a claim of kingdom territory. The plundering has been going on for two thousand years, and it will continue until all the stolen goods are recovered and the house is empty.
Conclusion: Whose Side Are You On?
This passage leaves no room for neutrality. Jesus Himself says a few verses later, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." There is a war on. Two kingdoms are locked in conflict: the kingdom of God, led by King Jesus, and the kingdom of Satan.
The evidence of the King's power is all around us. It is in the testimony of Scripture. It is in the transformed lives of millions of believers throughout history. It is in the enduring reality of the Church, which the gates of Hell have not prevailed against. The question is, how will you respond to this evidence?
You can be like the crowds, honestly perplexed and asking the right questions. That is a good place to start. If you are there, press in. Do not stop asking until you bow the knee to the Son of David.
Or you can be like the Pharisees. You can see the power, acknowledge the reality, but in the hardness of your heart, you can refuse to submit. You can invent any reason, no matter how illogical or absurd, to justify your rebellion. You can call the work of the Spirit the work of the devil. Be warned, that is a terrifying place to be. It is the precipice of eternal ruin.
The good news is that the stronger man has come. He has bound the tyrant who held you captive. He has breached the walls of your prison. The door is open. The gospel is the announcement that you can be plundered from the house of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. The King is mighty to save. The only question is whether you will be counted among His rescued treasures or among the rubble of the strong man's ruined house.