Go and Tell

If you have your Bibles, let's open into Mark chapter 5, Mark chapter 5, and let me pray one more time briefly.

Mark 5 · chapter mention Mark 5 · chapter mention

Father, speak.

Your servants are listening.

Help us to listen well.

Christ's name.

Amen.

I want you to think for a second about the person that you know in your life that seems the furthest from Christ, that you think there's not a snowball's chance in Hades that this person could ever be saved.

Maybe it's because they're just so indifferent, they're so cold, hard-hearted, they don't care.

Or maybe it's because they are so wicked and so entrenched and addicted to some dark, destructive sin.

There's like, hey, there's no way they could be set free, they could be forgiven.

Or maybe it's because they are such an adherent to another religion, so loyal to that faith, I don't think they're leaving that to come to Christ.

Humanly speaking, who is it that seems impossible to you?

And then I want you to think for a second, and what would you do?

How would you respond if that person got saved, came to Christ?

The context of what we're going to be looking at today in Mark chapter 5 is right after last week's sermon that Jesus seemed a little bit tired, overwhelmed by the crowd, said let's get in the boat, let's cross to the other side.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

It was more of a Gentile area, uh, but didn't have as many cities, not as many people.

He's trying to get away.

Okay?

Went through a crazy storm, and then we're going to pick up, they land on the other side.

So let's read Mark chapter 5, starting in verse 1.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Garasenes.

And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit.

He 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 bruising himself with stones.

And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I adjure you by God, do not torment me.

For he, as Jesus, was saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.

And Jesus asked him, What is your name?

And he replied, My name is Legion, for we are many.

And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, Send us to the pigs, let us enter them.

So he 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 were drowned in the sea.

The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country, and the people came to see what it was that had happened.

And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who 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 figs.

And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

And he was getting into the boat.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.

And he did not permit him, but said 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 he went away and began to proclaim in the decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

So they come to this other side of the lake.

It's more of a Gentile area, non-Jewish, it's more influenced by Greek culture.

And Jesus gets out of the boat, and almost instantly there's this demoniac, a man possessed, we're going to see with many demons, comes running up to Jesus.

Obviously, this man had been causing problems for the townspeople because they've been trying to bind him.

But he had supernatural strength.

He could break the chains.

Nobody could bind him.

So he's living in the tombs, which probably part of that was back then, a lot of times tombs were they were caves, like Jesus will be buried in later.

And so if you got kicked out of town, the best place that you might could find a little shelter would be in the graveyard, in the caves.

Okay?

But he's crazy.

He's bruising himself.

He's a lunatic.

He's screaming.

Luke's account tells us that he ran around naked.

He sees Jesus from a distance.

He comes, he prostrates himself.

And again, we've already seen this in the Gospel of Mark.

The demons recognize Jesus.

And this time it's even clearer.

You're the Son of the Most High God.

They know exactly who he is.

Now, some in ancient times, some people that were into exorcisms and things like that, some of them thought if you can know the name of somebody else, you can have control over them.

If you can know the name of a spirit.

So some people speculate, maybe these demons thought, because we know Jesus' name, maybe we can have some control over them.

Obviously it didn't work.

Jesus is in total control.

But do notice this in verse 8.

Did you notice it it makes it sound like Jesus had to try to cast the demon out more than once before the demon left?

And he was repeatedly saying to the man, come out, come out, come out.

And at first the demon did not come out, it resisted.

So Jesus says, I want to know your name.

And he tells him Legion, which back then was the word for the largest military unit of Romans' troops.

And it could be thousands, somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000, depending.

But it's the idea of there are thousands of demons in this man, or at least many.

And they're like an army.

And they work together in concert to dominate, to control this man.

Now, the demons seem to like this region.

They like this Gentile territory.

Why exactly is that?

We don't fully know.

Maybe because it's pagan and it's like we have more power and influence here.

Please don't make us leave.

They're praying, they're begging Jesus.

And they say, you know what?

There's a bunch of pigs over there.

Let us go into the pigs.

I mean, isn't that weird?

Let's just pause for a second, right?

Sometimes you read the Bible and you're like, that's just weird, man.

But to me, I think this is one of the reasons, you know, it's real.

If you're making up a religion, you probably don't put stuff like that in there, right?

It's like, leave out the weird pig stuff.

It's in there because it really happened.

The demons say, there's a bunch of pigs over there.

If you're gonna cast us out, at least let us go into the pigs.

And Jesus says, Okay, I'll let you go into the pigs.

Why do they want to go into the pigs?

Here's my best understanding.

I wonder if any of you have ever seen the movie The Dark Knight, the Batman movie.

Heath Ledger's the Joker character.

And really, I think part of what made that such a powerful performance is it's almost like he's satanic.

And there's one point where he says, I just want the whole world to burn.

And that's Satan.

He knows that he's lost.

But he wants to do as much death and destruction as he can before his time is done.

So the demon's like, hey, if we can't destroy this man, at least let us wipe out a bunch of pigs.

And Jesus says, okay.

Pigs go into the herd, herd goes off the cliff.

I mean, if this was in modern day and you lost this many pigs, we're talking at least a quarter million dollars of profit.

Gone like that.

The pig herders notice what's happened.

They run into town to tell the story.

Now everybody's coming back out.

And I don't know if you remember in John chapter 4 when Jesus essentially led the woman at the well to Christ, and she goes into town, she tells everybody, everybody else comes out.

John 4 · chapter mention

And you remember they beg Jesus to stay.

We want to hear more about you.

Not these guys.

They come, they see crazy naked demon guy clothed in his right mind and with some clothes.

Somebody gave him some pants.

They see what's going on.

He's sitting there at the feet of Jesus listening, but what do they say?

They're like, hey, we don't want any more of this.

Maybe it's nice that we don't have to listen to this lunatic scream at night anymore.

But you just wiped out a massive part of our economy.

No thanks.

We don't want to deal with that.

Get out of here.

And Jesus honors their request, just like he'd honored the demon's request, and he gets in his boat to leave.

And as he's getting in the boat to leave, this brand new convert says, Hey Jesus, you know, I got kind of a bad reputation where I grew up.

Any chance you got a 13th slot in your discipleship group?

I'd really like to be a part.

And Jesus says, Nope, no more room in the boat for you, buddy.

Just go home and tell people what the Lord's done for you.

And he does.

And the people were shocked.

Now, so much from this that we can take.

The first is this always be ready to minister to others when opportunities arise.

Jesus in his humanity, there's no indication that he was going to the other side of the lake looking for this man.

The indication is he was going to the other side of the lake looking for rest.

He gets there, the man comes, Jesus turns it into a ministry opportunity.

1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15 says, always be ready to give an answer for the hope that you have.

1 Peter 3:15

And sometimes the best opportunities for ministry don't come when they're planned.

They come randomly walking through the neighborhood, at the gym, in between sets.

I'll tell you where you really see this is parenting little kids, right?

You try to have family devotions at dinner, how's that go?

Terrible, right?

People are mad, angry, it's like they're demon possessed.

And then at 9 p.m.

when you're exhausted and you're like, please just shut up and go to sleep.

Because I need some time by myself to watch Seinfeld.

And your kid's like, Dad, how can God be three and one?

And you're like, that is not what I want to talk about right now.

Why couldn't you ask me that at dinner when I was in a good mood?

Guys, always be ready for ministry opportunities whenever they come.

Okay.

Second thing would be there's real evil in this world that you and I are no match for, but Christ is.

Right?

First John 4, 4, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

And guys, some of you may be sitting here listening thinking, yeah, there's real evil in this world, and I feel it inside myself.

I don't have to look outside myself.

I feel it boiling in my own chest at times and my own desires, addictions, longings.

But Colossians 1 says, Christ is in us.

If you're in Christ, he's in you, he's the hope of glory.

It's coming.

John 15, 5, Jesus said, Apart from me you can do nothing.

But if you abide in Christ and His Word abides in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

I mean, one of the ways you say, well, how do I be ready at all times and all places to minister?

Through daily abiding.

Time in the Word, time in prayer, welcome of Christ.

2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 says that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

2 Peter 1:3

With the Holy Spirit living in you, you have everything you need.

Okay.

Third thing.

There's real demonic, destructive, evil power in this world, but Christ controls it all.

I mean, did you notice that?

When the demons are like, we want to do more death and destruction, they had to ask permission.

Luther said, there is a Satan, but he's God's Satan.

Now listen, that gets into all sorts of weird, deep theological conversations.

But I just tell you this, does that open up some problems?

Why did God even invent Satan, you might say?

Why does God allow Satan?

Yes, there are problems when you believe that.

But let me tell you what, this set of problems is a lot better than the set of problems over here if you say, no, Satan is equal with God, and he can do whatever he wants.

You got a lot bigger questions and worries over here.

There may be things we don't like or understand when we say God is totally in control of Satan, but there's a lot of comfort in it that he is on a leash that God can yank whenever he wants to.

The fourth thing, guys, God's work in and through us is rarely instantaneous.

Can God do instantaneous miracles?

Of course he can.

I mean, salvation is one.

But that's not always how he works.

Pastor Eder at Browerwood used to say, sometimes God will microwave a sin out of your life.

Most of us have probably had at least one experience like that.

But then the rest of the sins, it's the crock pot.

And I don't know about you, I like the microwave a whole lot better.

But God seems to like the crock pot a lot better.

But don't grow weary in doing good.

Persevere.

Hope.

I mean, guys, Jesus Christ God, fully God, sovereign God, all-powerful God in his humanity, it took multiple trials to cast this demon out.

Don't be shocked that some of the sins that you were trying to pray out of your life don't come out after one good prayer time.

Persevere.

Fifth, all sin eventually leads to death and destruction, right?

There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end of it leads to death.

If Christ doesn't intervene, all sin, the smallest sin, the tiniest sin, the seemingly most insignificant sin, will lead to literal death and destruction.

Don't play around with it.

Don't start with it.

I mean, so many, I listen, I these type thought patterns have gone through my heart and mind so often.

Including the last week, not just like 20 years ago, back when I was an idiot, right?

Well, I don't want to go all the way with sin.

But what I would like to, because I know there's pleasure in sin for a season.

Bible even talks about that.

So what I would like to do is I would like to find a way to dip just the little tip of my pinky toe into the pool of sin and get a little bit of the pleasure of sin and then get my pinky toe out.

It just doesn't work that way.

Run from sin, hate sin because it always leads to death and destructive destruction, okay?

Um take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.

Now, I don't know if a Baptist preacher or a country music artist said that first.

But it's true.

That'll preach.

Six.

Love God and people more than you love money and comfort.

I mean, these people saw a real miracle.

Most of us would probably pay some money to see a miracle like this.

Demon exorcism, conversion, life change on the spot.

Pretty awesome.

But then it's like, but you wrecked my business, Jesus.

I don't want any more of that.

These are like the Pharisees in the first part of Mark chapter 3 in the synagogue, man with a withered hand, and Jesus says, What should I do?

Mark 3 · chapter mention

Should I heal him or not?

And they didn't want him.

But why?

Because they didn't really love people.

They didn't really care.

We don't need to be that way.

The seventh thing: when God starts working in and around you, it doesn't always make things easier.

Sometimes, humanly speaking, it makes your life harder.

Haven't you noticed that?

Yeah, and I'm coming out of 27 years of college ministry, and I just can't tell you how many times somebody genuinely comes to Christ and it's happy and it's joyful and there's fruit and there's positive stuff, but there's also a lot of pain.

It starts to ruin some relationships.

I mean, Jesus is the one that said, hey, I don't think I came to bring peace.

And there's other places where he said he did come bring peace, but there were times where he said, I didn't come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword.

Separate people.

Christ coming in your life, Christ working in your life, Christ working through your life.

It will cost you at times.

There will be sacrifice, there will be pain.

And we don't need to be shocked when that happens.

Eighth.

And this is this one is especially true if you're not in Christ or you're not sure that you're in Christ yet.

Be really careful what you pray for.

All these Gentile pagans, they had God right in front of them.

The answer to all the deepest longings of their soul was right there with a beard and a robe and sandals.

And they said, please leave us alone.

And he said, Okay.

Matthew Poole said this, how dangerous a thing it is for men to reject Christ.

He immediately departed, and we do not read that he came here anymore.

It's terrifying.

But ninth.

Take comfort if you're in Christ, because he always gives you what's best.

This is one of the, this is one of the, to me, this is the most glorious promise of the gospel, other than salvation from my sins, go to heaven when I die.

That God always does what is absolutely best for his people, even when we ask for the exact opposite.

And you're like, Can you give an example of that?

I don't know how many of you remember the old Garth Brooks song, Sometimes You Thank God for Unanswered Prayers, right?

I mean, you're like, I don't grow up listening to country music.

Okay, well, here's the bottom line.

You know, it's like Garth was in high school at some point dating somebody and said, God, if you'll give me anything, it's this woman.

And God didn't give him that woman.

And then years later, he's ended up married to somebody else, and he's like, Thank you, God, that you didn't give me what I thought I wanted.

You gave me something better.

Did you notice there there are three different prayers in this passage to Jesus?

First, the demons.

They actually had two prayers.

Number one, don't kick us out of the country.

And can we go kill the pigs?

And Jesus said, Yep.

Permission granted.

The pagans come.

Hey, we don't like you.

Leave us alone.

Okay, whatever you say.

Then his brand new convert, his little baby in the faith.

Ah, Jesus, I'm terrified.

I've been a lunatic as long as you can remember.

My brain is pretty scrambled.

Can I just hang out with you?

You know.

Peter seems a lot nicer, even than the people I used to hang out with.

Nope, can't come.

Tim Keller said, God will either give us exactly what we asked for in prayer, or he would give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows.

God always does what is best for his people.

So in our prayer lives, we can have a sense of bold, reckless abandon in our prayer life.

We don't have to be hyper-cautious because the Holy Spirit will edit our prayers for us.

Right?

You say, But how could this be best?

How could this be best?

I mean, have you have you ever wished in your own heart, man, I really wish that I was alive and I lived when Jesus was on earth and I could have been one of the disciples?

I mean, I've thought that.

Or how about this?

Have you ever prayed this?

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Would you just come back tomorrow?

It's painful down here, it's dark, it's destructive.

I got problems, I got bills to pay, and if you just show up, I'm instantly out of debt forever.

I mean, listen, that's a biblical prayer.

Paul prayed that, John prayed that.

Jesus hadn't answered that prayer yet.

Not in the positive, he hadn't come back yet.

Well, it's better.

He always knows what's best.

Why?

He left them a witness.

This is the tenth kind of last point, is this?

Okay, he says, Go and tell people what great things God has done for you, how he's had mercy on you.

Jesus left.

But he also left them a witness.

That was the better thing.

Stay here and be a witness for me.

That's a better thing for a lot of us.

Now we just want to camp out here for just a second, guys.

I think most Christians know I'm supposed to be talking at times, not all the time, but some of the time I'm supposed to be talking to non-Christians about Christ and my faith.

But in my experience, myself included, most of us are not as faithful in that as we feel like we ought to be.

And we have reasons why.

We might call them excuses.

I don't know enough.

I don't have a good enough reputation.

Almost any excuse that you or I might think we have, this guy had it in spades.

I mean, God, best case scenario, this guy had had 10 or 12 hours with Jesus.

I mean, he literally had been running around naked in a graveyard with stones, cutting himself, screaming, the demons come out.

Somebody gives him a pair of pants, he puts them on, he sits down, he listens to Jesus, and Jesus is like, gotta go.

What am I supposed to do?

Just go tell people what God did.

And he did it.

He was faithful.

And people marveled.

They didn't mock him, they marveled.

He knew enough.

He'd been commissioned by Jesus.

And if you're in Christ, we've been commissioned by Jesus.

Listen, so I'm gonna give you some some super practical, tangible, concrete application this week.

All right, and actually, I'm gonna give you two weeks.

If you're a Christian in here this morning, whether you're a visitor or a member, here is my exhortation.

Two weeks.

I just want two weeks.

Try to think of one person that's already in your life, a friend, a coworker, a neighbor, family member, that you don't think is a Christian, you don't have spiritual x-ray vision, you can't see their heart, you don't know for sure, you're not judging, condemning them, but based on what they say, what they do, you don't think they're Christian, plan to have a conversation with them about Christ.

Why do I say two weeks?

Because for a lot of us, you might say, Oh my goodness, that's that's kind of nerve-wracking.

So I give you a whole week just to think about it, pray about it.

Pray up the courage.

Look, maybe look through your contact list on your phone, look through your calendar, who and how am I gonna see, and plan something for the second week.

And the second week just try to have a conversation.

You're like, what do I say?

You say, I just I want to tell you what great things God has done for me and how He had mercy on me.

That's enough.

That's enough of a start.

Now, and guys, you may say, but my life's a mess, you don't know.

You could have been drunk last night doing some bad, sinful stuff you weren't supposed to be doing.

And God could use you today to lead somebody to Christ tonight at VBS.

Why would I share an example like that?

Am I trying to make light of sin?

I absolutely am not.

Persevere in your drunkenness or whatever sin, it's gonna lead to death and destruction.

I am trying to make much of God's mercy.

He loves to use sinners.

He loves to use broken, messed up, screwed up, still tempted people like me.

Get in the fight, get in the game.

Again, you may say, Man, I literally think I just came to Christ in the last couple of weeks.

Praise the Lord.

But I don't I don't hardly know anything.

Probably not.

But I'll tell you this, you know more than this guy knew.

Because you know how Christ had mercy on you.

This guy didn't know.

This guy just knew Christ had mercy on me.

If somebody said, How did Christ have mercy on you?

I don't know, he just did.

Right?

He's like, Oh, once he's blind, now I see.

Can't he explain it?

If I share my story, if you share your story and somebody says, But how did Christ have mercy on you?

Because he went to the cross.

Because he paid my debt, because he died, because he bled for me.

And by that, I'm forgiven, I'm free.

Guys, think with me for just a second about the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It's such a great picture of this.

A sinless man praying.

Father, let me tell you what I'm asking for, Father, is that I don't want to go to the cross.

I don't want to die.

Here in my humanity, that does not seem best to me.

That does not seem very attractive at all.

It seems best that we find another way out of this.

It seems best to me, I don't want to, I haven't sinned.

I don't deserve wrath, I don't deserve punishment, I don't deserve anger.

That's my very specific prayer request, Father.

Yet not my will but thine.

And the father said, No.

And Christ in his humility and in his faith went to the cross and he bore the wrath of God against sin for all the people of all time that would ever trust in him, past, present, future.

Hallelujah, what a savior.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the great things that you have done.

Thank you for mercy.

Thank you for steadfast love, for covenant love, for your persevering love.

Draw the loss to yourself.

Strengthen your people, strengthen us in grace, strengthen us in boldness, strengthen us in humility, strengthen us in a willingness to go and tell what great things you have done for us.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.