Our scripture reading this morning is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 8. We take up our reading at verse 22, Luke chapter 8, verse 22, reading down through verse 40. Let us hear God's own word. One day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they set out and as they sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him saying, master, master, we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said to them, Where is your faith? 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. 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. 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 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. 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. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged him that he might go 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. Now, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were waiting for him. So far the reading of God's word. Well, last week we saw that Jesus had determined to visit the Gentiles across the Sea of Galilee in the land of the Gerasenes, and how on that trip they had gotten caught in a huge storm and Jesus had stilled the storm, stilled the wind and the waves, and the disciples had been amazed and filled with fear, and the disciples had asked the question, who then is this? Who then is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? Well, this is the man who had decided it was time to visit the Gentiles, and so he must have prepared, mustn't he, a lavish welcome, a triumphal entry, a great reception. But when he gets there, we find something quite different, don't we? We find something rather surprising. There are no crowds to greet him. He lands in a lonely spot. Didn't he know where he was going? Didn't the navigators take him to the right place? What's happening here? It's not only a lonely spot. the only person there to greet him is a man who is demon-possessed. A man who is so demon-possessed that he's, for a long time, lived in isolation in a cemetery, naked. And when people have tried to restrain him, even with chains, he's gone berserk and broken away from the chains. This is the Gentile who greets Jesus as he enters the country of the Gentiles for the very first time. What's going on here? Is this simply a warning not to be a pig farmer? You know, most people who get the privilege of preaching this passage don't actually have a pig farmer in the congregation. So, it gives you a whole new slant on this passage. What's going on here? What is Jesus teaching us? I think he's giving us a picture of the spiritual reality of the Gentile world. And he's giving his disciples a picture of what they're going to have to minister to. And so it's a picture for us of the world we live in. And it's a picture for us of the program set before us to live for Jesus in this world. I think this is very deliberate on the part of Jesus to say to us, what is this world that you're going out to as my disciples? Now, Jesus could have taken a boat and gone to Rome and seen the beauties of architecture and the powers of wealth in this world. He could have taken a boat and gone to Athens and seen the intellectual center of this world. He could have taken a boat to Alexandria and seen one of the great and splendid cities of the ancient world. These are all realities of the world. But he's showing us, I think, what's behind these impressive, beautiful, valuable accomplishments of the world. What's behind it all? Behind it all is loneliness. Behind it all is evil. Behind it all is loss. That's why I think he brought his disciples to this place and this man at this time. And we see in this passage three encounters that tell us about the world and about our relationship to the world. And the first encounter is with demons. We're told this is a man of the city, but he's been living in isolation in a cemetery in the country because he's demon-possessed. Now, what do we make of that? What do we make of that? Sometimes people point to passages like this to show how the New Testament is just full of superstitious stuff that you can't believe. This is the kind of thing ancient people believe. Modern people can't believe stuff like this. This is just kind of crazy talk. They talk about demons because there are things happening they can't explain. So they attribute it to demons. That's what some people say. Some people say, you see, they didn't understand disease, so they said demons brought disease. But of course, people who say things like that haven't really read the Bible, haven't really read the New Testament. The New Testament shows they understood clearly that disease was one thing and demon possession was another. The Bible nowhere says all disease comes from demon possession. So are there such things as demons? Well, if you believe in forces of evil, if you believe in the devil, if you believe that evil can be personified, it's not so hard to believe in demons. But what does the Bible really say to us about demons? Well, one of the things the Bible says to us about demons is we don't see them very often. Sometimes people say, well, look at all the demons in the Gospels, and we don't see demons very much, so there mustn't be demons. Well, you know, the interesting thing is when you look at the Old Testament and you look at the epistles of the New Testament, there aren't very many demons there. Demons in the Bible are powerfully present in the Gospels. Why is that? Why is that? I'm giving you time to think. Do you have an answer? Why is that? It's because Jesus has come. It's because Jesus has come to overwhelm the evil one. Jesus has come to defeat the evil one's control over the nations of this world. Jesus has come to fulfill the saving work of the Father, and the demonic kingdom is putting forth all of its power and energy to resist him. That's why we see this confrontation in the Gospels in particular between the demons and Jesus. Up until this point in Luke's Gospel, we've seen some demons. We've heard about the evil one, Satan, tempting Jesus in the wilderness. We've seen Jesus casting out demons in Capernaum. We've heard about Mary Magdalene, who had seven demons. But now, all of a sudden, there are lots of demons here in the Gentile world. There's an army opposing Jesus in the Gentile world. When Jesus asks, what is your name? It's not the man who responds, it's the demons who respond and say, my name is Legion. What's that mean? Well, Legion is a Roman military term. A legion was an army of a thousand men. This demon is saying, we are here in numbers and we're here in strength. We are here as an army to oppose you. I think that's what's happening here. And what Luke is showing us, and what Jesus is showing us, is the spiritual background to the reality that we actually all face all the time. We don't actually see demons most of the time, but we're engaged always in a spiritual conflict. There are forces of evil that oppose God and his purposes and his church. And Luke here is showing us that reality. For a minute, the backdrop is lifted. You've been in a theater and seen a performance. You often see scenery. And if for a moment the stage directions aren't rightly followed, you might see behind the scenery. and behind the scenery, it's a very different world. It's a very different picture. The scenery looks beautiful. The back of the scenery doesn't look so beautiful. And what has happened here is we've suddenly been given an insight into what's going on in the spiritual struggle of this world. And the truth is, there are great forces, Marshall, to oppose our Savior. To oppose what he wants to do. To oppose him, especially in his earthly ministry. Just as we don't see Jesus today, incarnate among us, because he's risen up and glorified, so we don't see the demons so much today. But Jesus is real today, and the demons are real today, and they're opposition to God and his purposes and his people. Here's a legion, an army opposing him. And the legion, the army, the demons have their purpose, and Jesus has his purpose. And this passage is showing us the great contrast. What do the demons want? They want bondage of this poor man. And Jesus comes to bring freedom. They want him naked, and he comes to clothe him. They want his loss of self. This man has no control over himself anymore. And Jesus wants to bring recovery of self. They want death, and he brings life. It's hard to imagine a clearer picture of the contrast between the world apart from Jesus and the world in Jesus than what's being painted here. And so, with these contrasting purposes, we see this confrontation between Jesus and the demons. And we see the power of the demons over human beings. They have taken this man over. They have ruined his life. They have brought him into this bondage of living alone and without any self-control. Now, the New Testament doesn't tell us a lot about how demons come to take over someone. And even less do they tell us how demons are cast out. And so if you know Christians who talk a lot about the need to cast out demons, say, show me what passage in Scripture tells us how to cast out demons. There isn't one. Jesus and his disciples knew how to do it. We don't know how to do it because we're not called to do it. How does a demon take over somebody? Well, we're not told in great detail about it, but we are given one example, the case of Judas Iscariot. We're told in Luke 22 that Satan entered him to lead him to betray Jesus. But we know Judas was already committed to do that. And that implies, I think, that no one is demon-possessed who hasn't cooperated with the coming of the demon. Remember in Luke 11, there's the warning. If you drive out a demon, beware, lest seven more come back. I think that's saying if you put your life in order, it can get worse instead of better if you don't keep the demon out. There seems to be an element of cooperation here. So maybe this man at some point cooperated with the demon. We don't know all the details. What we do know is these demons are powerful until they meet Jesus. And in the face of Jesus, they're utterly powerless. You know, we see that in the book of Revelation. The enemies of God are always preparing for war in the book of the Revelation, and there's never a battle, because God's always in charge. They can't really oppose it. All these demons, maybe a couple of thousand demons, powerless before Jesus. They can't do a thing. They can't even leave the man or go somewhere else without his word. Luke is displaying for us the glory or the power of Jesus. And it's interesting, the demons have to plead with Jesus. The demons have to beg Jesus. Don't torment us. Isn't that interesting that people would react to Jesus? Of course, these aren't people, these are demons. Don't send us into the abyss. Now, abyss is a word not used very often in the New Testament. But it is used in Revelation chapter 20, where it's described as the pit in which Satan is chained. It seems to be a picture of final judgment, of the eternal hell. And these demons are saying, don't send us there now. Now is not the day of final judgment. Don't send us away yet to that awful final judgment. Let us go into the pigs. Let us go into this large herd of pigs. Mark tells us it's 2,000 pigs. It's a lot of pigs. A lot of bacon. Let us go into the pigs. And Jesus gives permission. You know that in the Old Testament, not today anymore, But in the Old Testament, pigs were unclean and unholy. And it's almost as if Jesus is saying, let the unholy go to the unholy. Fine, go to the pigs. And in his permission for the demons to enter the pigs, he still is teaching. Because as the demons enter the pigs, the demons reveal what their whole purpose is about. Namely, death and destruction. Because immediately, the pigs run down the hill into the sea and drown. Here's what demons are ultimately after. Here's what the evil one is ultimately after. Not anything good, but only death and destruction. And what a picture this is of the reality of the world that we live in. That there are forces that would drive us to death and destruction by driving us away from Jesus. And so we have this great confrontation and the picture of Jesus as the one who brings life out of death. Jesus, the one who brings life out of death. As I was thinking about that, I couldn't help but think about the title of a marvelous Puritan work. Puritans weren't always good at titles. They sometimes had very, very long titles. Puritans were never good at being brief. But they could be very, very insightful. I remember reading one Puritan treatise that said, And 64thly, it was not a sermon, don't worry, it was not a sermon, but it was a book. But a great Puritan book was entitled, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. It's a fabulous treatise on what the atonement is really all about. But think for a minute just about the title. Death, the most horrible and ultimate human experience. Death dies, this title says. Death dies. There's good news. How does death die? Death dies because Jesus died to kill it. For us, for his people. The death of death in the death of Christ. That's what we're seeing displayed here. Jesus is the rescuer. That's the first encounter, Jesus and the demons. Then we come to the second encounter, what I'm calling Jesus and the dismayed. Jesus and the dismayed. Yes, there are going to be three Ds. Kind of like a great motion picture. Three D. Jesus and the demons. Jesus and the dismayed. Who are the dismayed? Well, those who hear about what's happened, the herdsmen of the 2,000 pigs have run off. I don't know how many herdsmen it takes to take care of 2,000 pigs out and about. Apparently not in a pen. I don't know. I don't know all the details. But there are herdsmen. They see what happens and they run off. And they start talking to people in the city and in the surrounding areas. And the word gets out. That man, that berserk man, that demon-possessed man, he's been liberated. And people begin to come. Here at last it's the crowds. Here at last is a lot of people coming to Jesus. The crowds of Gentiles gathering. And when they gather, what do they see? they see this man restored, clothed, in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus. And they hear about this. And how do they react? We're told they're afraid. Well, maybe that shouldn't surprise us too much. What happened when the disciples saw Jesus do the miracle of calming the sea. They were afraid. Often in the scripture when people see Jesus in his power revealed, they're afraid. They don't know what to make of it. They marvel. But then the text says something really interesting. First they heard how, first they heard that Jesus had cast out the demons. And then they hear how he cast out the demons. How did he do it? He did it by sending them into the pigs and the pigs drowned. And how do they react to that? We're told they were very afraid and immediately asked Jesus to depart. Did that strike you as really strange? They didn't ask Jesus to help. They didn't ask Jesus to bless. They didn't beg Jesus to stay with them. They asked him to depart. Why? Because he was bad for the economy. It was bad for the economy. This guy just killed 2,000 pigs. That's what they're thinking. what mayhem might he cause if he came into the city? They didn't think about the man who'd been delivered. They didn't think about Jesus, the deliverer. They only thought about their own pocketbooks. What was displayed was their greed to hold on to what they had in this life. And they didn't want Jesus. if the price was 2,000 pigs. It's a stark picture, isn't it? It's a disturbing picture. It maybe makes us ask the question, what shall it profit a man if he gains 2,000 pigs and loses his soul? That's what the picture is here. This is what Jesus is displaying to us here. And it's terrible, isn't it? They ask him to leave. They make the demon's choice. All they want to do is to avoid immediate consequences of the presence of Jesus. Go, go, leave us alone. Leave us alone to live our Gentile lives. So what do we see so far in this text? If you're still trying to write a rap song, what we see is need and plead and greed, but thankfully we also see freed. Did you get that? I thought that was clever. Need and plead and greed and freed. There's a man freed. There's a man delivered. The third confrontation is with the man, or the third encounter is with the man, delivered. And what a difference. What a difference. Here's the man who was running around crazy, naked, alone. And now he's clothed. And he's in his right mind. And he's seated at the feet of Jesus. and he's a Gentile saved. Jesus came into the Gentile world and here we see the picture of a Gentile delivered, a Gentile saved, a Gentile freed from all of the death and all of the destruction and all of the loss of the world in which he had found himself. Jesus has come and Jesus has delivered him. And what does this man want to do? He wants to be with Jesus. He wants to go with Jesus. He wants to stay with Jesus. He wants to be Jesus' disciple. And he's presented here as a great picture of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It means to be saved by Jesus, delivered by Jesus, and going with Jesus. Did you notice who's not in this story at all? the other disciples. They're never referred to in this story. I think it's because Jesus wants them to see and us to see what a real disciple looks like. Jesus' last word to his disciples in the boat was, where is your faith? And now he shows them what faith looks like. Did you notice in this man, deliverance comes first and then comes faith? He didn't have to believe to be delivered. Jesus delivered him, and then he believed. And he's a picture to us of what disciples ought to be like, delivered by Jesus, and desiring to be with Jesus. And then Jesus says, no, you can't come with me. I have a different direction for you to go. And this man, this nameless man, becomes the first missionary in history, I think, to the Gentiles. Go back to your own people, go back to your own city, and tell them what God has done for you. That's a great class in evangelism, I think. I think we often feel sort of tongue-tied when we think about evangelism, because we often think, when we think about evangelism, that we have to tell other people what they should do. And we're hesitant sometimes to tell other people what they should do. Jesus says to this man, don't tell them what they should do. Tell them what God has done for you. Most of us are good about talking about ourselves. At least that's my experience. So when you're talking about yourself, talk about what God has done for you. And you know what happens when you talk about what God has done for you? Well, what happens a lot of the time is people change the subject very quickly. Okay. But sometimes when you talk about what God has done for you, they ask you a question. How did that happen? Or the demons, you know, Jesus shows up. What do the demons say? They ask him a question. What have you to do with me? If people ask you a question, you can answer it. But it's really interesting here. Just go and tell them what God has done for you. And they go. He goes. And he tells. He tells what Jesus has done for him. It's a wonderful way Luke is showing us that Jesus is God come in the flesh. Go and tell what God has done for you. It tells about what Jesus has done for him. And here we see, then, the mission to the Gentiles that Jesus lays out. And the mission to the Gentiles is this. Jesus will come among the Gentiles to conquer demons, to conquer distress, to conquer death, and to bring life. And when Jesus comes among the Gentiles, many will reject him. But when Jesus comes among the Gentiles, some will believe. Some will find new life. Some will pass from bondage to freedom, from death to life. And this is the glory that is revealed in this passage. A glory that says to us, are we disciples of Jesus Christ? Are we chasing the values, one might be tempted to say, the pigs of this world? Or are we sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning from Him and following Him? May God grant that all of us be His true disciples. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we are so thankful for the many things your word does to us, for the way in which it helps us see the reality of the world in which we live, but most especially for the way in which it helps us see Jesus who rescues us from this world. O Lord, grant that we may sit at his feet and hear his word and be his disciple for he alone brings hope and life. Bless us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.