Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / Jesus Christ: The Hope For The Ruined | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

Transcript

Jesus Christ: The Hope For The Ruined | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series) · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

• 0:00
  Is it a joy to sing among people who believe what they're
• 0:03
  singing. Amen.
• 0:05
  And you believe this word, do you not?
• 0:08
  Amen. And so we come together to Mark
• 0:09
  chapter 5 as we continue in our study of this book, Mark 5.
• 0:28
  Let's begin together in verse 1. They came to the other side of
• 0:33
  the sea to the country of the gerasenes.
• 0:40
  And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat immediately there
• 0:43
  met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean Spirit, he lived
• 0:50
  among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even
• 0:54
  with a chain for, he had often been bound with shackles and
• 0:58
  chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the
• 1:03
  shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to
• 1:09
  subdue him night and day among the tombs and on the mountains
• 1:15
  he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
• 1:23
  Lord, this is your word and we believe your word.
• 1:27
  This is your voice. And in so many places in your
• 1:31
  word, you've told us to to here. Help us here.
• 1:38
  Would your Holy Spirit? Help us here.
• 1:41
  And we do, Holy Spirit help the delivery of this word to be
• 1:45
  faithful, pure the way you intended it to be delivered.
• 1:50
  Free from confusion, free from man's interpretation.
• 1:54
  Lord, would you be blessed this afternoon?
• 1:57
  By what you see in here in this place.
• 1:59
  And more importantly, what will come about this meeting in Jesus
• 2:03
  name? Amen.
• 2:05
  If you've been with us for a while, you know that it is our
• 2:07
  custom Fridays and Sundays that when we teach the word, we tend
• 2:13
  to take smaller portions of scripture and to expand on them,
• 2:18
  rather than digesting larger portions of the word at one
• 2:21
  time. But occasionally it is helpful.
• 2:26
  It is beneficial to look at the entirety of a scene.
• 2:31
  And to communicate a truth from the entirety of a scene without
• 2:36
  interruption. And that is what we will seek to
• 2:38
  accomplish today. The miracle that we are ready to
• 2:43
  explore in. This chapter is when you compare
• 2:47
  to the rest of the word of God, the most exhaustive and detailed
• 2:52
  account of Jesus exorcising a demon from a man.
• 2:58
  It is a total of twenty verses as you're going to see and this
• 3:02
  account is so important to the Lord that the Holy Spirit had it
• 3:06
  included by Matthew and by Luke as well.
• 3:11
  And so we have three Witnesses. So to speak of this one event.
• 3:16
  Matthew has a little different detail.
• 3:18
  Matthew tells us that there wasn't just one man who was
• 3:21
  possessed with a devil. There are two men who were
• 3:23
  possessed with Devils take heart.
• 3:26
  There's no contradiction here. And because the spirit obviously
• 3:30
  LED Mark and Luke to focus on Jesus encounter with one of the
• 3:35
  two men. And it seems as though that one
• 3:39
  man was the dominant one out of the two in this confrontation in
• 3:45
  this dramatic conflict between holy and evil.
• 3:50
  Now before getting into the details, I think it's worth
• 3:53
  asking what value what message does this miracle?
• 3:58
  I provide us and if there is one thing, I can say, apart from the
• 4:02
  fact that it just another Testament of the absolute power
• 4:06
  of Jesus Christ, we see here that it is safe to say that the
• 4:10
  Lord in coming to this moment with such dramatic rescue is to
• 4:15
  demonstrate his great and strong love that he has for people.
• 4:21
  Humanity is not just one category in creation on the same
• 4:26
  level of different classes of the universe.
• 4:30
  Jesus loves people personally. The creator of all things, your
• 4:40
  creator loves you beyond comprehension and you see so
• 4:47
  many signs of that throughout the Bible.
• 4:51
  Ultimately climaxing at the cross.
• 4:52
  Yes, but just even little instances of God's interaction
• 4:57
  with us who are created in His image.
• 4:59
  I mean, I look at the Old Testament and I see how the Lord
• 5:03
  at times makes, great effort to ensure that certain certain
• 5:06
  people were identified with a certain name.
• 5:11
  And we see how many occasions of this awesome God, whom the
• 5:15
  heavens cannot contain. The Earth Is His footstool.
• 5:18
  And yet this God, Gives us direct access to his throne
• 5:23
  through prayer. And there is this reception that
• 5:26
  he has and we have this direct line with our maker.
• 5:30
  It was Moses who said, in Deuteronomy 47, what other great
• 5:34
  nation is there, who has a God as near to them as our God is
• 5:40
  near to us whenever we call upon him.
• 5:44
  Oh yeah, many religions expect their people to pray but our
• 5:48
  faith we believe God hears us. And that he has answered as and
• 5:52
  he will answer us when we pray. and this inexplainable affection
• 5:58
  that almighty God has for us, is now presented in a unique
• 6:04
  fashion here in this record before us in this chapter, We
• 6:09
  see the Lord Jesus. Coming to this man's rescue.
• 6:13
  And I want to remind you from last week that it was Jesus idea
• 6:19
  to go to this side of the lake at the end of a very tiring day.
• 6:24
  It was Jesus, who said to his own?
• 6:27
  Let us go to the other side. Why?
• 6:32
  Why did he propose this campaign?
• 6:34
  Why did he Advocate this Voyage? It was because he knew that
• 6:38
  there was a man waiting on the other side and oh, Jesus wanted
• 6:42
  to meet him. Jesus wanted to meet him.
• 6:47
  Jesus wanted to deliver him and think about it after teaching
• 6:52
  after rebuking after absorbing the scorn and the slander of his
• 6:57
  enemies after healing and delivering at the evening, what
• 7:02
  was on the heart of the master? We must not wait.
• 7:08
  Let us go to the other side. I have a Divine appointment with
• 7:12
  someone and though he did not include that part, he was
• 7:16
  walking according to the perfect steps of the will of the father.
• 7:21
  And now he comes here. Eagerly making his way to this
• 7:24
  tormented soul and ordered to bring relief once and for all,
• 7:29
  that's a glorious truth. That's a glorious truth.
• 7:32
  And with that, glorious truth is another message that this
• 7:35
  miracle provides. And I here's my prayer.
• 7:38
  My prayer is not just for us to study this from a distance and
• 7:42
  to appreciate clever points there in.
• 7:46
  It's for you to realize that the same Jesus that we are
• 7:48
  discussing today is the same Jesus, who can perform the same
• 7:51
  work in your life. and the lives of others because what the Lord
• 7:57
  here is going to do is demonstrate to his disciples and
• 8:02
  to his disciples today, that he alone offers hope to the most
• 8:07
  hopeless cases you can imagine there are many reasons why this
• 8:13
  is the most exhaustive account of a demoniac being saved.
• 8:19
  And I think for the purpose of the study, the reason that we
• 8:22
  must consider is that as you realize that description of the
• 8:28
  devastation of this, man, you would be impressed to sense,
• 8:32
  what a mess. What a hopeless case.
• 8:40
  And yet you would also see but Christ can solve it and Christ
• 8:47
  can rescue and restore the most ruined situation.
• 8:53
  You can possibly imagine. And that is what you and I will
• 8:57
  do today. This message I pray will impart
• 9:02
  a faith and a hope in. You not just for someone else
• 9:06
  because it's possible that even today.
• 9:09
  You are in bondage, someone listening to, this is an
• 9:13
  absolute bondage. And I tell you, right from the
• 9:17
  beginning of this message, as I preach it, that Christ brings
• 9:21
  hope to the Hopeless. And so, we will look together at
• 9:25
  the ruin of the man. We will also look at the rescue
• 9:29
  of the man and finally we will look at the renewal of the man
• 9:35
  and so we read the first five verses, which give us three main
• 9:38
  characteristics of just how miserable this fellow was.
• 9:42
  Let's look at it again. We see here that the first thing
• 9:45
  Mark tells us that's worth noting.
• 9:49
  In verse 2 and when Jesus had stepped out of the boat
• 9:53
  immediately, there met him out of the tombs, a man with an
• 9:56
  unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs.
• 10:03
  He did not live by the tombs. He did not live around the tombs
• 10:09
  but among the tombs this man was led by unclean spirits to make
• 10:15
  his Abiding Place among the dead now.
• 10:19
  Personally you couldn't give me anything to just take a stroll
• 10:24
  through a cemetery at night. Never mind, make your bed there.
• 10:29
  And yet, this is what we see of this man.
• 10:31
  The host of these vile Spirits, cause this poor soul to be
• 10:35
  separated from his home. To be disconnected from his
• 10:39
  friends. To be removed from any human
• 10:44
  decency for shelter and comfort and is now resting among
• 10:51
  Corpses. His neighbors were skeletons.
• 10:58
  And there is no doubt that the location of this man's
• 11:00
  residents, Is something of an indication of the condition of
• 11:06
  his own life. This man is a walking dead, man.
• 11:12
  He is a Walking Dead Man and we see here very clearly.
• 11:18
  That he is living what perhaps you have heard others say.
• 11:21
  Or maybe you've even said it that person is as good as dead
• 11:24
  that situation is as good as dead implying.
• 11:28
  That it is possible to be in a predicament in life with
• 11:31
  irreversible consequences that will inevitably lead to
• 11:35
  self-destruction at some point. And this man's poor condition
• 11:41
  was so severe that it really did not make much of a difference
• 11:45
  whether he was alive or if he had just dropped that at any
• 11:48
  moment. His situation.
• 11:52
  His future were so Bleak. So without hope and light that
• 11:57
  he might as well have just died anyway.
• 12:00
  He had nothing to look forward to.
• 12:03
  He would never attend his kids graduations if he had kids, he
• 12:07
  would never be invited to any dinners.
• 12:09
  He would never have a job, they were just absolutely nothing for
• 12:13
  this man to live for, and yes, we can say that.
• 12:17
  This is what demons have done in them, but there are people who
• 12:19
  are doing it to themselves. Who are walking in this life.
• 12:24
  Absolutely. Hollow like a shell, they're
• 12:29
  there but they're not there. There's no purpose.
• 12:33
  There's no sense of meaning. They're just giving themselves
• 12:37
  over to ruin day after day after day, in at any time.
• 12:42
  Perhaps, you know, someone like this.
• 12:44
  You feel like you're going to get that call and learn he's
• 12:48
  gone. She's gone.
• 12:52
  This is what we're dealing with with this man.
• 12:54
  He lived among the tombs, but secondly, we read something here
• 12:58
  also found in verse 3 and 4. We read here in verse 44, he had
• 13:04
  often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the
• 13:09
  chains apart and he broke the shackles and pieces.
• 13:13
  When you look at this man's behavior, it is obvious that he
• 13:16
  was a threat to others. Not only, was he tormented he
• 13:20
  was a Terrorizer. He wreaked havoc, he was
• 13:24
  dangerous. And we don't know exactly what
• 13:26
  kind of danger he posed. But come with me quickly to
• 13:29
  Matthews version in Matthew 8. And look at this important
• 13:33
  insight about this man's erratic Behavior.
• 13:39
  Matthew 8:28. Matthew says by the spirit and
• 13:50
  when he came to the other side, that being Jesus to the country
• 13:55
  of the gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him
• 13:58
  coming out of the tombs so Fierce that no one could pass
• 14:03
  that way. So Fierce that, no one could
• 14:06
  pass that way. this guy, he lived in a certain region where
• 14:12
  you would take the longer route home in order to avoid any eye
• 14:16
  contact with it's clear here that whatever he did he made
• 14:22
  life harder to live for others. And so difficult, was this man
• 14:31
  that there are great attempts to try to restrain him.
• 14:35
  He was a menace to society. He made people very
• 14:38
  uncomfortable, he made perhaps work and travel unnecessarily
• 14:43
  difficult. And so these ideas, these
• 14:46
  schemes these mechanics up to the point where they got so
• 14:50
  desperate that they chained him like a wild animal.
• 14:55
  But to no avail. Every time they strapped his
• 14:59
  wrists and his ankles he would just Shake It Off.
• 15:04
  Like, it was nothing. And so you get the impression
• 15:08
  that these people just gave up and they just avoided them all
• 15:11
  together. And though, this man was
• 15:13
  inhabited by evil spirits, right?
• 15:15
  It's obvious that he's able to do this because he has
• 15:18
  superhuman strength energized by evil spirits.
• 15:23
  And what I see here is though, the failed attempts is due to
• 15:27
  that these changes are symbolic of something.
• 15:33
  They point to figurative chains. They speak of man-made solutions
• 15:40
  to try to subdue and solve that which only God can answer.
• 15:50
  And whether it is demonic powers or the passions of the flesh,
• 15:54
  ultimately, whatever ideas man comes up with, we are incapable
• 16:00
  in our own strength to bring about true and Lasting
• 16:03
  Deliverance. And this man here, who's being
• 16:09
  encouraged to destroy others? Yes, it is because of demons but
• 16:15
  I want to tell you that sin is so powerful that you have people
• 16:18
  destroying themselves without the help of any demons.
• 16:21
  They're doing a fine job themselves.
• 16:26
  Doing a fine job themselves. How many are being pounded by
• 16:32
  drugs? How many are choosing alcohol?
• 16:36
  Is their Spirit of choice? How many who do not need the
• 16:41
  assistance of? Vile fallen angels are driving
• 16:47
  their marriages and their families to the ground because
• 16:50
  of uncontrolled lusts and sexual immorality.
• 16:57
  This is more than just unable to rescue a man who is being
• 17:02
  controlled by demons. We're looking out into the world
• 17:05
  and yes, demons are still working, but there are people
• 17:08
  who are destroying others and themselves just because of their
• 17:12
  submission to the flash. Now think about all the
• 17:15
  solutions that secularism tries to provide to bring some kind of
• 17:19
  relief To put some kind of a halt.
• 17:23
  On the erosion and people's homes to themselves in our
• 17:27
  schools and our politics. Think about all the counseling.
• 17:33
  There's a great great, great need for counselors today, but
• 17:37
  think about all the counseling without Christ.
• 17:41
  Think about all the identity politics and all the messages of
• 17:46
  being your true self, but divorce from the foundational
• 17:50
  concept of being made in the image of God.
• 17:56
  Think about all the harmony that we're trying to pursue without
• 17:58
  the Holy Spirit, think about all the substances that we are
• 18:01
  prescribing that have no true saving virtue.
• 18:09
  And so we want peace without the Prince of Peace.
• 18:13
  We want salvation without the Lord who alone can save.
• 18:17
  And it will only continue to get worse and the chains will only
• 18:20
  pile up more and more as long as Jesus is not in the picture. the
• 18:27
  Apostle Paul highlights one of those figurative chains when he
• 18:31
  speaks to the colossian church and he's trying to redirect what
• 18:35
  true Holiness is in their belief system, and I want to show you
• 18:38
  one of those things and Colossians 223, These Christians
• 18:43
  were being intimidated by false teachers of what true
• 18:47
  spirituality look like and what it means to truly be Victorious.
• 18:51
  And truly mean, to be pleasing to God.
• 18:53
  And Paul says something with the inside that he received about
• 18:56
  these false teachers and he corrects this church and
• 19:00
  Colossians 223, These have indeed an appearance of wisdom
• 19:10
  and promoting self-made, religion and asceticism and
• 19:13
  severity to the body. Now, look at this, but they are
• 19:18
  of no value in stopping the Indulgence of the flesh.
• 19:24
  What is Paul saying here? Even if you subject yourself.
• 19:28
  Too intense and extensive fasting, even if you isolate
• 19:32
  yourself, and bring about intentional discomfort to your
• 19:36
  body, depriving yourself of social mental, emotional needs.
• 19:41
  No matter what you do, that seems to be wise and effective.
• 19:48
  Is in fact feudal. Legalism doesn't work,
• 19:54
  disconnecting yourself from day-to-day living and parking
• 19:57
  your home in some Mountain away from civilization.
• 20:01
  Ain't gonna cut it. It does not have the power to
• 20:05
  stop the Indulgence of the flesh.
• 20:08
  Listen, true, freedom is not what you are, others imposing
• 20:13
  on, you can do true. Freedom is submitting and
• 20:18
  realizing that by faith, only Christ can set me free.
• 20:21
  That's true. Freedom.
• 20:25
  So Solutions, apart from the wisdom of the word of God
• 20:28
  salvation, apart from the gospel piece apart from the Prince of
• 20:32
  Peace. It's all a waste of time.
• 20:35
  And just like these men who obviously didn't catch on to it
• 20:38
  right away. We're running around here using
• 20:42
  psychological and philosophical ideas to try to bring submission
• 20:48
  and true transformation to others.
• 20:51
  When all were really doing is medicating people who might have
• 20:55
  demons and others who can overcome, what only Christ can
• 20:59
  overcome and that is your flesh. There's still one more
• 21:05
  characteristic to consider. About the misery of this
• 21:10
  lunatic. If you thought that he was
• 21:14
  messed up, thus far, there's still more to consider and this
• 21:17
  Insight, we must underscore in. It is found in verse 5, Mark, 55
• 21:25
  Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was
• 21:30
  always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
• 21:37
  This man was filthy, this man was unclothed.
• 21:42
  I wonder what it was like to live in a nearby town or in a
• 21:46
  country home in the middle of the night.
• 21:48
  You would hear the shrieks. of this devil filled man, who Had
• 21:56
  blood-stained rocks around him. And scars covering his body,
• 22:01
  from top to bottom. You might look at somebody and
• 22:07
  think okay there's something wrong with him if he was able to
• 22:12
  drive out everybody from his life because of his selfishness
• 22:15
  or his evil. But how much more hopeless can
• 22:18
  you get when you harm yourself? What kind of future does someone
• 22:28
  have when they voluntarily afflict pain to themselves?
• 22:35
  When they are their own enemy. When their own hands is capable
• 22:40
  of committing murder to themselves.
• 22:46
  Mankind has an innate sense of nurturing and protecting their
• 22:52
  own bodies. That's not just true for
• 22:54
  Christians. That is true for Humanity as a
• 22:56
  whole. Can I prove that to you go to
• 22:58
  Ephesians 5 quickly in 29 and Ephesians 5?
• 23:01
  We know that passage were Paul gives and a large portion of
• 23:05
  that chapter instructions to husbands and wives and how they
• 23:07
  ought to serve one another in christlikeness.
• 23:12
  And in Ephesians 5 29, he says something that I thought was
• 23:15
  interesting in light of what we're discovering with this man.
• 23:19
  Ephesians 529 reads for No One. Ever hated his own flesh.
• 23:28
  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and
• 23:32
  cherishes it just as Christ does the church.
• 23:36
  You see his logic here when he says, no one has ever hated his
• 23:40
  own flesh? He's not implying that.
• 23:41
  No one ever has. What he's saying?
• 23:43
  Is that naturally speaking, when a man does, have some soundness
• 23:48
  left in his mind, He takes care of himself.
• 23:53
  Even your own body, the fact that you blink, and the fact
• 23:57
  that you feel adrenaline when you're approaching danger, there
• 23:59
  is a wiring in you that seeks to protect you when you are in the
• 24:05
  presence of danger. And what Paul is saying is in
• 24:08
  the same way that it is natural for you to take care of yourself
• 24:12
  because you are in Christ, there is a new conviction that you
• 24:16
  should grow into as a natural principle.
• 24:19
  And that is take care of your wife, she's part of your flesh.
• 24:22
  Now. You guys are one flesh.
• 24:25
  And so you now should protect her and nourish her and shelter
• 24:29
  her and supervise her. But besides the point, we're not
• 24:32
  speaking about marriage here. Notice here that he says, it's
• 24:35
  natural. No one has ever hated his own
• 24:39
  flesh. Now if that is natural, then
• 24:42
  what do we say of someone who again, intentionally afflicts
• 24:47
  themselves, They've crossed some kind of a line.
• 24:52
  They've crossed some kind of a line. they've gone beyond what
• 24:56
  is natural and normal to something that is abnormal and
• 24:59
  very questionable concerning what is going on internally And
• 25:06
  I want to say something and I hope you hear in compassion.
• 25:10
  My personality type is when I'm compassion, I'm very passionate.
• 25:15
  There's strength in my voice and I flare my arms around.
• 25:19
  But let me say this to anybody who is finding delusional
• 25:23
  Solace, some kind of reprieve, some kind of rest.
• 25:28
  In harming yourself. You'd be amazed to know.
• 25:36
  Not just Christians who contemplate suicide but
• 25:39
  Christians who actively in secret hurt themselves.
• 25:46
  To try with that pain. Erase a greater pain.
• 25:51
  I say this to you in love, that's demonic.
• 25:59
  That's not normal. That's not natural.
• 26:03
  And the reason why I present that to you is because your
• 26:07
  source is Supernatural if the reason for such behavior and
• 26:13
  thinking is also Supernatural than you can only combat it with
• 26:18
  that which is Supernatural. And I present you the only
• 26:21
  solution Christ Christ. To come in and to deliver you
• 26:31
  because Christ doesn't afflict greater pain to erase what you
• 26:36
  feel to be greater pain. That's not how that's not how he
• 26:38
  delivers, he washes you with peace.
• 26:43
  He assures, you of love. He gets in here and he does
• 26:46
  surgery to you and in you. And finally, you were able to
• 26:50
  come off of that table of Truth and realized I'm Healed.
• 26:54
  I'm saved, I'm rescued. And so I want you to just step
• 27:00
  back as we consider the ruin of the man and just just
• 27:03
  contemplate it for a moment. The Holy Spirit presents us.
• 27:06
  This person who is demented. He's disfigured physically He
• 27:13
  lacks any ounce of human decency.
• 27:17
  And virtually everyone who knows him or who knows about him has
• 27:22
  written him off has given up on him.
• 27:27
  And by the design of that description, we are to feel the
• 27:31
  utter Darkness. That this man is living in.
• 27:40
  Until something happens. Christ appears.
• 27:45
  And that's what we see in verse 6. and when he saw Jesus from
• 27:50
  afar, he ran and fell down before him.
• 27:57
  And crying out with a loud voice.
• 27:59
  He said, what have you to do with me, Jesus?
• 28:02
  Son of the most high God, I adjourn You by God.
• 28:07
  Do not torment me for. He was saying to him, come out
• 28:11
  of the man, you unclean spirit. Here's Jesus with his disciples
• 28:17
  and they Park their boat on the dock and Christ.
• 28:22
  Places his holy feet on the same terrain that this man occupied
• 28:28
  and dominated. And here's this man filled with
• 28:33
  evil spirits, charging towards Jesus.
• 28:36
  And I'm under the persuasion that from a distance.
• 28:39
  He thinks now that he can shoo away this man, whoever he is,
• 28:44
  like he did so many who try to pass that way.
• 28:46
  And yet, whether he knew it before or not, as he comes
• 28:50
  closer, He realizes that this man is different.
• 28:57
  More importantly, more specifically the beings inside
• 29:00
  of him. They've seen this man before.
• 29:07
  And we were told here that the man ran and fell down before
• 29:14
  him. You realize how significant that
• 29:17
  is? That what chains and ropes and
• 29:26
  cuffs? Could not do.
• 29:31
  The appearance of the Son of God did. when the Son of God just
• 29:39
  appeared, it made every single one of those Critters crumble
• 29:47
  His presence, even without a command, without a word, without
• 29:51
  a touch, his presence alone. Exudes power.
• 29:57
  Oh, how we need his presence? Oh, how we need the Manifest
• 30:02
  presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 30:06
  That is Paul said, could even cause the sinner appearing to
• 30:10
  their local church in their neighborhood and fall to their
• 30:12
  face and say, surely God is among you New Testament.
• 30:16
  That's not Old Testament. The presence of Christ brought
• 30:21
  this man to his face more importantly than the things
• 30:25
  inside of him. And Jesus begins to exercise
• 30:28
  these demons and a dialogue breaks out.
• 30:33
  Now, we have a confrontation. There's so many things to learn
• 30:37
  from this engagement. Well, let me just draw some
• 30:38
  thoughts first. Look at verse 7.
• 30:42
  Crying out with a loud voice. He said, what have you to do
• 30:44
  with me, Jesus? Son of the most high God That's
• 30:48
  theologically right? I mean, look, I know, I know
• 30:53
  it's a demon but that's beautifully said that's
• 30:56
  eloquent. You have some Believers that
• 31:00
  talk about Jesus like he's just there neighborhood friend.
• 31:02
  Oh no. What do we see here?
• 31:04
  Look at this. Jesus.
• 31:05
  Son of the most high God. Yeah.
• 31:07
  But they're still devils. They're still destined for
• 31:12
  wrath, they're still headed toward the abyss and you know
• 31:17
  this we've talked about this before that it is no indication
• 31:22
  of one being and belonging to the Lord if they can just
• 31:25
  Express the illogical descriptions and doctrines.
• 31:33
  Such a person does not have any more hope than the person.
• 31:38
  Like this devil. Who knew that he was headed
• 31:42
  towards Eternal judgment and I could Define the characteristics
• 31:47
  and the Holiness and the Majesty of God still.
• 31:51
  True salvation is not what you know about him, it's knowing
• 31:53
  him. It's not just agreeing with what
• 31:57
  is true, it's submitting to the truth, and ultimately
• 32:00
  surrendering to the lordship that he demands.
• 32:04
  Secondly and interestingly Jesus asked the name of the demon
• 32:07
  verse 9, and Jesus asked them, what is your name?
• 32:14
  The Jesus not know his name. He knew his name and he replied.
• 32:21
  My name is Legion for we are many.
• 32:27
  Why did Jesus ask the name? It's not because Jesus didn't
• 32:32
  know because he wanted the disciples to know.
• 32:37
  In other words, it went something like this.
• 32:39
  I'm going to ask this demons name, so that my man and those
• 32:43
  who are around this whole event, would realize the extent of
• 32:46
  this. The souls torment, the severity
• 32:50
  of his suffering. The things that he had to
• 32:54
  undergo night after night, and morning after morning and
• 32:57
  everything in between, there isn't just one double in here,
• 33:00
  by asking the name. It exposed that there is a
• 33:03
  legion, which is a military term that the Romans used to identify
• 33:07
  a group of soldiers, that numbered anything in between
• 33:10
  3,000 to 6,000 soldiers. And it is also an indication by
• 33:17
  the fact that so many pigs would be inhabited by these.
• 33:20
  Same demons to convince us that these demons were actually
• 33:23
  telling the truth. You had a minimum of a few
• 33:29
  thousand Spirits living in this one man's life.
• 33:36
  Imagine the inward chaos and just imagine the the confusion
• 33:43
  and the inability to shake yourself off of such control and
• 33:47
  that is precisely what the Lord wants to convey.
• 33:52
  This isn't some trick, this isn't some like others who
• 33:55
  proposed having conversations with demons four hours before,
• 33:58
  delivering them. This is Christ preparing the
• 34:02
  audience to see the extent of his power and the power of His
• 34:05
  word. You may be a legion but I'm
• 34:08
  about to tell you to leave. And they are all going to
• 34:11
  listen. and so when he says, just that you can imagine the
• 34:19
  gasp of the disciples if there was You can imagine how some
• 34:23
  might have peddled a little bit towards the boat.
• 34:27
  And there is Christ strong. What a champion.
• 34:31
  Fearless. The Lord of all even the Lord
• 34:35
  over these Legions. He says.
• 34:40
  Come out of him. Come out of the man, you unclean
• 34:43
  spirit. But look at this, last point in
• 34:46
  verse 10. And he Legion Begged him
• 34:52
  earnestly. Not to send them out of the
• 34:54
  country. Now, a great herd of pigs was
• 34:58
  feeding there on the hillside, and They begged him saying, send
• 35:02
  us to the pigs. Let us enter them.
• 35:06
  And I love this phrase in verse 13, so he gave them permission.
• 35:11
  You have my permission, this is not Christ operating with
• 35:15
  compassion for these Devils. You see elsewhere in Luke where
• 35:20
  they asked, and They begged the Lord to not be sent to the
• 35:22
  abyss. They did not want premature
• 35:25
  judgment. They knew that they were headed
• 35:27
  towards eternal torment. But they did not want to meet
• 35:33
  their fate this early and so they asked the Lord, send us
• 35:37
  into the pigs. Now, why would the Lord agree
• 35:39
  with that? Why wouldn't he bring immediate
• 35:43
  judgment? And I give you the answer, the
• 35:46
  way I would give it for the same question.
• 35:47
  You might ask about evil today. Why doesn't the Lord deal with
• 35:51
  the devil? Now, why are we in during all of
• 35:54
  this? And here's the same answer for
• 35:56
  both because there is a Time Coming There is a day coming.
• 36:00
  There is justice that will be served that time is just not yet
• 36:05
  and it wasn't for these evil spirits either.
• 36:10
  And at the same time, the Lord is also going to compound the
• 36:13
  truth that he tried to convey earlier by identifying this
• 36:17
  demon. And now, they would visually
• 36:19
  see. The disciples would visually
• 36:21
  see, just how horrific and vicious these Spirits were
• 36:26
  because now they're going to enter these herds of pigs.
• 36:29
  And these pigs are going to commit mass suicide.
• 36:34
  And so here is a very strong illustration.
• 36:38
  You Disciples of just how much this one person was undergoing
• 36:43
  day after day. And so he tells them and he
• 36:49
  gives them permission. And I am also under the
• 36:55
  persuasion that it wasn't just the fact that they don't want to
• 36:57
  be judged early. These minions of Satan.
• 37:05
  Could not fathom also being in a state of inactivity.
• 37:11
  They could not think and they could not accept.
• 37:16
  Being placed. In a position where they could
• 37:20
  not fulfill their destructive desires on the Earth.
• 37:26
  And they knew that they couldn't ask Jesus to live in someone
• 37:30
  else's life Christ would never permit that.
• 37:33
  And so they try to find the next best thing.
• 37:35
  And so they asked for the pigs. Isn't it convicting that demons
• 37:42
  don't want to be idle? Shouldn't do something in US.
• 37:50
  That these Servants of the kingdom of darkness.
• 37:54
  Attempted to make a negotiation so that they would not be in a
• 37:58
  state of paralysis. They wanted to continue to
• 38:02
  advance their purposes in one way or another.
• 38:05
  And here we are. We have been called to a holy
• 38:08
  calling a pure calling, a Heavenly calling.
• 38:10
  May we never ever be found in different.
• 38:14
  How much more should we? How much more should I beg?
• 38:18
  My Lord? Lord, you send me where you want
• 38:21
  me to go. If these demons are going to beg
• 38:24
  Jesus to bring destruction and Lord, I beg you to use me with
• 38:28
  my little short life, to seek and save, whom you would have me
• 38:32
  seek and save the Lord gives them permission.
• 38:40
  And through the the identification of the man and
• 38:42
  through the illustration of the destruction that they brought to
• 38:45
  these creatures, we have an idea more of the ruin, but we also
• 38:51
  see the rescue of this man. It says here, the unclean
• 38:56
  spirits and verse 13 came out and entered the Pigs and The
• 38:59
  Herd numbering about 2000. Rushed down the Steep Bank, into
• 39:04
  the sea, and drowned in the sea. I mean, just think about what
• 39:08
  that look like. And so we looked at the ruin of
• 39:12
  the man, we looked at the rescue of the men.
• 39:14
  Now we look at the renewal of the man and in verse 14 we read
• 39:19
  the herdsmen fled. So it wasn't just the disciples
• 39:23
  You had the managers of this one Pig business that were all
• 39:25
  there. Let me talk about a shift to be
• 39:29
  at talk about calling in sick. The herdsmen fled and told it in
• 39:34
  the city and in the country they witnessed it.
• 39:38
  They saw something, they could never unsee.
• 39:40
  They saw some that was worth telling everybody else about and
• 39:44
  here's here's what you would think, what happened, right.
• 39:47
  Here's what you would think would happen after seeing
• 39:49
  someone that, you know, Who is as hopeless as hopeless can be.
• 39:56
  And after seeing Christ authority of relocating demons,
• 40:00
  you would think. Hey, let's punch out early.
• 40:03
  Let's go back and let's bring back.
• 40:05
  So, and so they need a touch from this man.
• 40:10
  Let's bring back. So and so they need Deliverance
• 40:12
  as well. Let's grab so.
• 40:15
  And so perhaps the Messiah, perhaps, this is the Messiah.
• 40:18
  Let's let's inquire further. You would think that this would
• 40:22
  break out into Revival and instead it inspired rejection,
• 40:30
  For those who are persuaded that Miracles is what is needed to
• 40:33
  see. People get saved.
• 40:34
  How do you how do you deal with this?
• 40:37
  The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country.
• 40:40
  And people came to see what it was that had happened.
• 40:44
  And they came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed, man, the
• 40:49
  one who had the legion, look at this Serene scene sitting there.
• 40:57
  Clothed and in his right mind sitting there clothed and in his
• 41:03
  right mind and they were afraid. We should be afraid to some
• 41:11
  extent of what Christ is capable of.
• 41:14
  There should be this. Holy reverence that arises in us
• 41:17
  to believe that we can bring someone.
• 41:21
  Who might not even be sound in mind.
• 41:24
  And introduce them to Christ and believe with all of our hearts
• 41:29
  Lord, you can do something with this person.
• 41:32
  You are able to do something with this person and there
• 41:35
  should be an expectation and holy anticipation.
• 41:38
  Yes, we should have some kind of a fear of what Christ can do,
• 41:41
  not just in his judgment, but in his goodness, but unfortunately,
• 41:46
  that's not the quality of fear that these people had.
• 41:51
  They were afraid of Jesus. The authority of Christ,
• 41:58
  astounded them to the point of trembling.
• 42:02
  But not in a way that would have them worship Him.
• 42:06
  But the drive him away. Do you think?
• 42:12
  Again, that this wood. Cause a move of the spirit in
• 42:18
  this region, but no, we instead reading verse 16 and those who
• 42:23
  had seen it, describe it to them.
• 42:24
  What had happened to the demon-possessed men?
• 42:26
  Let's get this and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to
• 42:33
  depart from their region. There's a lot of begging in this
• 42:38
  text, a lot of begging. You have begging from the demons
• 42:41
  and you have begging from, the people who witnessed this man
• 42:43
  delivered from demons. I can't register it in my
• 42:49
  imagination. How they began to beg.
• 42:52
  Not ask not politely persuade beg.
• 42:57
  Get out of here. Please leave.
• 43:02
  We want nothing to do with you. I mean, I don't know what's more
• 43:08
  stunning. The pigs being possessing
• 43:10
  jumping off a cliff or seeing that.
• 43:13
  I don't know. What's more jaw-dropping if I
• 43:15
  was one of the disciples like are you serious?
• 43:21
  He began to beg and you might think.
• 43:23
  Why would they beg? Well, look back here at verse
• 43:26
  15. 16 rather. It says that they were beginning
• 43:33
  to describe to them. What had happened to the
• 43:35
  demon-possessed man, but it doesn't stop there and to the
• 43:37
  pigs and to the pigs. When Christ delivered, this man,
• 43:44
  there was some loss to their financial Enterprise.
• 43:50
  Now, we have more reason to believe that this is a gentile
• 43:53
  region, because Jewish law will not accept.
• 43:57
  The raising and the herding of pigs.
• 43:58
  It was an unclean animal. So, either their Gentiles or
• 44:02
  they are Jews who are disobeying the law, but more likely it is
• 44:07
  Gentiles in this region of gallery.
• 44:12
  What do you think would be a more important and more
• 44:16
  considerable concern for these people.
• 44:18
  The fact that this Terrorizer of their city is now a brand new
• 44:24
  man, or the fact that they lost some profit.
• 44:30
  And their business got hurt. How are you?
• 44:34
  Not. Look at this and we have to be
• 44:36
  careful not to lift up our nose too high.
• 44:39
  Because the attitude of these herdsmen and these citizens is
• 44:44
  still alive today, isn't it? Isn't it alive today?
• 44:51
  Do you not have people today who want nothing to do with Jesus
• 44:55
  because they understand enough about the lordship that he calls
• 44:58
  for that might meddle with their affairs.
• 45:03
  Isn't there enough understanding in the Simplicity of the
• 45:06
  presentation of the Gospel that would cause people to
• 45:09
  understand? So you're telling me that this
• 45:12
  Jesus can enter into my life and there's something of my
• 45:15
  property, my projects, my Pursuits, that could be
• 45:19
  affected. No, thank you.
• 45:23
  Keep them away, listen to this. And people are willing to do
• 45:26
  that. Even if bondage in them or
• 45:28
  around, them still continues. They have such an esteem and
• 45:36
  such a value and the temporal that they're willing to let go
• 45:39
  of the Eternal. even if it means torment with the little toys
• 45:45
  that you want to enjoy in this life, Here's the thing, this is
• 45:50
  the scariest part of this. We thought the demons was the
• 45:52
  scariest part. You thought the shrieking and
• 45:56
  The Cutting was disturbing? It is.
• 45:58
  Here's what I personally believe is the most hard dropping part
• 46:02
  when they begged Jesus to leave. He agreed. what happens here and
• 46:09
  those who began to beg Jesus to depart from the region, Verse
• 46:13
  18, and as he was getting into the boat, you want me to go?
• 46:20
  I'll honor it. Turns his back makes his way
• 46:24
  towards the same boat that he came in.
• 46:28
  And we see another kind of begging.
• 46:31
  We saw a begging with the demons.
• 46:33
  We saw begging with these people who needed just as much
• 46:37
  Deliverance as this man did. But look at this kind of begging
• 46:41
  and verse 18. And as he was getting into the
• 46:43
  boat, the men who had been possessed with demons begged
• 46:46
  him, Begged him that he might be with him.
• 46:54
  I mean, talk about talk about a site, begging demons begging
• 47:02
  unregenerate, man, and now a begging freshly saved soul.
• 47:09
  Pectin. He begged him that he might be
• 47:13
  with him. Do you want to know one of the
• 47:15
  strongest? If not the strongest sign that
• 47:18
  someone has truly undergone a work of God in their hearts?
• 47:25
  They want to from that moment on be with Jesus.
• 47:30
  They don't just want to be delivered from something, they
• 47:33
  don't want to be just saved for something.
• 47:35
  They want to be with the Savior himself.
• 47:39
  That's how you know someone met this man.
• 47:42
  That's how you know, the gospel had its full work in a man.
• 47:46
  Lord you saved me, you change me but don't keep me here.
• 47:52
  I want to be with you. I want to go.
• 47:54
  Where you go. I want to hear you speak.
• 47:56
  I want to obey what you say take me with you.
• 47:59
  Lord grab my hand and allow me to walk with you throughout this
• 48:03
  life. I will follow you.
• 48:04
  I'll let you leave me. I want you, there's this new
• 48:08
  birth. This newly desired, implanted
• 48:12
  Pursuit that you never known before and it's I want to be
• 48:16
  with him. I want to follow him wherever he
• 48:20
  tells me to go and with that. With that desire being so
• 48:26
  strong. So truly moved and impregnated.
• 48:31
  If I can use that word by the spirit, that you could care
• 48:34
  less. What the crowd says, remember,
• 48:37
  this man is the minority in the popular vote.
• 48:40
  Everybody else said, get out of here and yet you have this one
• 48:42
  man. It says I'm coming with you.
• 48:45
  Please take me with you. So everybody else is headed
• 48:50
  towards back their homes. And you have this one man on his
• 48:52
  knees, perhaps grabbing a hold of the Lord saying, please don't
• 48:56
  get in that boat without me. Christ can become so real, that
• 49:02
  the crowd disappears and their opinions, and their ideas and
• 49:06
  their intimidations. And what's popular means nothing
• 49:13
  We have to, we have to reclaim and restore that kind of
• 49:17
  Christianity. We have to how the gospel leads
• 49:22
  to True, saving power, and opens the way for True intimate
• 49:27
  relationship with the master. So, the crowd doesn't mean
• 49:32
  anything. And here's his men, begging and
• 49:35
  surely Jesus. Jesus will not reject such a
• 49:38
  request. Surely.
• 49:40
  Jesus will make space in that boat.
• 49:44
  What does he? Because look at the response of
• 49:48
  Christ verse 19. And he did not permit him.
• 49:55
  And he did not permit him but said to him go home to your
• 49:58
  friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and
• 50:02
  how he has had mercy on you. Isn't it amazing that when the
• 50:08
  people begged Jesus to leave, he gave them what they wanted.
• 50:11
  But when this meant begged to be with him, Jesus denied it He
• 50:19
  would think that Jesus will put up a protest and try to convince
• 50:22
  the crowd for him to stay. Doesn't do anything of the sort.
• 50:28
  And you would think with this man beg to be with Jesus.
• 50:32
  That Jesus would praise him for his faith, pick him up, and
• 50:35
  Brace him. And Adam to a very close
• 50:40
  proximity to his ministry. I'm not allowing you to come
• 50:46
  with me. I believe he said that with
• 50:48
  gentleness And I believe that, as he said those words, the men
• 50:53
  felt the perfect wisdom of the all-knowing Messiah.
• 50:59
  You're not coming with me, but in fact, I need you to go and
• 51:04
  tell first your home and your friends, what has happened to
• 51:06
  you? And I think what you see here is
• 51:08
  just one example of the great mystery of God's ways.
• 51:14
  He knows things that we do not know and his guidance sometimes
• 51:17
  seems strange to us at the moment, but all we have to do is
• 51:21
  trust that he knows exactly how to answer and direct the cries
• 51:25
  of men. But I want to be with you know,
• 51:30
  it's like but Lord what how do I reconcile with the fact that you
• 51:33
  want followers and you want us to be close to you trust in him
• 51:37
  trust and how he takes your prayers and answers them, no
• 51:40
  matter how pure and promised fill they are with the Bible
• 51:44
  just trust that he knows something that you don't know.
• 51:53
  And this man did just that he obeyed.
• 51:57
  And he makes his way in verse 20.
• 52:00
  He went away began to Proclaim in the decapolis how much Jesus
• 52:04
  had done for him and everyone marveled.
• 52:08
  You would think you know what? You have a very powerful
• 52:13
  testimony, but you need. You know what?
• 52:15
  Come to my Seminary. You need three years with these
• 52:18
  guys, get some theological training and then maybe I'll
• 52:20
  send you out. All right away.
• 52:26
  Go. Not everybody's training and
• 52:30
  Ministry is alike. God doesn't have a cookie cutter
• 52:35
  way of raising up servants. Some need some training, some
• 52:42
  have a particular purpose, and their testimony is very powerful
• 52:45
  in the Lord can make use of them.
• 52:46
  Very, very soon. This man gets up and he goes to
• 52:51
  the capitalist was just a name to identify 10, Gentile,
• 52:55
  saturated cities. and he goes, and he proclaims and he shares,
• 53:04
  I wonder if he showed some scarves.
• 53:09
  I wonder what the reaction of his family was when he knocked
• 53:13
  on that door and that afternoon. I wonder what his friends said.
• 53:19
  I wonder what the people who try to chain them.
• 53:23
  Try to reconcile in their reasoning when they saw this
• 53:26
  man, completely sane through the word of another man.
• 53:34
  And this man went out. And the next time that we see
• 53:39
  mention of the capitalists, would you like to see it?
• 53:42
  Mark chapter 7, Verse 31. Then he returned from the region
• 53:57
  of tyre went through side on a to the Sea of Galilee and the
• 54:01
  region of the decapolis and they brought to him a man who was
• 54:05
  deaf and had a speech impediment and They begged him to lay his
• 54:09
  hand on him and taking him aside from the crowd privately.
• 54:15
  But his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his
• 54:17
  tongue, could be very well that this eager crowd of people were
• 54:22
  stimulated inspired and prepared at the capitalists to meet with
• 54:28
  this Christ, because of this testimony that this man shared
• 54:35
  who was hopeless, but found Hope in Jesus.
• 54:43
  I close with an invitation. People get nervous with
• 54:47
  invitations. Here's my invitation to you.
• 54:56
  And your heart. To believe God afresh.
• 55:02
  To stand in the gap. To not give up for that person.
• 55:06
  That seems hopeless. Not the one that's like, They
• 55:14
  have a chance, you know. There are those kind of people
• 55:16
  like, respectable citizens of society, they work hard, they
• 55:20
  have a nice family like everything, everything seems
• 55:22
  very christianese, but they just need Jesus.
• 55:24
  You know, those kind of people not talking about those kind of
• 55:27
  people. I'm talking about the most
• 55:30
  unlikely, the most stubborn destructive, terrorizing
• 55:36
  difficult. help lunging rebellious person, you can think
• 55:46
  of and believe that Christ can change them.
• 55:55
  And reignite your prayer life for them.
• 56:00
  And give up on the change that you tried to apply to them, and
• 56:03
  come back to the Simplicity of the power of the Gospel.
• 56:07
  And just believe until God calls you home.
• 56:12
  As long as you are here, you have the ability with your
• 56:16
  faith. Yes, Christ.
• 56:17
  Can honor your faith on behalf of, someone else's lack of
• 56:21
  faith. That the Lord can do something
• 56:23
  in them. And so as we close, I'm going to
• 56:25
  invite you to bring that person back to mind.
• 56:30
  And to bring that person before Jesus Christ even now and
• 56:33
  believe that even now as you pray for that person Christ, can
• 56:37
  he can't appear and do something in them.
• 56:41
  And rescue them. And give them a testimony that
• 56:47
  can touch others as well. Lord, we thank you.
• 56:58
  That is story like this is more than just to give us a
• 57:00
  historical account of what you've done.
• 57:04
  And do your time on Earth was unique.
• 57:08
  You were the same Christ. Who is assured us?
• 57:13
  That there is power in the name. Of Jesus.
• 57:22
  And Lord, we think about those who are ruined.
• 57:26
  Who maybe even right now are sitting in their rooms with
• 57:29
  bottles or needles. Or making decisions to hurt
• 57:37
  themselves, to disfigure themselves.
• 57:41
  To challenge the author of Life by taking their own life into
• 57:45
  their own hands. Lord, we confess only you can do
• 57:55
  something. The sessions didn't work, the
• 58:01
  substances didn't go very far. The family interventions only
• 58:09
  infuriated things. And so Lord, we just stand in
• 58:15
  the gap on behalf of someone that we love, and we think about
• 58:20
  them in this moment as we receive truth.
• 58:23
  And we look back to you now, and we responded.
• 58:25
  We say Lord. Would you do something?
• 58:28
  Would you do something? We can't, we give up.
• 58:34
  We're done Lord, but you are able.
• 58:37
  And so set that, son free set, that daughter, free set, that
• 58:40
  father, free set, that mother free, that Uncle, that cousin
• 58:44
  that best friend. Even now Lord, as they are
• 58:48
  preparing to sin. In this very moment, we pray
• 58:51
  that you would intervene you would show right up and that you
• 58:57
  would extend undeserved mercy. And with that Mercy would come a
• 59:03
  power, a power that would make your love and your freeing power
• 59:09
  undeniable. And so Lord, we sing to you.
• 59:17
  And we also think of those perhaps were listening that now
• 59:20
  who are in bondage in one way or another.
• 59:25
  They are subject to slavery. And that could be an evil
• 59:31
  spirit. Could very likely Simply Be sin.
• 59:38
  Lord with him, with a Mustard Seed, Faith, arise in their
• 59:43
  hearts to believe that you Lord, Jesus, the resurrected Messiah
• 59:47
  can bring liberation. Salvation soundness of Mind.
• 59:52
  Peace and heart Assurance of divine love.
• 59:57
  Lord, have your way. And we sing to you with
• 1:00:01
  Thanksgiving that you are this Christ.
• 1:00:05
  Who, when we beg to you you answer.
• 1:00:07
  But even when we beg to you and you don't answer, we trust in
• 1:00:10
  your wisdom. and we believe that, you know, best and
• 1:00:15
  oftentimes your nose is because you have a plan in mind like
• 1:00:19
  this man who did not understand what his testimony would do in
• 1:00:22
  preparation for a future Ministry for Christ.
• 1:00:26
  Help us trust you in the nose. No matter how good and holy that
• 1:00:32
  request has helped us trust you in the nose.
• 1:00:36
  Receive more Glory. Now as we sing in Jesus name,
• 1:00:39
  amen would you stand with me as we sing?