Latest / HBCWestminster / 7.19.20 Luke 8:22-39 Pastor Sam Porges

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7.19.20 Luke 8:22-39 Pastor Sam Porges · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  this morning we come to two miracles of Jesus with which many of us are familiar, the calming of the storm and the healing of the demoniac. In fact, I think many adult Christians often treat these two stories as sorts of party tricks where we read about them and then we go, wow, good job, Jesus. That was amazing. We'll see you at the next show. This morning, however.
• 0:26
  My goal is for us to imaginatively immerse ourselves in these stories so that we can take a fresh look at Jesus and ask, as the disciples did in our passage, who then is this? So why don't we pray, then we'll jump into our passage. God, I pray that you would give us grace and mercy to see Jesus fresh today. I pray that we would never become bored with...
• 0:59
  the Gospels, but would sit in awe and wonder at the feet of Jesus and truly wonder who he is and remind ourselves of whom we believe in. Bless us as we read and study. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, first, let's start in verse 22 of Luke 8. Luke writes, One day he got into a boat, it's Jesus, with his disciples. And he said to them,
• 1:56
  He said to them, where is your faith?
• 1:59
  And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him? As we know from weeks previous, Jesus had been ministering on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, but then had decided with his disciples to sail to the other side. And side note, I think it's really fun that Jesus and his disciples went sailing. And as they sailed, Jesus fell asleep, which is quite interesting for a couple of reasons.
• 2:30
  First, I think it shows Jesus's calm but confident trust in the sovereignty of the Father on his life because he slept through the beginning of the storm, right? So he trusted in the Father. But then secondly, I think it also shows that Jesus was really tired. He shared in our humanity, including the weaknesses and frailties of our humanity. And so the Son of God, the eternal Lord, was incredibly...
• 3:01
  tired from his non-stop ministry. Now, the storm that arose on the lake was no chance occurrence. The lake of the Sea of Galilee is situated some 600 feet below sea level, but it's surrounded on all sides by really big cliffs. And on the northeastern side of the lake, there are heights or cliffs called the Golan Heights, which have an elevation of over 2,000 feet.
• 3:31
  And what would happen often was a weather storm on top of the Golan Heights would roll off and crash down onto the weather system on the Sea of Galilee, and it would create very rapidly big storms. There have been reports of 10-foot waves on the Sea of Galilee, which is pretty crazy to imagine. And the language that Luke uses here to describe this storm
• 4:00
  tells us that this storm was nothing short of life-threatening, which is why the disciples responded the way that they did. So far, the disciples had witnessed Jesus' power over diseases, over demons, and even over death. Their understanding of his power, however, at this point in the narrative, was localized to a single person. They had no idea the scope of Jesus' power that he could even control.
• 4:29
  Things like storms and seas. And so you can imagine being there, feeling nervous as you row your way further and further out into the lake, and you begin to see the sky growing dim with thunderclouds forming. And you're thinking, oh no, this weather was pleasant when we left the shore, right? And then...
• 4:50
  It starts raining and the winds start howling and the waves begin to crash into the boat so that the sides of the boat get closer and closer and closer to the surface of the lake. You realize that all efforts to control the boat are futile and you're miles from the shore so frantically that you call out for the only person who could possibly help, who's asleep in the back of the boat, Jesus. So you wake him up and he stands, he observes the storm and then shouts, peace.
• 5:20
  Be still. And immediately the wind dies, the waves are reduced to ripples, and the clouds disband their angry company. This would be astounding. The disciples who were experienced fishermen understood that this storm was not calmed through any natural course of events, but was rather stilled by the great power of their rabbi, which caused them to ask in amazement, Who then is?
• 5:51
  This. As great as the chaos was, so now great was the calm. I love what J.C. Ryle comments on this event. He says,
• 6:22
  No power short of this could in a moment turn a storm into a calm. To speak to the winds and waves is a common proverb for attempting that which is impossible. But here we see Jesus speaking. And at once the winds and waves obey. As man, he slept. As God, he calmed the storm. Jesus then turned to his disciples and he asks, where is your faith? John MacArthur.
• 6:52
  points out that up until this point, the disciples had witnessed Jesus minister to the sufferings of other people, which to a certain extent allowed them to be distanced and emotionally objective to that suffering because it wasn't touching their lives. This storm, however, endangered them personally, and now they were the ones in distress. And the fear and the desperation which they had witnessed in others was now their portion. And instead of being filled with faith, they were filled with fear.
• 7:23
  Now, we find ourselves in the same boat as the disciples, don't we? Pun intended. When suffering touches our lives personally, we can find ourselves filled with fear instead of faith. And is this not because we forget who is in the boat with us? Is it not because we forget that the Lord of all creation stands behind the wheel of the ship? One man said this, To everyone who is full of fear and doubt as to the future of his kingdom,
• 7:53
  He puts the question, where is thy faith? Christ is on board the ship of his church, and therefore it can never perish, no matter how the storms may break and rage over it. Even so, it is with the vessel of every believer's life. It cannot perish, for Jesus, the omnipotent pilot, is on board. Church, Christ is our captain, our savior who secures us in the midst of our tribulation.
• 8:21
  And so when we ask with the disciples, who then is this? We realize Jesus is the one who saves. So that's first. He's the one who saves. After they had finished their sailing course, they reach the other side of the lake. So let's pick it up in verse 26. Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.
• 8:50
  For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break
• 9:17
  the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, what is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
• 9:47
  When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.
• 10:15
  So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
• 10:37
  The Gerasenes, this area in Israel, was primarily populated by Gentiles. And you can imagine that the communities on this side of the lake had been consistently harassed by a crazy, naked, demon-possessed man who loitered at the local cemetery. Matthew 8 and Mark 5 tell us that he was constantly crying out among the tombs and cutting himself with stones, and he was even violent with passersby. Everyone in town avoided this guy.
• 11:06
  When parents took their kids out for a walk around the block, they took the long route to make sure that they would avoid seeing the demon-possessed man. The only interaction the town had with him was when the neighborhood watch volunteers bound him with chains and shackles, which they learned were useless attempts to control him. In fact, his violence was probably why he ran to the shore when Jesus and his disciples pulled up in the boat because he assumed that they would be his next victims.
• 11:35
  Upon approaching the boat, however, the demons recognized that this was no mere man, but the Son of God. And so they cried out, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. The demons had such control of the man that when Jesus asked for his name, they answered instead of him, saying, Legion. Now, a legion was a unit in the Roman army that consisted of five to six
• 12:03
  thousand soldiers which meant this man was as one commentator has described him a one man barracks for thousands of demons despite their great number the demons begged Jesus that they might not be sent into the abyss but might be allowed to possess a nearby herd of pigs now the abyss here refers to a bottomless pit where God has kept some demons in captivity until the final judgment
• 12:30
  And it's interesting because these demons know their eternal fate and they know that Jesus has the power to condemn them to that eternal fate forever, which is why they beg him not to send them into the abyss. And so Jesus, however, allows them to go into the pigs and the resulting suicide of the pigs confirms that the enemy really is out only to steal, kill, and destroy, even if the victims are animals.
• 12:58
  Now, Scripture doesn't tell us why Jesus allowed them to go into the pigs, but in light of what we know about Christ from the rest of the Gospels, we know that he did not allow this because of some sort of judgment or prejudice against the Gentiles, but out of a care for the man and as a sign that the demons really had left the man.
• 13:23
  Christ is perfectly wise and the blames for the pig's death is ultimately on the demons. It's not on Christ. So the herdsmen who witnessed this event quickly spread the word. And when the residents came and saw Jesus, Luke says they were filled with fear at his power. Just like, interestingly, the disciples were afraid of Jesus calming the storm. At first, they were afraid of the storm. And then Jesus calms the storm. And now they're looking at him and they're afraid of this power.
• 13:52
  Just like these people at one time had been afraid of this demoniac, and now they see this greater power, and so they are afraid of him. And instead of worshiping or thanking the one who cast out the innumerable demons, they cast Jesus out of their town. They had witnessed the Legion's great power in their neighborhood, and now stood in the face of an even more powerful force, and they wanted none of it.
• 14:17
  They came to the wrong conclusion about Jesus because their spiritual eyes were blind. And in an interesting paradox, the people became their own worst enemies and asked Jesus to leave a request that Jesus granted, while the healed man asked to go with Jesus, a request that Jesus denied. You can imagine this demon-possessed man crying out, Jesus, please let me go with you. I have nothing else here. You are my life.
• 14:47
  Let me go. And yet, Jesus sends him on mission to the one place he did not want to go. Home. It would have been so much easier for him to leave his hometown, its hostile inhabitants, the suspicious glares, and all of the embarrassing and painful memories that resided there. Yet, that is exactly where Jesus sends him. Jesus knew that it was in his hometown where his gospel witness would be most effective. He saved the man.
• 15:18
  And then he sent the man. And church, do we not realize that Jesus has not only saved us, but that he sends us as well? Jesus has saved you so that you would establish a gospel witness where you're at. And so my question is, are you fulfilling the mission that God has for you? I love verse 39.
• 15:40
  It says after Jesus says, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you, it says the man went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. He took courage and participated in the mission of Jesus, this Luke 19.10 mission where Jesus says, I've come to seek and to save the lost. He went back to the people who had just minutes before asked Jesus to leave because that's where his gospel witness would be effective.
• 16:10
  And it was simple for this man. All he did with these people was shared his testimony. And that is what we are called to do as well, to share what Jesus has done for us. And church, we may not encounter people with thousands of demons inside of them, though sometimes it kind of seems like we do. But the gospel we possess is enough to cause a miracle inside someone that is just as amazing.
• 16:40
  as freeing a man from thousands of demons. That miracle is conversion, being brought from spiritual blindness and given sight, from a lack of spiritual understanding to then spiritual enlightenment, from death to life. I love what J.C. Ryle again says about this. He says, one thing, however, must never be forgotten.
• 17:08
  Striking and miraculous as this cure was, it was not really more wonderful than every case of decided conversion to God. Marvelous as the change was which appeared in this demoniac's condition when healed, it is not one ounce more marvelous than the change which passes over everyone who is born again and turned from the power of Satan to God.
• 17:30
  Never is a man in his right mind until he is converted or in his right place till he sits by faith at the feet of Jesus or rightly clothed till he has put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have we ever considered what real conversion to God is? It is nothing else than the miraculous release of a captive, the miraculous restoration of a man to his right mind, the miraculous deliverance of a soul from the devil.
• 18:01
  Then is this. This is our mission, to see people transformed from death to life. I love this. One man said, you are being sent because there are other tomb people to free. So I hope that when we come to the Gospels, and we come to these stories of Jesus' amazing miracles, I hope that they never lose their sense of wonder and awe in us.
• 18:33
  I hope we can consistently read about Jesus while using our imaginations so that our love for Jesus is stirred. And I hope that we remember to ask ourselves, who then is this? Jesus is the one who saves and the one who sends. He saves and he sends. And he sends us out to make known his power and grace to the world, which desperately needs to know him. Let's pray.
• 19:05
  Lord, we, when we think about these stories, are amazed at Christ. To have been there on the boat, fearing for our lives, and then to see you deliver and calm everything would be astonishing. And to see this healed man's courage to go back to the people who had once rejected him because of his state of life, to go back and to share.
• 19:44
  what Jesus had done for them, only displays Jesus' wisdom that he really intended the gospel to get out by means of people who followed him. I pray, God, that if we find ourselves in the midst of a sinking boat because of personal trials or because of the things that are going on in the culture, I pray that we would remember who's in the boat with us, that it is Jesus, and he is the one who saves.
• 20:16
  We can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and we can fear no evil because you are with us. And I pray that we would not get comfortable with Bible knowledge, but would remember that you have us on mission. We are here to tell people what you have done for the world in the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• 20:45
  Remind us by your spirit that you save us and you send us. And so I pray now that you would even bring people to mind who need the gospel and give us the courage to reach out, to love them enough to say something. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for sending us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.