Jesus and the Legion of Demons

Father, we confess before you that sometimes we don't want to act like Christians

because we are a bit embarrassed about how the world would view us,

how average Canadians would view us or our friends.

And we confess to that temptation even now.

But Father, in the name of Jesus, not in our strength,

but definitely not in our strength, but only in the name of Jesus,

and washed by him and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

In the name of Jesus, Father, we ask that every demon or evil spirit that is present or arrayed against us,

whether it is in this place or those who are entering into our worship online,

that, Father, in the name of Jesus, every evil spirit will be bound,

that in the name of Jesus, every demon and evil spirit will be silenced,

that in the name of Jesus, these foul spirits will be taken away, not to return.

And Father, in the name of Jesus, we ask that you do not leave us empty,

but that the Holy Spirit would come with might and power and deep conviction into each of our hearts,

that you, Jesus, might rule in our hearts.

We invite, with no qualifications, with no conditions,

we invite, Lord Jesus, you to speak into our hearts and rule in our hearts,

today and always.

And we ask this in the precious name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So now that I've weirded some of you out by that prayer,

although some of you have heard me pray like this before,

Jesus and the Legion of Demons.

That's the sermon today.

Jesus and the Legion of Demons were evil spirits.

So let's turn and look at this text.

It's Mark chapter 5, beginning at verse 1.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

It goes from 1 to 20.

And just before, as you're maybe turning to look at it in your Bibles,

just a couple of things.

First of all, I've written a blog about the fact that there are apparent significant contradictions

between Mark and Matthew and Luke.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are three ancient biographies of Jesus,

either written by eyewitnesses or dependent upon eyewitness testimony.

And all three of these ancient biographies were written when many eyewitnesses were still alive,

to contradict it.

And if you look at the three accounts, you'll see that there are some...

I say that there's, in particular, three often pointed out contradictions.

And I'm not going to talk about that in the sermon.

I've written a blog.

And as I've said before, if I get my blog written before 4.30 on Friday,

you get it on Saturday.

If I get it written after that, you get it on Monday.

So on Monday, I've written a blog,

and I'll talk about those apparent contradictions

and why there aren't, in fact, any contradictions and you can trust the Bible.

But what I'm going to do in this text...

And by the way, this is actually just any...

Those of you who do Bible studies yourselves,

there's sort of two fundamentally different ways

that you can do a Bible study on Matthew, Mark, or Luke.

And because there's quite a few times

when all three of these biographies will talk about the same event.

And so one way to do it is to try to look at all three of them at the same time.

The other way to do it is to sort of fundamentally just look at one of them

and, in a sense, ignore the other two.

Because in every case, they tell the story in such a way

to make points that are significant for the story,

the bigger story that they're telling, like in Matthew or Mark or Luke.

So other than one little time where I'm going to mention something,

fundamentally what I've been doing every week when we preach on Mark

is just looking at Mark

and not trying to bring in pieces of information from the other stories.

We just sort of look.

So I'm not prejudging how I answer the challenges in my blog.

I'm going to preach this.

We're going to look at the story as Mark has written it.

And so here, let's go.

What's just happened is Jesus has just calmed the storm.

He is now in this area, which we'll hear about in a moment,

which is a primarily pagan area.

And at the end of the story, those of you who remember it,

it mentions the Decapolis.

And 67 BC, the area was subdued by the Imperial Roman forces.

And when the area was subdued by the Imperial Roman forces,

they picked this area and had picked 10 cities to be showcases of pagan,

cultural, and religious life.

And so that's the area that Jesus is coming into,

where the 10 principal cities have been set aside by the Roman Empire

now for quite a few years, almost 100 years,

to be a showcase for pagan culture, power, understanding.

And that's the area, a majority pagan area that Jesus has come into.

And here's how it goes.

Verse 1.

They came to the other side.

That's Jesus and the disciples.

They've gotten out.

Jesus has calmed the storm.

They arrive on the other side.

Sorry.

So they came to the other side of the sea,

to the country of the Gerasenes.

And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat,

immediately there met him out of the tombs,

a man with an unclean spirit.

And just those of you who are a bit familiar with the Bible,

but some of you aren't,

the Bible sometimes will say unclean spirit,

sometimes an evil spirit, and sometimes demon.

It's just three different ways of referring to the same type of entity.

They're not different types.

They're all the same thing.

So this man has come,

and he has an evil spirit or evil spirits.

And now Mark is going to, in a sense,

take a bit of an aside.

I guess if they were doing a movie of this,

what you would see now is there'd be a bit of a flashback

where you get different images of what the man is,

sort of introducing the man

before it gets back to what's going to happen

between the man and Jesus.

So it sort of all of a sudden switches,

goes a little bit in time to make you familiar

with this particular man who's never named.

So that begins in verse 3.

The man with the evil spirit lived among the tombs,

and no one could bind him anymore,

not even with a chain.

For he had often been bound with shackles and chains,

but he wrenched the chains apart,

and he broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had the strength to subdue him.

Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains,

he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

And in the original language,

the language is quite harsh and brutal.

You sort of get a bit of a feel of it in the English, right?

Where, you know, with chain, bound,

shackles, chains, wrenched, chains,

broke the shackles, the calling out.

You get this sense of a very brutal type of a language.

Now, in this description,

it's very interesting if you think about it for a second.

And, you see,

the Bible provides to us a mirror

of who we are really in our heart.

And in a sense,

constantly the challenge of reading the Bible is,

will you see it as a mirror,

or will you stand and looking at the Bible

sort of as a critic and a judge?

And, obviously,

I'm not saying you shouldn't have questions and all of that.

And if you're,

wouldn't say that you're a Christian

and you're watching this,

it's completely valid to have, like, questions.

I'm going to raise some questions about this in a moment.

But, fundamentally,

it's an opportunity.

This is what Christians believe.

It's a bit of a mirror.

I mean, it's both a window

to see into what the world is really like,

but it's also a mirror to reveal to us

who we are,

what we really are like at the level of our heart.

Now, if you think about it for a second,

this description of what we've just read

is what the average Canadian longs for.

You go, what?

If you think about it,

what I've just read

is what the average Canadian longs for.

This man is very strong.

He can break chains and shackles.

I mean, that's what superheroes movies are about.

That's what gyms are about.

But he's very, very, very strong.

He's feared.

He takes no guff.

There was a little feature the other day

about Bruce Willis movies,

which are still quite remarkably possible.

And one of the things that characterizes Bruce Willis

and other movies like that

is he's a guy who takes no guff.

Now, why is it that we would like a movie like that?

Because in and of ourselves,

I'd like to be the type of person

who takes no guff.

I'd like to be able to go into a meeting

and I'm not going to take any of this type of stuff.

And on one level,

most of us would like to be a little bit feared.

Maybe even sometimes a lot feared.

This guy is independent.

He doesn't care what people think.

I mean, on one level,

it's not what we sort of value in our society,

that we wish that we were the sort of person

who doesn't really care what people think.

And he doesn't care for social conventions.

And on one level,

that speaks very powerfully of North American culture.

We'd like to be the type of person

who doesn't care for social conventions.

Why?

Well, because

we want to be true to our inner life.

And we want to be authentic and autonomous.

And this man is true to his inner life

and he is authentic and autonomous.

He doesn't care about social conventions.

He doesn't take any guff.

He's very, very strong.

And on one level,

to our great horror,

to meet a man who's autonomous

and authentic and self-actualized.

But to our horror,

when we see a character like this in the Bible,

we recoil from him in horror.

Now, this is where you see

the Bible starts to become a bit of a mirror.

What does it say about the way

that Canadians casually talk

about the ideal type of life

if we actually see an example of it

and we would recoil from it in horror?

I mean, most of us would.

In fact, actually,

if we came across somebody in a Bible study,

that said,

whoa, I'd like to be like that guy,

you'd all go like this.

You'd take a bit of a step back

and say,

what, you'd like to be like this?

If it's your boss,

you'd say to yourself,

well, that explains a lot

if your boss

or your boss's boss

thinks like that.

But we would automatically just say,

this person is not a model.

They're alone.

They're unloved.

They're in agony.

They are brutal individuals

who are brutal to others

and they brutalize themselves.

They brutalize themselves.

They brutalize others.

He is a brutal man.

You see,

one of the things

that the gospel constantly does

is it subverts

what we think we want.

But it subverts

what we think we really want

and what our culture tells us

we really want

to fulfill at a deeper level

what we truly want.

Because the fact of the matter is

is we do want to be free.

Don't we?

We want to be free.

We want to be free.

But we also want to be loved

and we don't want to be alone

and we don't want to brutalize others

and be brutalized ourselves.

So the story now is setting up

how is Jesus going to handle this?

How is he going to deal with it?

What's going to be revealed about the man

and what's going to be revealed about Jesus?

So look what happens in verse 6.

And here,

the original language

gives a bit of a stronger sense

because you have this man

who lives where death,

where there is just death

and lives alone.

And the one thing that they will bring in,

if you look at the other accounts,

he's also naked.

That's what I meant by

I didn't care about social conventions

and stuff like that.

That's the one thing

I'm going to bring in

from the other accounts.

This fearsome, brutal, yelling, cut man

who's very, he's cut both in the sense

he's very strong and he's cut

because he cuts himself with stones.

And he sees Jesus.

And in verse 6,

when he saw Jesus from afar,

he ran and fell down before him.

In the original language,

there's this sense

that he's hurling himself at Jesus.

Hurling himself across the distance

to hurling himself at Jesus.

But rather than falling on Jesus,

he falls down.

Jesus doesn't have to defend himself.

The guy just falls down.

Almost like an early example

of being slain in the spirit

for my charismatic friends.

He just falls down.

Before Jesus.

And not only does he fall down

in the original language,

he's prostrate before him.

You know, if you've seen

Roman Catholic ordinations,

the priest through the deacon

getting prostrate on the floor.

That's the guy's prostrate.

He hurls himself at the Jesus.

But before that happens,

he's now prostrate.

Verse 7,

Now, one of the things which is interesting here,

and actually there's two cases in this text

where, to our Muslim friends

who might be watching this,

there's two cases in Mark's gospel

where the text very clearly says

that Jesus is God.

This is one of them.

And it's very interesting

because it says that Jesus is a God

in the context,

in the strongest possible sense

that a pagan would understand it

because it's a primarily pagan expression

that for the pagans who believed

that there were many gods,

you know, that there was, you know,

Hercules and Zeus

and all these different gods,

but they had this sense

that higher than all of the gods

and goddesses that they were aware of,

that higher than all of those

and however high you go,

there is eventually

an ultimately most high God.

And the demon-possessed man

is saying,

Jesus, you are the son

of the most high God.

And what that is meaning is,

of course, it means that Jesus

is of the same nature

as the most high God

because that's, you know,

I have, God has blessed me

with nine children

and all of the babies

have human nature.

Right?

That's just how it is.

Cats have kittens.

They share the same nature.

So this is a very high claim of God.

Remember, they're in a primarily pagan area.

He uses pagan categories,

but he says that Jesus

is fundamentally God.

He says,

what do you have to do with me,

Jesus, son of the most high God?

In the original language as well,

it's even a stronger thing.

What do you have to do with me?

In the original language,

it's expressing,

the demon-possessed man

is expressing that normally

somebody like Jesus

doesn't have anything to do

with somebody like him.

It would be a little bit

as if on the drive home

or when I get home today,

I get a call

and it's Justin Trudeau.

And I would say,

now maybe you guys get,

some of you guys get called

by Justin Trudeau all the time,

right?

But for me,

I would view it as a prank.

And after I did a couple of tests,

et cetera,

eventually became clear

and Justin Trudeau called me,

in a sense,

I'm thinking,

what does Justin Trudeau want with me?

Like,

we inhabit

completely different spheres

that have nothing to do

with each other.

So what on earth

would somebody like him,

like Justin Trudeau,

want to have

to talk with somebody like me?

And that's the same type

of idea here.

The demon-possessed man

is saying,

son of the most high God,

Jesus,

you and I are in completely,

and it's completely true,

right?

They are in completely

and utterly

different spheres.

And now,

demons lie.

Of course,

in a sense,

he would know

that ultimately

God is sovereign,

but he tries to talk

as if it's not something

that generally speaking

the most high God

would want.

But that's what's happening.

And the other thing about it

is it's both a type

of bravido,

you know,

I tell you,

you have to swear by God,

you're not going to hurt me.

It's a type of bravido

and whining,

all interspersed

at the same time.

Like a type of groveling,

whining with bravido

intermingled,

all in this short

type of thing

as if they're big and tough

and you can tell Jesus

what to do

at the same time

you're cringing

and saying,

don't hurt me

and acknowledging

that you're about

to get your butt kicked,

so to speak,

and there's nothing

you can do to stop it.

That's the Greek,

getting your butt kicked.

Sorry,

never mind,

that's not what

the Greek says.

Anyway,

so,

now one of the things

which is really interesting

about this text

and it's a,

it's a real challenge

to those who go to the church

and those who might

call themselves Christians

is that this demon-possessed man,

he knows Jesus,

he passed the theology test

way better than any of the disciples,

but it doesn't have

any type of a carryover

into repentance

or openness to Jesus.

So there's two types of things

that are going on here.

Just because you can have

very,

very clear knowledge

about certain types of things

doesn't mean that it necessarily

has affected your heart.

Now,

by heart,

I don't just mean emotions,

I mean the very center

of who you are

where your emotions,

your imagination,

your aesthetic sense,

your intellect,

your will,

that sort of central place

in the human being

where all of these things

flow out of

that is so involved

in a personal relationship

with like a friend

or if it's love,

romantic love,

where there's a sense

of a turning

of that whole self

towards the other person

and openness of that self

to the other person.

And so what you see here

is you see both

very,

very accurate knowledge

of Jesus

but at the same time

absolutely no desire

for a relationship

and no interest whatsoever

in anything like repentance.

And there's going to be

an asking for mercy

but it's not really

the type of mercy

that's connected

to knowing

and being known.

So how does Jesus respond

to this request

don't torment me?

you know,

you're the son

of the most high God

and the fact

that this demon-possessed man

clearly knows Jesus

but shows no,

the demons show no

hesitation.

They're in a sense

convicted,

convinced demons.

You don't want to change terms.

How's Jesus going to respond to it?

Well, let's see

what happens in verse 9.

And Jesus asked him

so there's a bit of a pause

from the casting out.

Jesus asked him

what is your name?

The man replied

my name is Legion

for we

are many.

And he

begged him earnestly

not to send them

out of the country.

I'm going to read that text again.

It's a very, very

interesting text.

Now,

yeah,

I'm going to say it.

All week I sort of

batted my mind

back and forth

whether I'm going to say

anything about this.

I understand

that we live in a time

when many, many people

are,

they wouldn't say

that they're confused

at all about their identity

but that it's a very common thing

for people to want to

change their pronouns

to reflect the fact

that they believe

that their internal identity

is significantly different

than their biology.

And I understand

that that's very

prevalent.

I understand

that for some people

it's a welcome thing

and for others

it's not a welcome thing.

and I understand

that for some

to move towards

their chosen identity

is a,

for them

that's how they understand

liberation.

And I understand

that many, many people

want to be able

to try to say

that there's no such thing

of,

all this dualism

and all is a bad thing

and I understand

all of that.

I really do

and I think

I understand

a tiny little bit

about the emotional

and imaginative

longing for these types

of things

and to see it increase

that they see it

as a bit of a sense

of liberation.

And I'm definitely

not saying

that people who think

this are demon-possessed,

I'm not saying

this at all.

But for those here

or those who might

be online

watching this,

the very, very first time,

this is quite a few years ago,

the very first time

I met somebody

who wanted me

to call them they

as their pronoun,

I have to confess

the first thing

that came to my mind

was this story.

It's the very first thing

that came to my mind.

And I think,

amongst others,

if those of you

who are watching

and you sense

that your Christian friend

might not want

to use a word

like they

as your pronoun,

I mean,

I guess it just really

depends on whether

you'd like to have

a relationship with them

or whether you think

Christians just have

to automatically agree

with you,

but I don't think

my reaction

is completely,

like I think

for Christians

who are well-instructed,

this story

and the pronoun,

there's just something

that doesn't fit

with it very well.

Now,

whether we can have

a conversation about that,

I don't know

if anybody will contact me

about it or whatever,

that's a whole other thing.

Part of the thing

we need to pray about

in our society

is that we can start

to have civil conversations

again,

because that's being lost.

We can't have

civil conversations.

People yell,

and sometimes

we Christians yell,

and when we Christians yell,

we need to repent of it.

We should not be

the best yellers.

We should be yellers

in repentance

and recovery

from yelling.

So,

that's just a bit

of an aside note.

I struggle

but that's really true.

The very first time

I heard that pronoun,

the very first time

I ever heard of it,

that's the first thing

that popped into my mind.

Do you realize

if I was to say that,

the background for that?

Anyway,

it's very,

look again at the pronouns.

It's very interesting,

right?

And Jesus asked him,

what is your name?

The man.

And in a sense,

whether it's the man,

but it's not really

the man who replies.

He replied,

that's singular,

but then says,

my name is Legion,

for we are many.

And he begged him earnestly.

That is,

the demons

beg Jesus earnestly

not to send them

out of the country.

whether the Legion,

the demons

are telling the truth

and there really are

close to 6,000 demons

inside of the man or not,

it doesn't really matter.

It's obviously

to speak to a Jewish person

who's been conquered

by the Roman legions,

a militaristic,

imperialistic,

and threatening name.

And it is revelatory

in this text

that Christians,

the Bible teaches

that it is possible

to be so demonized

that you can be possessed

by an evil spirit

and you can be so demonized

that in fact

you can have more than

one evil spirit

dwell within you.

Now some of you

are going to say,

oh,

George,

time out,

time out.

George,

what are you?

Some medieval monk

craves because

you haven't had enough sex?

Reading stupid,

fanciful things

and being scared

of people in the dark?

Like George,

this guy is just

mentally ill.

There's a few other things

maybe some people

are thinking.

And all I'll say

about the mentally ill

claim is this.

If you,

I think it was

the last sermon

I did just before

in December,

but it's in Mark

Mark 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3

and what you see

in Mark chapter 3

Mark 3 · chapter mention

is very interesting

is that the Bible

understands the distinction

between mental illness

and demon possession.

The Bible itself

makes that distinction

and it's a distinction

that's been lost

and so what's being claimed here

is not that the man

is mentally ill

but the man is demon possessed

and we're going to see

that very clearly

in a few verses

as the Bible

brings it home

that it's talking

about demonization

to the point of possession

not mental illness.

And then the other thing

you might say

Jojojojojo

well I didn't know

they understood

the difference

between those things

but George

what this text

is talking about

is just completely impossible.

It's just completely impossible.

And often in my sermons

I try to have a bit

of an apologetics element

to it

but at this time

I'm not.

Amongst other things

there's the time reason

but all I'm going to say

is this

this text

as I said

is an ancient biography

story of Jesus.

It was written

by a man

who might have

been a direct eyewitness

but it's very clearly

based on eyewitness testimony

and that's what it's claiming

and it's written

while many eyewitnesses

were alive

and if you read

the whole thing

the language

as I've said before

is never like

once upon a time

or anything like that

it's always talking

of the language

of history

that's the way it is

at the level

of the original language

and the book

understands the difference

between like parables

and metaphors

and stories like that

because we've just seen

a whole pile of them

and we'll see more

in a moment.

We just saw

a little while ago

two sermons ago

there were a combination

of parables

slash aphorisms

slash metaphors

slash and then

some parables

so that Mark

understands the distinction

between these things

just because

he didn't know

never heard of

TikTok or Instagram

doesn't mean he's stupid

and he understands

these things

and this is written

and the claim is

that this actually happened

that's the claim

like you might say

well it was just a lie

or something like that

you know

and then we can have

a discussion about it

but you have to understand

the claim is

that this actually happened

and in a sense

what I'm going to show you

in a moment

is that Mark

doubles down

on the historical nature

of this

that it actually happened

he's going to double down

on it

in a couple of moments

and so the claim

of the text

is that this is actually

what happened

and obviously

if it happened

then you and I

live in a world

that is very different

than is described

by CBC

and Instagram

and Ottawa U

and the Supreme Court

of Canada

and the Parliament

of Canada

we live in a very

very different world

and it's talked about

by the elites

in this country

and I don't want

to ever encourage

you to live

in a fantasy world

I would like you

as a Christian

to live in the true world

the real world

as it really is

and Mark

is claiming

that this is

what the real world

is like

that there are

in fact beings

like evil spirits

and they can

affect

human beings

and they can

in a sense

demonize human beings

even to the point

of possession

and

there's another thing

to pause about here

before we see

what Jesus

is going to do

remember I said

at the beginning

or close to the beginning

some of you haven't

maybe you've already

fallen asleep

but in some ways

if you think about it

what this man

is described as

is what most Canadians

would like to be like

except

that's not what

they'd like to be like

but he embodies

what they like

it's just frightening

potentially for Canadians

to realize

that's what I

sort of like

I'd like to be strong

take no guff

not be controlled

by social conventions

be true to my inner self

be autonomous

be authentic

all of those things

but when you see this

you say

no no no no

okay

obviously something's

missing

in my list

of desires

and fulfillments

the other thing

that this text

is showing

is that this man

perfectly expresses

the average Canadian

sphere of Christianity

I mean

how is it

that the average Canadian

or many Canadians

think of Christianity

they think of things

like the handmaid's tale

that if you come

close to Jesus

you're going to

lose your individuality

you're going to

be brutalized

you're going to

turn into a person

who brutalizes others

in fact

I don't know

if anybody

who's involved

deeply in the

trans movement

has watched this

but they might think

that what I said

earlier was brutalizing

to trans people

and so in some ways

what you see

in this man

is how the average

Canadian

thinks

like that

the Christianity

that there's actually

something

many many Canadians

think there's something

evil about it

that it will destroy

your individuality

that it will

flatten you

it will hollow you out

it will brutalize you

it will make you

the type of person

who brutalizes others

but one of the things

that this text

is doing

is saying

you were right

to not want to

go like that

and if you come across

an ideology

or a religion

or a spirituality

that leads you

in the direction

run as fast

as you can

from it

but what

is going to be shown

in this text

is this is not

what Christianity is

Christianity

is the antidote

to this

and it's going to be

shown

throughout the entire

rest of the gospel

Jesus is going to

deal with this guy

and as the story

goes on

what you actually

see is that

Jesus is going to

be everything

the complete opposite

of everything

that a demon does

and that when you

respond to Christianity

and you respond

not respond to Christianity

when you respond

to the gospel

when you ask Jesus

to be your savior

and your lord

you see that there is

a this is a man

who is the perfect

penitent

that is the perfect

sacrifice

that embodies

perfect love

and he does

an act of

perfect love

setting aside

his power

and prerogatives

and all of those

things

the opposite

of what religion

does

and the opposite

of

he does all

of that

so by the end

of the story

you're in your

right mind

that you're

self-possessed

that your uniqueness

can finally start

to come out

and to flower

and to flourish

that you can have

a re-establishment

of community

and all

in the context

of being rightly

related to the true

and living God

the triune God

so see what happens

so they've asked

that Jesus

the demons

have revealed

that whether there's

just five

pretending to be a legion

or whether there really is

close to six thousand

whatever it is

we never know

that this man

is controlled

by many demons

so what happens

verse 11

now a great herd

of pigs

was feeding there

on the hillside

and they

that's the demons

begged Jesus

saying send us

to the pigs

notice this

let us

enter them

let us

enter them

they sort of

acknowledge

they don't actually

have power

so Jesus

gave them

permission

and the unclean

spirits

came out

and entered

the pigs

and the herd

numbering about

two thousand

rushed down

the steep bank

into the sea

and drowned

in the sea

you have a very

very powerful

graphic image

of the tremendous

chaotic

evil

life

denying

power

that was inside

this one man

inside this

one man

was such

rage

and hatred

of creation

and hatred

of life

and hatred

of God

that whether

it was two

or six thousand

it flows

into the pigs

and it

hurls them

hurls them

to their death

and destruction

and doom

mental illness

isn't contagious

this is the part

of the story

that shows

that it's not

mental illness

if you didn't

know that

you can sit

beside a man

or a woman

who has mental

illness

and it's not

contagious

you won't

get it

and we should

minister to

people

and love

people

who are

mentally ill

and our

congregation

has people

who suffer

from mental

illness

and there

are my

brother and

sister in

Christ

now

how do the

people respond

and how did

the man

what's the man

like afterwards

well that's what

goes on in the

story next

the herdsmen

have seen all

of this

it wasn't just

that there was

this man

and Jesus

and his

twelve

disciples

but there's

herdsmen

there with

the pigs

in verse 14

all of a sudden

we realize

that this

encounter

between Jesus

and the

demoniac

has been

witnessed

by the

locals

and in

verse 14

the herdsmen

flee

they flee

pigs go

this way

to their

death

herdsmen

go this

way

the herdsmen

fled and

told it in

the city

and in the

country

and people

came to

see what

it was

that had

happened

in other

words

they didn't

just believe

these herdsmen

because the

herdsmen

said it

these people

you know

once again

just because

they don't

have

instagram

doesn't

mean

they're

stupid

doesn't

mean

they're

gullible

they go

probably

nah

that didn't

happen

come on

really

that's

impossible

like what

let's

go check

it out

you know

these guys

have been

drinking

too much

cheap

wine

or whatever

they all

got drunk

they don't

know what

they're

talking about

they go

to look

in verse

15

and they

came to

Jesus

and saw

the demon

possessed

man

and the

one who

had had

the legion

sitting there

clothed and in his right mind

and they were afraid

and those who had seen it

described to them what had happened

to the demon possessed man

and to the pigs

and they began to beg Jesus

to depart from their region

now remember I said that

Jesus

Mark has written this gospel

to emphasize that this in fact

really happened

and here's how we can see part of that

that's what he's doing

you see he's written this gospel

this biography at a time

when there were so many eyewitnesses around

and what he's saying here is

listen if you don't believe me

the early readers of this

obviously we can't go back in time

like if you just picture what it was like

you go there

and what they're going to see

is they're going to see

2,000 dead pigs floating in the water

or maybe washed up on the beach

2,000

and they would have been there

rotting

for weeks

the birds of prey

I mean the birds

the vultures and others

that would have come there

this would have been something

that was there for weeks

and people came

and so this is the part of the story here

you see that

Mark is in a sense saying

this did happen

this happened

like you don't believe me

go travel to this area

I've given you enough descriptions

that you can figure out where it is

and go talk to the locals

and they'll say

I don't know what it was

I don't think it's

I would have said it was impossible

but there's no question

the guy was in his right mind

this guy that was like a main

like a evil guy

he's in his right mind

and there's the whole

the water

just all these pigs

it's like

just

I don't know

100 meters

300 meters

400 meters

into the water

these dead pigs

they ended up floating around

they

it's a very very public miracle

and the man

look again at how the man is described

it's in verse 15

they came to Jesus

and saw the demon possessed man

the one who had had the legion

sitting there clothed

and in his right mind

he was sitting there

he's calm

he had his clothes on

he was in his right mind

you see deeper

than wanting to be true

to your inner self

you want to be in your right mind

and you want to be unique

and you want to be an individual

and that's the way God designed you and me

but we want to be unique

and an individual

in such a way

that it doesn't brutalize other people

where love is possible

and community is possible

and that's what we see here

this man

it's a very powerful image

just drawn in a couple of short words

and it's very very interesting

that the people wanted Jesus to flee

you see

the pagan gods of those days

they raped

they lied

they murdered

and people were to be their slaves

and you would try to navigate

the distance

and the issues

of the different gods

and the different demands

to try to sort of get out

from under their notice

or to

somehow or another trick

or coerce them

into doing something for you

that you wanted

and it's a very fundamental principle

of religion

and spirituality

that the god

or the goddesses

or the all

wants you

to lose your identity

and to die

for its glory

but here we see

that Jesus

with all the power

in the world

uses his power

to die

he in a sense

goes the exact opposite

of what the demons

and what religious wants

and what our self

and our society wants

which is to accrue power

and it's as if

you know

we're pulling back

and pulling back

and pulling like that

and he knows

that the only way

that we can be free

is in a sense

that he does

what we cannot do

which is to take this power

and go all the way back

and go even deeper

to the full extent

of the problem

that the power causes

and he goes

and empties himself

and empties himself

and empties himself

even to the point

of dying on the cross

you can't be more

powerless than dead

you can't be poorer

than dead

and the mystery

of the bible

tells us

that Jesus goes

and takes within death

all of the things

all of the punishments

all of the horrors

of death

with nothing left out

whatever that means

because we don't know

what that means

but whatever it means

he experiences

all of that

out of love

for you and me

that when we put

our faith and trust

in him

we begin a journey

of becoming

in our right mind

and being properly clothed

and being loved

by almighty God

and being able

to sit in peace

with almighty God

and with others

in peace

and freedom

and uniqueness

and love

and safety

and security

and affection

and delight

and that is why

he died for you

the complete opposite

of a demon

now some of you

might say

George

that's a very wonderful story

but I think I'm like

that guy

because you see

that guy

he didn't

I remember what you said

when you read it earlier

he doesn't get to

he doesn't get to stay

with Jesus

and I think that's my worry

you know

I've tried different religions

I've tried different

spiritualities

and you know

they just don't stick

and at the end of the day

I just think there's something

maybe broken or wrong

about me

that this could never be

possibly true about me

and that's sort of George

what the story shows

but that's not what

the story shows at all

let me show how it finishes

and I'll tell you about

something that's going to happen

in two chapters

look at verse 18

as Jesus was getting

into the boat

the man

who had been possessed

with demons

begged Jesus

that he might be with him

and here's our fear

and Jesus did not permit him

and I've run out of time

but this doesn't mean

that the man is rejected

by Jesus

this man becomes

the first evangelist

he becomes the first evangelist

he is given a mission

and a purpose

and a commission

and with great affection

Jesus says to him

go home to your friends

and tell them

how much the Lord

has done for you

and how he has had mercy on you

and since that's

every one of us

probably nobody here

has been delivered

from demons

but maybe one of you have

I don't know

somebody watching

maybe you have been

had an exorcism

performed on you

and have been delivered

from demonic oppression

at a very deep level

but all of us

can bear witness

about how much

the Lord has done for us

and even if we can't think

of how much he's done for us

we can tell

how he has had mercy on us

how he has had mercy on me

verse 20

and he went away

and began to proclaim

in the Decapolis

how much Jesus

had done for him

and everyone marveled

now it's very very interesting

because in the Bible

one of the things

that the Bible

wants to make clear

is that there's only one hero

and that is Jesus

one of the things

I regularly pray

with the people up front

I didn't do it today

but it's a very regular thing

I pray that at the end

of the service

people won't want

to know more about me

but know about

more

but want to know

more about Jesus

and I obviously

have an ego

and a flesh

and obviously

I like being admired

and obviously

I like all of those things

but really

my deepest desire

is that nobody

wants to talk to me

afterwards

they want to spend

time with Jesus

and I confess

in my flesh

because I'm a fallen

human being

that people

I might sort of

be bothered

if somebody says

about this wonderful

thing they heard

a couple of months ago

and it's what I said

and they don't remember

that it came from me

but at the end of the day

what I really

really really really

do want

and I want to grow

in wanting even more

is that they just

they just love Jesus more

and they haven't realized

that I had anything

to do with their love

and that would be

a good thing

that would be

a good thing

and so one of the ways

that the gospel models this

is this story ends

this is so cool

this story ends

that Jesus

in the Decapolis

he does the miracle

he the people

all say

get away from us

Jesus

and and they

and Jesus leaves

and there's only one guy

left who likes Jesus

and in chapter 7

Jesus comes to the region

again

and he speaks

and there's 4,000 people

there to hear him

and Jesus performs

the miracle

of feeding 4,000

right where this guy

had gone

Jesus did not

reject the guy

there are no little

people in Jesus' life

if you come to know

Jesus as your Savior

and Lord

you are special

you are unique

you are deeply loved

and you will be

deeply loved

for all eternity

and part of

sanctification

is beginning to know

and experience that

now on this side

of the grave

Jesus took this one guy

and he started

to tell people

about what Jesus

had done for him

and how mercy

had been shown to him

and whether it was

months or a year later

the Bible doesn't give

chronology

4,000 people came

more than 4,000 people

came to hear Jesus

the next time

let's stand

bow our heads

in prayer

Father we give you

thanks and praise

for Jesus

we thank and praise you

that

he did what we could not

he disentangled himself

from power

and prestige

he did those things

not have a hold of him

those things

that we wish

that we could do

but can't

he did for us

and that he did

the complete

he used all of his power

to do the opposite

of what we expect

power to be used for

he used his power

to resist temptation

to live a sinless life

and to die upon the cross

as a sacrifice for sin

so that I can be made right

with God

that anyone who puts

their trust and faith

in Jesus

can be made right with you

and we give you

thanks and praise

Father

that when we receive

the Jesus

into our lives

that he will begin

to work within us

to put us

in our right mind

to put us

in our right mind

to heal us

that we might be free

as you intended us to be

and so Father

we ask that you

deliver us

from whatever

fear we have

of drawing close

to Christ

or surrendering

to him

that you would

deliver us

Father

from these fears

we confess

that we're not

really fearing you

we're fearing demons

and help us

to have a great love

for Jesus

and trust

and know

that as he

becomes more precious

and real

and as his work

and his promises

become more precious

and real

and deep to our hearts

that you will help us

to be in our right mind

and in community

with others

and in community

with you

so Father

please do this wonderful

work of grace

in our lives

and we ask this

in the name of Jesus

your son

and our savior

amen