Who is This Luke 8:22-39

We've been working our way through the Gospel of Luke, and I hope you have your Bible with you.

If you don't, I encourage you to take a one out of the pew back in front of you, or scoot over and get closer to the guy next to you, or the lady next to you has one.

Maybe you can read out of there.

But I want you to think about what we're calling this as we're getting into chapter 8, what we titled the sermon, and I want I want to just focus on this just for a minute because I think it's important.

And it's honestly a question that we may think, well, okay, nope, no big deal.

I know that.

Yeah, of course.

The title of the sermon is Who is this?

And the basis of that is because of how the disciples respond to Jesus, say, Who is this?

That he commands the winds and the waves and they obey him.

But that's not the only point.

There's a number of points in the Gospel of Luke where the same question comes up.

So before we even dive into the passage, before we walk through the scripture, I've got to ask you this because to be honest, um ignorance is not an option here.

Uh you you can't you can't walk away this morning and say, well, I had no idea.

I I this is a big deal.

I didn't know.

And you can't go the route of presumption and say, well, of course I know who this is.

I mean, it's just like every Sunday school child in America.

I don't know what I don't understand the question, but the answer has to be Jesus.

So I just say Jesus and we're good.

Sounds like a squirrel, but I'm gonna say Jesus.

But it we have this idea that all we have to do is just come up with the right answers academically.

We say, Who is this?

Who is this this man who was born to a virgin, this man who was was anointed and appointed, the man who was baptized and the Spirit of God, like a dove descended in the voice out of heaven, the God the Father speaking.

I mean, who is this that that he touches a coffin and uh a dead man comes alive?

He he he just says the word.

He doesn't have to be in the same zip code and he'll say something and someone is healed.

Who is this?

Now see, the reason I'm I'm starting here is because I want to give you this is like this is like those safety warnings, those labels on the bottles and on the products.

I'm giving you a warning before we go here.

Because what happens for me, and I'm just projecting on you, is we can have the right answer in our brain, in our mind, but what about in our life?

Let me tell you what I mean, and then we're gonna we're gonna say a brief prayer and then we're gonna jump right in.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

So, right?

Yes, good.

Okay.

So that means he is the creator.

That means that everything is under him.

He didn't take material from a different world and say, I'm gonna remake this, I'm gonna do something new here.

He spoke and it came into existence.

It means that we all, you, me, everybody, is accountable to him.

Whether we understand that, whether we acknowledge that, whether we admit that, that's not the point.

You're guilty whether you know you're guilty or not.

You you break the law, you've broken the law.

Even if you plead ignorance, that doesn't matter.

If you truly answer the question, who is this, and you look at Jesus walking through the gospels, and you say, This is Emmanuel, this is God with us, this is the Holy One.

So to answer that question means that you are accepting the reality, you are accountable to Him.

That He made you, that He knew you before the creation of the heavens and the earth, but He He chose you, He appointed you, He did all the things the Bible talks about, giving you life itself, and that He is the one that you are going to be standing in front of on that day, and you are going to say, He is either going to say, Come in, or I never knew you.

He is God.

You say, okay, well, preacher, we knew that.

I mean, we we've learned that.

I've gone to Sunday school since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, that's no big deal.

I understand good answers, good answers.

Yay, everybody.

Hear me, please.

If you truly believe Jesus is who he says he is, you and I are left without excuse, we're left without rationalization, we're left without denial.

Because if he truly is who he says he is, that means he made you.

You are accountable to him, and you have to be right with him more than anyone or anything else in all of the world.

That's the gospel, by the way.

You and I have to be right with him.

So I understand it's a pretty simple question.

Who is this?

Who is this?

See a guy walking down the street.

Who is that?

Uh somebody comes into the room, who are you?

What's this all about?

But this is a bigger question than that.

It's so big, in fact, that before we even start looking at this, I want to be sure that we've got our hearts kind of in the right direction by the grace of God.

So would you pray with me, please?

Lord, thank you for who you are.

And Lord, where we are presumptuous or indifferent or even rebellious, open our eyes to you, who you are.

Let your glory shine.

And give us the wisdom and the humility and the submission to both acknowledge but also bow our heart and say yes, Lord.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Now still, I hope you still have your Bibles.

If you're not, I don't know what you did with them.

We were just talking about it just a second ago, but let's go back.

Luke chapter 8, verse 22.

Luke 8:22

Luke chapter 8, verse 22.

Luke 8:22

We're continuing.

Last week we he gave the parable.

We talked about the parable of the soil and the four seeds and and all that happened there.

But now we're moving into uh him moving on in verse 22.

Luke chapter 8, verse 22.

Luke 8:22

The scripture says, now on one of those days, that's that's Luke's way of transitioning.

He does that a number of times.

Now, on one of those days, Jesus and his disciples got into a boat, and he said to them, Let us go to the other side over to the other side of the lake.

So they launched out.

But as they were sailing along, he fell asleep.

By the way, that's kind of a big deal.

He is fully God and fully man.

He still gets tired.

He fell asleep.

A fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger.

Now, if you've ever been to the Sea of Galilee, if you're familiar with how it is laid out, it is fairly deep and still at the valley, it's below sea level, and you've got the storms that come all out of nowhere, and it happens in such a way, this fierce gale of wind descended on the lake.

They began to be swamped and to be in danger.

Now, just to remind you, one of the primary occupations of his disciples are fishermen.

One of the main things that they did with their life is they understood they'd spent their lives on this water.

So to get to the point that they were scared enough to talk to Jesus about it, to be blunt, means that it was a lot bigger than they had experienced before.

This is not, this is not a common everyday storm.

There is something happening here.

They began to be swamped and to be in danger.

They came to Jesus and woke him up.

I mean, he's soaking wet because they're beginning to swamp.

All of this is happening, and they had to wake him up.

He was that tired, that exhausted, but he was also that at peace, at rest.

They woke him up saying, Master, Master, we are perishing.

And then in response, he gets up, verse 24, he got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped and it became calm.

You know that winds and waves can't hear you, right?

You know he wasn't talking to the wind and the waves.

You know that they're just stuff, they're just creation.

You know that the the waves.

I love cartoons and love the imagination of artists and whatnot, but the waves did not perk up their ears.

Waves don't have ears.

Um the wind did not slow down and say, Who said that?

That's not how the no, no.

God spoke not for the sake of the wind and the waves.

I believe he spoke for the sake of those listening.

And what he was saying was, I'm going to tell you what to do.

This is this is the master.

So as he speaks, he's telling them the wind and the waves, he rebukes them and the surging waves, and then they stopped and it became calm.

And that's a big deal as well, because this is not, this is not, well, it it calmed down.

It was massive storm, hurricane type environment to absolutely nothing.

It was calm.

It wasn't the ripples, you know, after the wake of a boat when you're in the water and the and the boat leaves, the boat's not even in sight, and you still can feel the waves of the boat, and you could tell it was there.

No.

From one second, everything awful, to the next second, everything calm.

Blessed.

At rest.

This is not normal.

This is this is not, well, you know, we'll just wait it out and wait till the boat stops rocking and we can get the water out of the boat.

No, everything was still.

And when this happened, as they're sitting in the boat, they look and they realize they have this question they're going to ask in just a second, but who is this?

And this is who he is.

Jesus Christ is the master over the physical world.

He is the creator God.

He is God.

And because he has that much, and because of who he is, and because of his word, things were made into being, and we live and move and breathe and have our existence in him.

It's because of him that we are alive and we keep living, and it's because of him that our consummation and where we are going to be is going to end up in him.

He, when we ask that question, who is this?

We're not asking a simplistic question about, well, he's one of many.

He's not one of many.

This is God.

This is Jesus.

This is the Son of God.

And because of his identity and what they're getting from this, that's where this is coming from.

And as they ask him back in verse 24, Master, Master yelling to him, We are perishing.

He got up and rebuked the wind.

But as he is addressed as Master, he reminded me.

And if you've got your Bible, I hope you do, I've said that three times.

I guess I need to get over it, but I really hope you have a Bible.

And if you don't have one, let me know.

We'll get you one.

But here we go.

Go back to Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

It's a similar circumstance in terms of them being on the water, thinking they understand what's happening.

Jesus is calling the disciples.

Chapter 5, verse 4, same words Peter uses toward Jesus.

Verse 4, he says, When he had finished speaking, Jesus speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.

And Simon answered, Master, there it is.

It's usually Luke uses that when the disciples don't understand Jesus' power or his purpose.

He says, Master, it's kind of, you know, okay, okay, but we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets.

Now, if you don't know what happened next, go ahead and read it.

Otherwise, scoot down to verse 8.

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Go, go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.

For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken.

See, he understood the answer to the question, Who is this?

He got it.

There's still more to be revealed, but he was starting, it was starting to click.

Now you come back to Luke chapter 8, and look at how Jesus responds after he calms the water.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

And he said to them, Where is your faith?

Okay.

Where's your faith?

You know, not too long ago we talked about a Roman centurion who had enough faith that he told Jesus, You don't even need to come into my house.

You can just say the word, and my servant is going to be healed.

Not too long ago, we just talked about a woman who, a sinful woman, who understood the salvation Jesus provided and didn't care about social norms, came into the house of the Pharisee and just overwhelmingly wept in front of God and everybody because of who Jesus is.

But now his very disciples, walking and talking with him and knowing him on a daily basis, they're here, but where's the faith?

The verse says in verse 25, he says, Where's your faith?

They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, Who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.

Who is this?

There's a cute little phrase I saw on bumper stickers or t-shirts, so this is not unique to me, and I don't know where it originated.

I don't really care, but I like the way it phrases out, so that's why I put it in your notes.

No Jesus, no fear.

But you got to spell the two words different.

No Jesus, K-N-O-W, and then there's no fear.

Now, this isn't to say that we shouldn't be aware of our surroundings, that we just walk in in the midst of a lightning storm and think to ourselves, well, I know Jesus, so I don't have to be afraid of lightning.

God gave you a brain.

Please use it.

Okay?

That's not what we're saying here.

What we're saying is when you're in the boat and Jesus is right there, you can see God a lot clearer than you can see your surroundings.

That your faith should so out-scream and out-presence and out be than the things that are crushing down on you, that no matter what's happening around you, you serve a master who controls everything.

Everything.

Sun, moon, stars, sky, storms, everything.

There is nothing outside of the hand of God.

I was on a mission trip years ago when we were up in Canada, and the pastor was talking to the small group, and I'll never forget the way he put this, so I want to share it with you.

He was he was sitting there and thinking, sometimes we think that all you have to do is you just have to be on the good more than the bad.

You have to have more right things than wrong things, and God and Satan are just battling each other and they're going at it, at and at it, and they're just doing the best they can, and hopefully God will win, just like you know, like Star Wars or whatever, and the force be with you and all that.

So we just hope, hope, hope that the good gets bigger than the bad and everything works out.

He says, You understand in Scripture that God made the whole world.

Everything is in his hands, including evil, including storms, including swamping the boat and thinking you're going to die.

This isn't this isn't about, well, I hope good prevails over evil.

I hope the good guys win over the bad guys.

God made the whole world and everything, everything is in his hand.

Everything is in his hand.

Okay, I'm yeah, I don't know if you're catching this.

Let me try one more time.

You know that thing you're worrying about?

Everything is in his hands.

You know that family member that your burden?

Everything is in his hands.

You know that stress at work?

Everything is in his hands.

I had a pastor years ago who used to say, I'm I'm too blessed to be stressed.

I don't say that much because I get too stressed too easy.

So I I I gotta be careful.

I wait until I'm not in stress before I say it, but you gotta you gotta be careful.

You don't want to say stuff then you get caught on it, but he is blessing us and he is in control.

He is your master, right?

Who is this?

He's your master, he's your Lord, he's your God.

To recognize Jesus' power right there isn't to distract from the danger, it's to glorify and magnify who Jesus is.

You don't have to take the time to go back, uh, but just to remind you in the Old Testament, God controlled the Red Sea and He divided the water.

God controlled the Jordan, He divided the water.

He made the water and he divided it.

Jonah, you remember in chapter one, let me just read this to you.

They picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.

Same kind of imagery.

It wasn't storm, calm down, then everything's okay.

Immediately the stop the sea stopped its raging.

I love the way they personalized the creation.

Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

He is master of everything.

We read it this morning in the Psalm.

He controls the winds and the waves, the sea.

He has everything.

He's not done.

Because not just the physical world, we can also ask the question, who is this?

He is also the master of the spiritual world.

Now, just to be clear, there's nothing left.

Okay?

Just to be throw it right out there, I'm gonna give you the punchline before I even tell you the joke.

This is it.

There is nothing other than the physical and the spiritual, the seen and the unseen, the eternal and the temporary.

That's it.

And he, praise the Lord, he is master of both.

There is nothing, nothing beyond or outside of his hands.

He's God.

He is the master over the spiritual world.

So let's now let's look at the second episode.

What happens next?

They're still in the boat.

They come back, verse 26.

They're on their way to the other side of the lake.

They're about to land, they sailed to the country of the Garosenes, which is opposite Galilee.

So now they're in Gentile territory.

They're not in the land of Jerusalem, they're not in Judea.

They're going in areas that are outside of the bounds of Jerusalem.

And this is kind of looking forward to the book of Acts.

So everything is getting prepped here.

Verse 27.

And when he came out onto the land, he was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons, and who had not put out put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs.

I read over those verses uh a few times, and it took it took someone else pointed it out to me to come back and read this again.

Look at what he's saying here.

First, in verse 27, he was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons.

He was possessed with demons.

He was possessed with demons.

I need you to just for a second take off the filter of enlightenment and just understand the truth of scripture.

There is a physical world and there is a spiritual world.

And there are demons.

And there is a Satan.

There is an evil one.

And I I I know that that sounds like, well, yeah, duh, it's kind of like bath, two plus two.

Well, that's not complicated.

Are you sure?

Because sometimes we think we're so smart and so above and beyond that that we fail to realize there is there is satanic spiritual forces, there is evil in this world.

And not because I think so or you think so, but because the Bible says so.

So the issue is we talk about demons, and we're going to dig in that for just a second, but let's let's continue the verse back to verse 27.

Man from the city who was possessed with demons, who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house but in the tombs.

So he was going around in a shameful, embarrassing way, disregarding social norms, didn't matter.

He was ceremonially, he was unclean, he was defiled, he he he associated with death, he even lived with death.

He didn't have a house, he lived among the tombs, which is where they buried the people, all of this because he is living outside of his city.

He no longer is home.

James chapter 2, verse 19.

James 2:19

It says, You believe in that God is one, you do well.

The demons who also believe and shudder.

The demons also believe and shudder.

So this isn't a question of whether they exist or not.

This isn't a question of how we we approach this.

We have to understand that the reality of who this is, he is God, he is master of the physical world and the spiritual world, and the demons get that quicker than the people who are in the story.

The demons see that faster than the people see that.

So this man who is living this awful living, he comes up to Jesus, verse 28, seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before him and said in a loud voice, and this is where we realize it's not him talking, but he said in a loud voice, What business do we have with each other?

Jesus, Son of the Most High God, he got it.

The demons understood.

I beg you, do not torment me.

Okay, what's he talking about?

Verse 29.

For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for he had seized him many times, and he was bound with chains and shackles, and kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.

Does your heart go out to this guy?

I mean, he has no home.

He has no social norms.

He's not acceptable in society.

He's frightening and terrifying.

He's the guy that the kids, school kids would make fun of and throw rocks at.

This is not okay.

It says in verse 29, he sees the demons would seize him, the unclean spirits.

He was bound with chains and shackles.

So not just that he was having a rough time of it, the city people were so scared of him, frightened of him, that they tied him up, kept him under guard, and even then he had such supernatural power from within that he was able to break his bonds and driven by the demon into the desert.

You understand what he's going through.

You understand the captivity he is experiencing.

Once again, who is this Jesus?

Who is this man?

And the demons recognized his identity.

They understood who they were talking to.

Verse 30.

Jesus asked him, What is your name?

And he said, Legion.

For many demons had entered him.

Legion, like some six thousand soldiers in a Roman legion.

We just talked about Mary a few verses earlier.

She had seven demons.

This man had thousands of demons.

Verse 31.

They were imploring him not to command them to go away into the abyss.

What is he talking about?

What abyss?

What is this all about?

Verse 32.

Now there was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountains.

If you're not familiar, Jews and swine don't mix.

So Jesus was in the land of death and pigs, definitely not Jews.

The demons implored him to permit them to enter the swine, and he gave them permission.

This is one of the craziest.

I don't this is so much to this.

All right, verse 33.

And the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

This is one of those precious moments where I get the joy of telling you, I have no idea what is going on here.

And it isn't because I haven't studied it, it's because the scripture doesn't tell us.

I'm not sure.

I got some guesses, but I'm not really sure.

But you know what?

That's okay.

Because I'm not the master of the spiritual world.

He is.

Why pigs?

And why drowning?

And what is this about early and late?

And so there's a few verses I'll show you, but it isn't because I've got it all figured out.

And if at this point I have burst your bubble and I've thrown myself off some sort of imaginary pedestal, and you think, well, if he doesn't know, what's he doing up there?

I asked that my I asked myself that so many times, you have no idea.

But if you got answers, you tell me later.

But I'm going to show you some of these verses just to talk about this.

Verse 25, um, Matthew 25, verse 41, he says, Then he will also say to those on his left, Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25:41

So we know there is a day, the demons know there is a day where they will be eternal fire.

Second Peter chapter 2.

2 Peter 2 · chapter mention

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.

So what I think is happening is I think the demons see the Son of God.

And just so you know, this is all over the Bible, but when the holiness of God bumps up, comes into the presence of evil, of sin, transgression, rebellion, somebody's gonna lose and somebody's gonna win.

And we are not gonna win.

It's always gonna be God.

When Jesus walks onto the scene, the holiness of God, the demons understood who he is.

Who is that?

They understood who he is, and in reaction to that, they said, Have you come to give us our final condemnation a little sooner than we thought it was coming?

Are you here to give us that sentence before it's supposed to happen?

Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed.

After these things he must be released for a short short time.

We know we know these things are happening.

We know that something's going on.

We don't get it all, we don't understand it all.

And you know what?

That's that's kind of okay as long as we understand who holds the physical and the spiritual, as long as we understand who the master is.

Can you imagine being a disciple watching this exchange?

Can you imagine seeing this man who had thousands of demons and what they were doing to him physically, emotionally, spiritually, and he's he's being overwhelmed by this, and Jesus standing there as calm as any, just like in the boat, just standing there calm as anything, in the in the face of all of this evil.

And he can handle it.

Yeah, yeah, he can handle it.

Yeah, yeah, he can handle it.

Verse 34, Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country.

The people who went out to see what happened, the people went out to see what happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they became frightened.

Those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon-possessed had been made well.

Just Dr.

Luke is very good at this.

He's saying, I'm gonna I want to be real clear here.

This was not a temporary reprieve, this was not a band-aid on a gaping womb.

This is Jesus cleaning, clearing out, healing this man.

He was demon-possessed, but now he is sitting right here, and as he's sitting here, fully clothed, right mind, he is right here with Jesus.

There is no question, verse 36, he was demon-possessed, but now he has been made well.

He was, but now he is.

The past, but now, praise God, the present.

And because of that, Jesus is fulfilling his mission call, his calling that he did all the way back in Nazareth in chapter 4.

Luke chapter 4, when he took the book of the prophet Isaiah, handed to him, and he opened in the book and found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because heding me to preach the gospel to the poor.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

Luke saw it, and he recorded it, and now we get to see this the man is delivered from enslavement, from bondage, from captivity, and now he is free.

But that's not the end of the story.

Verse 37.

All the people of the country of the Garrisons and the surrounding district this has got to be a misprint.

It says they asked him to leave.

What don't you know who this is?

Wait a minute.

Don't don't you know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth?

Don't you know that for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son?

Don't you know that to have Jesus is to have life?

That with Jesus you have eternal life, without Jesus you have eternal condemnation?

He didn't come to condemn the world, the world's already condemned.

He came to save the world.

And you're asking him to leave?

Don't you know that who this is?

Don't you understand that he he he's calmed the storm?

He he was in the boat, we were just there, and and and everything was calm after it was so wrong, it was so right, and and he did this, and now he's standing here and this man whose life was ruined, it was over, it was done, now this man is completely sane, clothed, here.

And you're you're asking him to leave.

That wait a minute, don't you understand that the same Jesus who saved us can save your neighbors and your family members and your friends?

Don't you don't you know who this is?

Aren't you going to be the least bit concerned that you're turning your back on the one and only who can save you?

That that he is the the life, the truth, and the way, that there is no way to the Father but through him?

Do you understand that saying no to Jesus is not just a well that's uh that's a shame they didn't pick me.

This is they didn't pick him.

What what do you what are you doing?

You can't you can't turn your back on God.

You can't you can't you can't deny him.

You you you lose him, you lose everything.

They told him to leave.

Scripture in verse 37 says that they were gripped with great fear.

And Jesus, he got in the boat and he returned.

He just left.

So let's do the other side of the equation.

No Jesus, no fear.

But we're switching.

You see, without Jesus, there is no hope.

Without the gospel, you're still accountable, you're still condemned, you're still you're still going to hell when you die, politically correct or not, that's what the Bible says.

Without Jesus, you have every right to be afraid.

You have every right to fear the diagnosis, you have every right to be worried about your kids, you have every right to be concerned about what's going on in the nation, in the world, in the universe, because honestly, without God, there is no hope.

There is nothing.

All is lost.

Abandon all hope from this point forward.

Without Jesus, there is nothing.

So, yes, be afraid.

Be very, very afraid.

But you know you don't have to stay there.

You know that, right?

You don't have to live there.

You don't have to be without God.

You don't have to turn.

You don't have to rebel.

You don't have to, you don't have to abandon.

You don't have to get so consumed with yourself that you think that you've got all the answers when there is no proof of that, but we think it anyway.

You don't have to think that there'll be another option or that you can ask Jesus in your heart after you die and you go to heaven, he'll give you a second chance.

Nowhere in the scripture does it say that.

You don't have to worry about the care, you don't have to worry about the cares of the world.

You can let the worldly riches, like this, the parable of the soils, you can let them choke it out and and and distract you, and you can say, well, this is just the one life I'm gonna live.

I'm gonna do the best I can.

And if God really is love and he really cares about me, then then he's gonna let me go to heaven with all of my family and friends, and it's no big deal.

The same God who tells you the truth is not going to bend the truth just because you don't like the answer.

It's still a holy God, an unrighteous people, and the only way in is through Jesus.

That's it.

There's no other option.

No Jesus, no fear.

Apart from that good and noble heart, we talked about the fourth seed, the soil, and the seed on the good soil, God's presence only gives us fear.

That's it.

You and I need him desperately.

They turned him away.

You don't have to.

This is not your the end of your story.

If you sit here this morning and you're thinking to yourself, there is no hope without Jesus, you are absolutely 100% correct.

If you're sitting here this morning and you think there is no hope with Jesus, then I beg you to come back to passages like Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

See who Him for who He is.

Understand that He does miracles and He works because He created us.

He knows us.

And thank God He loves us.

Because of that, we can come to passages like this, and we can be frightened, we can be overwhelmed, we can stand back in awe, and all rightly so, but not to the point where we stop losing faith because of who He is and what He's doing for us.

We can stand in confidence, not in our own strength, but in His grace.

Let's finish the passage.

Luke chapter 8, verse 38.

Luke 8:38

But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging him that he might accompany him.

I don't blame him either.

I wouldn't want to stick around there.

And he sent them away saying, sent him away saying, Return to your house.

Wait a minute.

Are you catching this?

His home used to be the tombs.

Jesus is telling him, You go home.

I haven't been home in years.

Don't know what it's like to actually be clothed and in my right mind and not frighten everybody I come in contact with.

But Jesus is telling them right there, return to your house.

Describe what great things God has done for you.

There is no conversion without evangelism.

There is no change without mission.

Describe what great things God has done for you.

So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

It isn't a misprint.

Look at the verse again.

He went away proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

Jesus told him, Describe what great things God has done for you.

And he told them, let me tell you what Jesus did.

Jesus is God.

Go back home.

Tell them.

But it's not going to be good for you.

It's not going to be good for anyone.

If you don't believe he is who he says he is.

So this morning, once again, we're going to try this.

If you've got your hymn books, I want you to turn with me to hymn number 307.

We're going to stand in a moment.

If you'd like to sing out of your hymn book, you're welcome to do that.

If you'd like to, if you'd like to not sing or whatever, that's fine.

There won't be words on the screen because I really don't want you focusing on the words as much as this time.

But I'm going to I'm going to say a word of prayer, and then I'm going to go to the front, and deacons and pastors will be at the front.

And if you you really grappling with this, who is this?

I'm going to encourage you to come forward and have a conversation with us.

Would you pray with me, please?

Lord, there is nothing outside of your hand and your authority.

There's nothing that's crossing our mind right now that you are not God.

You are not master.

Father, I pray for the individuals here this morning who need who need that repentance and faith, who need that turn and turn back.

I pray, Lord, for the issues.

They're real.

The evil is real.

The problems are real.

The struggles are real.

But you are too.

And I pray for faith to trust you more than anyone or anything else.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Would you stand with me, please, as we say?

As we leave to go home, the invitation still remains open.

And any time you can always reach out.

I'd like to leave you with a benediction from Second Corinthians chapter thirteen.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Amen.