Well, if you're visiting, we are working through Mark's gospel, the gospel according to Mark, and we come this morning to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5, the first 20 verses, the well-known passage of Jesus healing a man with the legion of demons. Mark chapter 5. This is the word of the Lord beginning at verse 1 of Mark chapter 5. They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, what is your name? He replied, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them. So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs in the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion sitting there clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs and they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region as he was getting into the boat the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him and he did not permit him but said to him go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you and he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis, how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. Well, just like last week, we come to one of these very familiar stories in the Bible, probably, that you have heard preached throughout the course of your life many times, the well-known passage of Jesus healing the demoniac, as we call him. It has always left people this particular passage and this demoniac with a great amount of interest as you read the passage. What an exciting passage to read. It's intriguing. It's challenging us. It's having us think a lot about certain things and this power of Jesus to free a man who had a legion of demons, a legion of demons. But this is, this of course has led to the same problem that I asked last time that we dealt with last time like the storm the sort of overriding approach uh when people and pastors and bible teachers open up mark 5 the sort of overriding approach that just like last time this narrative is here to calm the storms of all in your life so this particular passage gets the same kind of treatment it gets the same kind of treatment that jesus and we've all heard the statement you all have your demons I'll we all have our demons Jesus has the power to break out the demons out of your life I had a friend who asked me the other day here in Escondido what I'm preaching this Sunday and so I told him Mark 5 and he came back to me the next day and he said listen I read Mark 5 last night and I spent some time thinking about that great passage powerful passage, I have no idea why it was revealed. I have no idea why Jesus did what he did. Why did he do that? What does that mean for us? And as I began to look carefully at this, I think that's the question we need to first deal with that really should drive us in understanding this particular passage in Mark 5. What in the world is this really all about? As I studied it, I looked carefully, I thought there really is a striking parallel here between the last passage of Jesus calming the storm. It dawned on me how similar these two events really are. From the perspective of the disciples, in both scenes, you have a situation that has turned absolutely chaotic and is absolutely terrifying to deal with. A great confrontation then follows with Jesus at the sinner Jesus rebuking in both circumstances and then a great calm and then you have response it really is the same sort of event if we look at this carefully and what had happened with Jesus last week calming the storm and it's as if Jesus is not done with a particular question that he had asked of them remember last week at the end of mark chapter 4 they last time had asked in the middle of the storm as everything had come crashing down on them don't you care that we're perishing and jesus then after he had calmed the storm had a question of his own didn't he the question of jesus was why are you so fearful are you still without faith do you still have no faith that is quite a question that really is quite a question that's a question i believe that drives what is about now to happen as that came on the heels of him standing on the boat and in the worst storm this these fishermen had ever seen jesus speaks showing his power and authority over all of creation He calms the storm with a word, the word of his mouth. And that led to one more question at the end of that particular section where the disciples said, who is this? That even the wind and the sea obey him. Who are we dealing with here? Who is this? The sheer might of his word. The sheer power put on display with the spoken word, uncontested, undisputed, power was put on display that forced them to that great question, who is this? Who are we following here? We're sort of at a crossroads here with Jesus. They're really being pressed now to reckon with who they have been aligned with. And what are the implications of that? what are the implications of that and we could ask that question this morning you all have said i'm i'm aligned with jesus i believe in jesus do you really have you really given thought to who you really are following and what that what are the ramifications and what is the meaning of that i wonder it was quite a moment in our study of mark for jesus in chapter 3 had faced a variety of different responses to him remember what some of those responses were some of them were running around saying he's a madman he's crazy he's insane there were a variety of responses to his word and then in chapter four he takes his disciples alongside of him and he explains that word of the kingdom to them he shows and demonstrates that power of the word of his kingdom but the test at the end of chapter 4 exposed as Jesus said when he says do you still have no faith that they had not really taken that word up into their own hearts and how is Jesus now bringing that out well he's bringing it out by forcing them to reckon with who he is when you begin to grasp that the one who speaks to you when you begin to really appreciate that the one who speaks to you is the son of God. That's what he's doing right now. When you begin to grasp that, when you see that power, you are forced either to bow or to run as fast as you can the other way. You are forced to bow or to say, Jesus, get out of here. I want nothing to do with you. And that's where this is going to go today. The claims of his majesty, the claims of his person, what he is putting on display is pressing and bearing down now on them in a way that they had not felt yet before he is pressing them to the issue of faith he is really bearing down on them with this issue and that's what this is about this morning jesus is now challenging his disciples who are to be his witnesses with the story with the whole scene of the demoniac to respond appropriately to who he is to press this and you see this unfold here with this great confrontation now that we move into another great calm another confrontation another great calm and now a response that jesus highlights that he's after different than the disciples response the disciples have just been through one of the worst storms they've ever seen the most terrifying of storms and they ask the question who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him it's no sooner as soon as they ask that question that as they get out of the boat they've come to the the region of the garrisons they get out of the boat it's night and they look up on this steep hill and coming bearing down the mountain barreling down the mountain is a monster at them. And that must have been what it looked like. Mark has really set this up. Mark has really painted a picture for you. This is the most scary figure they have ever come across in the course of their lives. Similar to the storm, now they meet the scariest figure they've ever seen. Last week, someone said to me, that lake, being 700 feet below sea level with sharp cliffs and and mountains in the dark that must have been quite a terrifying place to be out in the night on that lake in the middle of a storm and then as he reaches land mark is pressing on us that same sort of feel that the person got last week and looking at the storm how utterly scary both scenes are gerg scenes or the gadarenes means those who come from pilgrim pilgrimage or fight he really is capturing this as jesus entering the dark realm of satan if you will and there were in this very steep hill on this very steep hill a series of tombs the hill dropped right down into the water so it was a very steep hill and what we know of this place is that looking up from the lake you would see little caves up in the in the on the hillside there and in these caves they were burying people for years they were tombs for the dead so you can imagine the terror here as they get out out off the boat and immediately they look up and here comes this monster barreling down the mountain it's from one terrifying event to another to which the disciples are probably thinking this is This following Jesus is really not an easy thing to do whatsoever. Here it is in this particular moment. And this mark says this man dwelled in the tombs. We live in a day where everyone is obsessed with zombies. You ever notice that right now? Everyone's a zombie apocalypse and all this weird stuff. This is exactly what this must have looked like. From the other gospels, we know he was naked. We know that because of this man, everyone avoided the entire area. You could imagine walking, and as you're walking by the Gadarenes up in the hills there, you hear screeches and yellings all night long of this man. The other gospels say there was another man with them. They would cry out night and day in the middle of these tombs. And then they would self-inflict. This particular leader of it all would self-inflict, and he would cut himself with stone so he's a bloody mess you could hear mothers uh telling their children listen listen i i don't want you boys and girls i i do not want you to walk up there the dead are walking around up there you stay away from over there the dead come alive there's all kinds of demonic activity the man is a living frankenstein in fact there were probably so many complaints that at some point the city officials came together and it said that they tried to bind him they had often tried to put big chains around this man and it said that he pulled him right apart just the imagery of this that's being captured here just what mark is trying to do here is really wanting you to feel the utter tear of this figure up in the tombs cutting himself pulling apart chains he's a samson-like strength lion-like figure up there in the tombs you know anyone who lives in tombs, bloody, cursing, yelling, screaming, naked, no one can tame him, no one can bind him, not even with chains. This had created a storm on land that no one had ever witnessed before and no one could deal with. Well, the disciples get out the boat, here it comes right at them. Even more intriguing, of course, is to think about the fact that everyone in the region is saying that Jesus himself is the insane one. That Jesus is the crazy one. That Jesus is the one out of his mind. Remember? Mark 3. Two champions, if you will. It's a sort of David and Goliath-like moment where this one comes barreling down the mountain out of complete darkness and here comes the light of the world to the seashore. Here's where I think it's wrong to read the passage and think that this is about Jesus dealing with demons in your life. This is a real David and Goliath moment. What are you learning about your Lord? The disciples have been full of fear. They are again panicked. But just as he was sleeping in the midst of the storm, down in the stern of the boat, now he's led them through the storm and now he leads them right to this particular place at this particular time so that they would see this kind of confrontation you expect an assault you expect an attack the next thing we read is as they're getting out of the boat as he's barreling down he comes down and he drops on his knees running and he worships him what a scene and with a loud voice he cries out what am I to do with you Jesus son of the most high God I beg you don't torment me what a champion of Satan huh coming down now and saying that to him now here's where I think we need to see the connection here's where i think this really helps us to see the connection the disciples had just heard the word of his kingdom and they just saw him calm the fiercest storm they had ever seen in their life and for the jews the sea was the place of the abyss the demonic realm jesus has stood up as lord over it all and their question at the end of it was what who is this and in the next scene a duplicate scene here comes the demoniac answering their question. He runs he worships he cries out with a loud voice and confesses on the knee, you are the son of the most high God. Don't destroy us now. Please don't destroy us yet. In other words the demoniac under complete demonic influence. When faced with just the presence of Jesus, that's how he responds. That's how he responds. Who is this, the disciples said. Who has come to us? Who has come down to deliver us? In the next scene, the demons are broadcasting. The demons. They know his voice. They knew who this was. They had known him from way back. As Jude says, they were all consigned, fallen angels, to the judgment of the great day. It was his voice that had spoke that eternal condemnation upon them. And they knew it was coming. And look at their response. That's the first thing we're all pressed to think about this morning. It's because of His sheer power, of His presence alone, they can do nothing less and accept when they see Him but bow down, worship, and confess Him. His disciples, who is this? Who is this? You see why I pressed last week. We don't consider enough how great the gift of faith is. We don't consider enough how great the gift of faith is. James was so affected by this that when he wrote his little epistle, he said, listen, you believe in God, you do well. Even the demons believe in shudder. I've seen that. I can testify to that. I saw what happened. He was exposing their response. And that's why I press. Who do we come to hear today? Who do we come to listen to today when we hear his word? Remember Mark 1 when Jesus was preaching? Which is what he wanted to do. And as he entered the synagogue, the first scene of his earthly ministry, he's preaching in the synagogue and a demon was in the synagogue and had so heard the voice of Jesus. When he heard that voice, when he heard that authority, he immediately leaped into someone and had the great sermon interruption of the century where he yells out, I know who you are! In the middle of the worship service. I know you. Isn't it true that what lacks the most in our entire approach to what we're doing today is a profound sense of who you've come to worship? Think about it. Isn't it true that what lacks the most here this morning is a profound sense of who you have come before? The absence of awe and wonder and reverence and godly fear is so painfully evident in our lives. And how does that most show? Look at the disciples. They're fearing everything that is wrong. Everything other than Him. That's why I said last week, trial and test, that He brings upon us, brings out real exposure, real panic. and we fall apart, and we question him as if he doesn't even care about us. And the point can't be missed in this particular text this morning. His entire purpose that he had come through perfect love was to remove fear, to release from bondage, and to give us peace. From the demons comes worship, bowing, reverence, crying, confession. From us comes fear of everything that's wrong. Think about it. From the demons comes worship, bowing, confession. From us is the fear of everything that is wrong. We worry about life. We complain about everything. Complain about every circumstance. We impute to God in the midst of our hardships all kinds of evil motives as if he doesn't even care. What was the moment that Jesus showed the most expression over in the life of Peter? Peter, who do you say that I am? Who does everyone else say that I am? Well, some say you're a great prophet. No, no, no, Peter. Who do you say that I am? Remember what happened? After this long period of training, after the Lord's long-suffering and patience and teaching him and giving him faith, Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Remember what Jesus said? Ah, blessed are you, Simon. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you. But my Father who is in heaven, I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church. The gates of Hades will not overpower it. It had finally took hold of him. Finally. Which means you could sit here today and you can come and identify with Jesus and you have yet to reckon with who you're dealing with. The one who speaks is the God of heaven and earth. His voice holds the keys of death and Hades. In his hand are those keys. And in his voice, he determines how it goes. And all of a sudden, another storm has hit the disciples. It's a storm of grace, isn't it? Because it's meant to bring them to faith. In another display of uncontested power by the word of his mouth, he speaks again in verse 8 and he says, come out, come out of the man. And showing absolute power over the entire demonic realm, the demons come out of this man in front of the people. And Jesus asks him his name, and the demons respond, we're legion, we're many. Seems that a whole bunch of demons had entered this man. A Roman legion was 6,000. It surely wasn't that many, but it was a lot of demons. We read that they begged him, and that he permitted them to enter the pigs. And these pigs then violently rush down the hill and drop off into the sea and drown. It's just a dramatic display of his power. Jesus has been criticized throughout history for doing this to pigs. Can you believe that? One pastor said, when all of you show how much you really have so much interest in pigs and you stop eating bacon, we'll worry about that. There's a curious phrase here that sets up the response. The legion of demons begged Jesus not to send them out of the country. Why? We're going to get to the meaning now. They're at home there. They're at home there. The whole story, why does that matter, in the tombs? The whole story is taking us so quickly to the response, to the end of this. The news has spread over all the region of what's happened. The pig farmers have told everyone. The entire city in the country has come out now. That's what it says. 2,000 pigs have drowned into the sea. In verse 15, we read that the city and the country has come right to Jesus' feet. And there was, sitting right by Jesus, the man sitting there, clothed in his right mind and normal. All the years they had heard screaming and cutting and cursing and bloodiness, there he is, his hair's combed. No one could bind him. Here's the connection with the disciples on the boat. Stay with me. With one word, he looses him. And what do we read? When they saw that, they were afraid. Now, the disciples were afraid on the boat when they saw what? Him, with one word, calmed the storm. It's the same scene. It just happened again. When the disciples saw the storm stilled, it says they were greatly afraid, and they asked, who is this? Can you imagine the discussion that day? We saw him speak. And you know that crazy man up in the tombs that has been here for years doing that, that no one could bind? He did it with word. But here's where everyone should pause in absolute perplexity this morning where everyone should take their pen and circle this particular verse. This man had ravaged their region. This man had signaled every kind of evil curse and wickedness that you could ever imagine and conjure up thinking about one particular man. It's all bound up in this one figure. Here he is. He's in his right mind and he's sane and he's clothed. He's healed. And what do they do? Get out of here. Verse 17, they began to plead with Jesus to depart from their region. You lead, you lead. Why? Why? I don't think it's that hard. It's not just that Jesus made merchants lose money on pigs, which is what commentators say. Much more than that. What's happened here is that the people who clearly were so terrified by this man before that no one would even enter the region. When they are faced with the bondage-breaking power of Jesus, it had the effect of bringing an entirely different kind of fear. What do I mean? The kind of fear that would make you more afraid of a demoniac now delivered than when he was full of demons. And you say, how does that work? Why? Have you seen pictures of Charlie Manson? Swastika tattooed on his forehead right here. When you think of Charlie Manson, what do you think of? The embodiment of evil. The embodiment of everything that's wicked. When you think of Charlie Manson, you think of the worst kind of figure that the world has ever produced. He's insane. Look at him. Imagine the scenario now with me just for a minute. Charlie Manson comes to the Escondido URC. He's sitting back there. You'd be really afraid if he was in your row, right? You'd be scared if Manson were sitting next to you. How would you feel if the next Sunday, Manson sitting in the front row up here, clothed, in his right mind, bowing and worshiping Jesus. Enter the Son of God who has that kind of power. And in the next moment, here he is, completely normal, giving glory to God. What would happen here now after that? There would be a kind of fear that would make you more afraid of Charlie Manson sitting in the front row, sane now, believing in Jesus than when he was tattooed with swastikas on. why because the power of jesus just became very real to you the presence of his power would be too close for comfort because now such a revelation of the power of jesus forces you to think about that power now that holds sway over your own life think about this i've been really comfortable with Jesus at a distance. I've been really comfortable with Jesus as a tack-on to my life. Hasn't been too pressing on me. I'm now being pressed about his claims and called to faith myself. You see, the confrontation has now turned the question of what this, who this Jesus is, and now what that means is what kind of effect that is going to now have on my life. In other words, I believe now we're getting at the kind of fear the disciples had in the boat. What do I mean? The wrong kind of fear. There's a kind of fear that Jesus is dealing with in his disciples that is exposed here. The demon said, let us stay in the region. The region is now swept clean of demons. Jesus sweeps it. And people are now faced with the fact that Jesus is removing demons from the area. What that means is, this man now claims power over my life too. That means that we're all confronted with who is speaking to us, and when he speaks with that kind of power, for some that scares them to death. Who are we really walking with? Who are we really following? Who are you here worshiping today? You're not at a distance. The God of your life right now is reading your hearts. He knows everything. And this is a great exposure in this passage. Sure, no one here today is naked and mad and running around and cutting themselves. But truth be told, there's a lot of bondage here this morning. There's a lot of people walking in a tomb-like existence. Things that have mastery over them. There may be people who have never entered the kingdom at the end of the day, because it's just, it's not just that they're in bondage to addictions and sins, but it's really, they don't want to be faced with the claims of Jesus's power over their life, that he has the power to shatter that dominion over your life right now. And that doesn't sound like a promising way forward for some people. They feel much more comfortable with Charlie Manson as he is, than to think about Jesus shattering that in Charlie Manson's life, then I've got to face it in my own life. Use the words of Sinclair Ferguson. Men often hold on to their bondage and evil rather than yield to the pain of transformation by the power of God's grace. That about captures it. And that's a little too close to home for me. It's easier for me when I could see that man in his sins enslaved. I didn't have to reach the height of that sin. But if he's delivered, now that means I need to be delivered. And that's bearing down on me. And in some sense, this call upon his own disciples have really now come to this moment themselves where they're being really challenged to faith. It's time. All of this is a theological conundrum that's led to a moral conundrum. Do you see it? Who Jesus is, when I've answered that, now it deals with who I am. And that's got to change. I will happily embrace him as the son of the living God, knowing that power is meant to bring an end to me and raise me up brand new. That's what he's after. Or will I see that power, recognize that power, and do all that i can to stay far away from it and that's the craziness of this passage that's the madness of this passage of the people who's mad he has come to set people free he has come to release them he desires to be your friend he's not a tyrant look what he's offering and the alternative is to say i'd rather stay with the demons in their tomb-like existence i'm comfortable there i'm comfortable in that life i'm comfortable in that pattern and jesus presses his disciples with the response of this man what happens to this man it's just wonderful we read that he begged jesus that he might be with him don't you love that i mean it's just there's such a beauty and simplicity to this now this man who had known the bondage and had been in the bondage and now he's free. I don't care about anything else. I just want to be with him. And Jesus says, not yet. Right now, I want you to go out and I want you to tell others the wonderful things the Lord has done for you, how he's had compassion on you. This is the first great evangelist in the gospels, by the way. We read that he went out and he began to tell others and Decapolis and all that Jesus had done for them and all marveled. And you know, by the time that Jesus reached Decapolis, this man had done a great work because you had all kinds of receptive hearts. But look at what it just showed to his disciples. What did this man have to lose? He had lost everything now to find Christ. And all he can do is tell others now of the wonderful things that the Lord had done for him and that's the kind of faith jesus is creating in his his people it's not a forced kind of thing how do i go out and tell others about my faith it flows out of a heart that knows grace you have to figure it out you have a story here's your story it's the cross and the resurrection tell it that's what jesus is after it's not after just amazement over him it's not after a fear that he's the greatest he's come to give you the gift of faith and here's what it looks like he's the son of God he has that kind of power in your life and that kind of power speaks to you every Sunday and he wants you to know believing in him you're free and you are free now to be his witnesses. Inhibition in our witness is controlled by the wrong kind of fear. You know that. Inhibition in your witness is controlled by the wrong kind of fear. But I love the simplicity of what Jesus called him to do. You don't have to run around telling everyone what Jesus is going to do for them. I know they can't handle that. They're scared to death of that. But you can run around and tell them what he's done for you and they'll listen to that. As believers today, you have a story tell it this is his power that has brought you to where you are and he loves us and he's come to free us believe him and don't be ashamed of the gospel don't be ashamed of the gospel it's the power of god to save those who believe so that you can go out today and tell others the wonderful things that the lord has done for you aren't you thankful he cares to get into your heart today heavenly father your power is put on display through this marvelous text in the person in the work of your son to come in the fullness of time and release us from fear and bondage which we were subject to all of our lives and we're so thankful that you care to do that but we first need to deal with the great truth of who has come to us and to not be unbelieving but believing. And then of course we know believing you will deal with and conform us to his image no longer the mastery and the bondage of the ways of darkness that we so willingly chose before. But we're all too weak to do this ourselves. We know that it is a gift of faith that you must give. Thank you of encouraging us with this story of this man today, of your great power in our lives, and let us have the right kind of response, childlike simplicity of faith, wanting to be with you, but understanding that in the interim, until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again on the clouds of heaven, we are called to be witnesses. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness, and thank you for your powerful word in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.