Luke 8:22-56

[0:00] One day he 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.

[0:13] 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.

[0:24] And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 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?

[0:43] 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.

[1:00] 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.

[1:11] 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.

[1:24] 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.

[1:37] 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 were drowned.

[1:53] 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.

[2:10] 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.

[2:23] 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.

[2:36] 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 all waiting for him.

[2:47] And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

[3:00] As Jesus went, the people pressed around him, and there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.

[3:12] She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, Who was it that touched me? When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you.

[3:26] But Jesus said, Someone touched me, for I perceive the power has gone out from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.

[3:44] And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore.

[3:57] But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be healed. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child.

[4:13] And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, Child, arise.

[4:28] And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.

[4:39] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, good morning, and welcome to Holy Trinity.

[4:54] It's good to be home. I've been gone, traveling away on two consecutive Sundays, in one sense, paying a debt of joy and gratitude that our church family owes to a man by the name of Dick Lucas in London.

[5:16] And he preached the evening service when we became a church back in May of 1998. And he has a ministry that trains pastors where they gather together to work on the word.

[5:31] And it really was a precursor to what we helped start here called the Simeon Trust, where we, too, go around helping pastors to do word work.

[5:42] And so it was a great joy to be invited over by him to, in a sense, give some return to all that had been given to us. And so two Sundays ago, I was in Edinburgh preaching at Charlotte Chapel, and then down into London for a pastor's conference with about 85 men, and then into London for the weekend with Dick, and then back to Leicestershire for another conference with about 90 men, and finally home yesterday.

[6:12] So if I fall asleep in the midst of the sermon, well, that's not going to happen. It was good to be home. A week ago Monday, I found myself in Cambridge and threw the door into Trinity College.

[6:38] Dick Lucas, of course, an alum of Trinity College Cambridge. And as we approached the main gate with its impressive facade with Henry VIII above it, he simply said to the man who was taking money for entry, does it matter that I'm a Trinity man?

[6:59] To which the man said, well, certainly you're welcome to come on in. And he said, and can I bring a friend with me into the courtyard? And he said, certainly. So I came in on the coattails of Lucas, and we went first to the Trinity College Chapel.

[7:17] And in through the door, this massive statue to one of their most famous alums, Sir Isaac Newton.

[7:29] And there he was, seated larger than life in white marble. Famous, as every primary school child knows, for the three laws of motion, among many other things, where an object tends to do what it's doing, unless it's hit with some external force greater than that.

[7:58] I thought of Newton when I looked at our opening paragraph concerning Jesus and the disciples on the water that day where he seemed to work with the power of a word in a way that was immeasurably stronger than the laws of motion normally entertain.

[8:23] It wasn't merely that the winds stopped in that opening paragraph of our text. But notice how he says it. Luke writes it in 24.

[8:35] He awoke, he rebuked the wind, and here it is, and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. This immediate cessation, not only of the wind, but of the waves.

[8:55] And you and I know that an object that is already in motion, particularly water, takes some time when the wind stops to find its level. What a moment that was when they understood that one who was in their presence with a word with a word had sovereign control over the created order.

[9:23] Well, they were afraid at the outset because the waves were going to capsize their boat. They were afraid of death. But the text is fairly clear. When he did that, they were filled with great fear.

[9:37] And look at the question they ask right there in 25. Who then is this? Well, their question, I think, is the question of my text.

[9:52] Who is Jesus? The question is a good one. It's one worthy of exploration. It's one worthy of your actual decision.

[10:03] Do you know how you might answer it? The question's really been in play since chapter 7, verse 20, where the disciples of John came to Jesus asking, Are you the one we're looking for, 720?

[10:22] Or should we be looking for someone else? In other words, who are you? And Jesus appealed at that time not only to Isaiah 61, but to Isaiah 35, indicating that He was the promised one, God in flesh, come to deliver His people.

[10:45] Listen to the way it's voiced through Isaiah the prophet in chapter 35. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like a crocus.

[10:57] It shall blossom abundantly. It's this promise of spring. And rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it.

[11:07] The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm, feeble knees.

[11:19] Say to those who have an anxious heart, Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, He will come and save you.

[11:33] Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy, for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

[11:48] When John's disciples came, asking, Are you the one? Jesus appeals to this promise of old, indicating that through his activity, John would know, I am the one.

[12:06] Come to save. And in our own text, he answers it again. Who then is this? Well, Luke doesn't appeal here to an Old Testament promise.

[12:21] He just gives you a narrative form, that Old Testament promise being acted out in two exquisitely formulated scenes.

[12:37] I'm going to want you to notice that today. I think there are two scenes in answering the question, Who then is this? First, verses 26 to 39, and we'll deal with that on its own.

[12:50] And then 40 to 56. And in both extended scenes, the answer emerges, Who then is this?

[13:03] Jesus, Savior of the world. Take a look at the first scene. 26 to 39. Who then is this?

[13:15] Well, the answer is put forward in 26 to 28. Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out onto land, there met Him a man from the city who had demons.

[13:28] 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?

[13:49] Who then is Jesus? According to the text, the answer emerges, Son of the Most High God. Interestingly, in the terrain of the text, he's moved from the Sea of Galilee on its northern region, where he was situated just within the promised land, and by boat has moved across and down to the east, and is now in the land of the Gerasenes, in the land of the outsiders.

[14:19] He's outside the promised land, and therefore outside the people of promise. Who then is Jesus? He moves immediately to the ones born outside of Israel, and there meets this man, Son of the Most High God.

[14:39] I take it to be an obvious claim to deity. The idea that Jesus is God in human form is regularly challenged.

[14:58] recently, a book's been written by Bart Ehrman with a wonderful title, How Jesus Became God.

[15:11] It's the kind of book we see rolling out every year or two, usually around Easter time, for the church to consider. And the premise, of course, is this now centuries and centuries old idea that the church has an evolutionary view of Jesus, that He Himself and the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, He just appears as an itinerant.

[15:39] The supposition puts Him against the Gospel of John, which later begins to show God-like functions, and so the division is made that Jesus never saw Himself as God. He was just a rabbi or a teacher, a wonder worker, but not divine.

[15:57] And then the view goes on that His disciples later begin to move Him up a notch to Him being the Christ.

[16:08] And then it's not until the councils of the early church in the 3rd and 4th centuries where He becomes God. That's the view in a nutshell. I'm tired of the view.

[16:28] It actually counters all the best manuscript evidence we have. Think of the way the view drives a wedge even between the first three Gospels and the fourth.

[16:41] Did you know that that there is a Gospel before the Gospels put down in the literature of the New Testament? I mean, some of the very earliest witnesses we have at an evidentiary level are things like the book of Galatians where already, before the Gospels, in a sense, you have the wonderful statement that speaks of Jesus for in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

[17:22] I mean, that's a Gospel before the Gospels. This is not doing theology through historical reconstruction.

[17:33] It's looking at the very earliest text manuscripts we have. What about 1 Corinthians? Very early in the literature. I mean, you're reading here in Corinthians the earliest proclamations of what is the Gospel.

[17:46] 1 Corinthians 8, 6 Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

[18:01] We could go to Philippians 2. 9-11 or Colossians 1, 2-9 or even Paul's opening summary in Romans where he's declared to be the Son of God in power.

[18:14] This word in power obviously a movement toward deity. According to the earliest manuscript evidence, he doesn't become God by the 4th century.

[18:30] The church has from the very outset believed him to be God. In all of the mystery of what that might mean, I think it's even clear in Luke's text here.

[18:44] I mean, look what the demon-possessed man and the voices that come from him call him son of the most high God. And what is the fear that they have of him?

[18:56] Well, there it is at the end of verse 31. They begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Well, the abyss wasn't the lake nearby.

[19:08] The abyss is the underworld. The place where all chaos reigns from, in a sense, nearly eternity past.

[19:18] And they believe that Jesus has the keys to hell. Hades, the place of the underworld. That's their fear. Only God has that fear or claim.

[19:31] Or look ironically at the way it ends. I love the way Luke puts this. Put your eyes on verse 39. Look at the relationship Luke makes between God and Jesus.

[19:43] I mean, at a literary level, it's parallelism is beautiful. Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

[19:58] And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. What a wonderful thing right there in the earliest of texts. Go tell everyone what God has done for you.

[20:12] And he went and told them what Jesus had done for him. I mean, we should see that. We see it on the back end of our narrative. We should have seen it even before our narrative. Look at Luke chapter 8 and verse 21.

[20:26] But he answered, My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Well, the connection there is obviously to chapter 6, 46, where Jesus says, Behold, why do you say you follow me, but you do not do what I say?

[20:42] Behold, the one who hears my word and does it is like the wise man. From Luke's perspective from the very outset, there is a strong connection. That when you see Jesus, you see God in flesh appearing.

[20:57] Come as promised one of old to save and who will be known as Savior through the healing that the promised one would bring.

[21:13] Who is Jesus? He's the sovereign over all spiritual realms. Not only created order, not only a wonder worker, but he's the one who fulfills the Old Testament promises to come and save.

[21:34] Now, notice then the text how this works in this opening narrative, this opening scene, scene one. It actually indicates that he is the Savior of the world.

[21:48] Take a look at verse 36 of this demon-possessed man. You don't catch it in the English translation, but you need to hear it today in proclamation. Those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.

[22:05] Now, the word for healed there is saved. It's from salvation. Literally, woodenly, they began to say, this guy's been saved.

[22:17] At that point, you have to ask yourself the question, were they merely saying, wow, Jesus saved this guy from the spiritual forces that were ruining his life? Is that what it means?

[22:30] Or, are you to think more of it? Are we supposed to think that this put the man not only in his right mind, but in a right relationship with God?

[22:41] In other words, for him to say, for the people to say how he had been healed, does Luke intend for you to read that he is not only physically well, spiritually well, but rightly related to God wherein before he was not?

[22:59] Well, I think the answer according to Luke is clear. Take a look back to chapter 7, verse 49, where the sinful woman, we have the same language. Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins?

[23:14] And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. For Luke, salvation is never merely construed in horizontal, physical, well-being terms.

[23:29] It is always construed and connected to forgiveness from sins. So this guy, he got the trifecta that day. Not only are all the demons in the legion gone, not only is his right mind restored, but he is, according to Luke, been placed into a right relationship with God.

[23:51] Which is what we would expect. I mean, this was something that Luke was carrying forward earnestly from the very beginning. Look at Zachariah's prophecy in chapter 2, or chapter 1, verse 77.

[24:04] What did Zachariah's prophecy indicate was going to be happening in the near future? Verse 76, that you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High.

[24:14] You will go before the Lord to prepare His ways. Here it is, to give knowledge of salvation, same term as our text, to His people, and look what it's connected to, in the forgiveness of sins.

[24:26] That salvation, for Luke, is connected to forgiveness. forgiveness. This is why Jesus uses the same phrase of forgiveness in Luke 4.

[24:37] Do you remember when He stood in the synagogue and said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, liberty to the oppressed, and the word for liberty we saw was forgiveness.

[24:52] forgiveness. So when Jesus comes in Luke 8, and He records, Luke records, this man who's been healed from demon oppression, He is saying to you and to me, who then is this?

[25:09] God in flesh appearing who saves. He not only strengthened His mind, He put Him into a right relationship with God. God. What a wonderful thing for all those who are spiritually oppressed to know that in Jesus we have one who is stronger.

[25:42] You know, Luke was a physician. I suppose that's why he pays attention to these details. The doctors are always are doing their kind of evaluation of you along the way.

[25:57] It wasn't long ago, I had a doctor's annual physical, and he immediately begins to ask me questions about myself and my family and my parents and all this. And I realize he doesn't care at all at the relational end.

[26:08] He's doing his history. He's wanting to get a read. Well, look at the way Luke put the man at the very beginning back in verse 27. He had worn no clothes.

[26:20] He had not lived in a house but among tombs. In a sense, he had been uncontrollable, out of his mind, nobody could stop him. And then look at the way Luke puts it when Jesus actually has him completed.

[26:33] The demons had gone, verse 35. He's sitting at the feet of Jesus. There's a man that's now been calmed. He's clothed and in his right mind.

[26:44] That is a wonderful way to indicate salvation. What does it mean to be saved? It means to be put in your right mind. Romans says that we had taken on the wrath of God in a depraved mind, a distorted mind, subject to all kinds of onslaughts.

[27:06] And here Jesus has come and saved him. Notice what else he did to the man. He made an evangelist. I mean, what a day.

[27:18] Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. This is what Jesus does. He takes people who are under the oppression of a world gone wrong.

[27:34] He delivers them and sends them on their way, proclaiming his name. And this is the outsider. He's the savior of outsiders, those born outside the promise.

[27:50] Of course, the crowds there, they would have nothing of Jesus. Depart from us. We don't need this kind of word in our world.

[28:06] They reject him. And so scene one ends. More briefly, you'll see the beauty of scene two. And it mirrors the first in structure.

[28:19] By that I mean it introduces you to somebody, there's an interruption in it from the crowds, and then it comes back to finish the story.

[28:30] Now, this second story has often been noticed for its inclusio. You're introduced to Jairus, and you end with Jairus, but in the middle you have the woman.

[28:40] But it only mirrors what we've seen already, where you're introduced to a demon possessed man, interrupted by the great crowds and they're rejected, back to the demon possessed man.

[28:53] So structurally they are the same, but at levels of content, they actually contrast one another. Let me see if I can have you see the way this whole thing fits together so simply.

[29:07] In the first scene, it was demons from the realm of Satan who are approaching Jesus, a legion of voices who are desperately trying to keep hold over an oppressed man.

[29:27] In the second scene, it's not demons from Satan's realm, it's a distinguished teacher of God. It says that Jairus is a religious leader.

[29:38] It's a complete flip of the order of the world. Here comes a religious leader of Israel, but likewise desperately trying to keep hold, but not of an oppressed man, desperately trying to keep hold of the life of his little girl.

[29:57] In the first scenes, it was the crowds who interrupted and in mass decided they would have nothing to do with Jesus. Leave us.

[30:07] In the second scene, there are crowds, but by way of contrast, there is one woman who goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure Jesus doesn't depart from her before he acts on her behalf.

[30:28] The contrasting parallels of the two scenes are complete as each of them ends. the man in the first scene is sent off as an evangelist. Jairus and his wife, they're not sent off, they're simply given back what they thought they had lost, and they're told to leave it at that.

[30:46] I mean, these scenes, the first with the outsider, Jesus, Son of the Most High God, Savior, the second scene, the great physician who heals Israel, Savior.

[31:00] Savior. This is who he is. Take a look at 40 to 42. You meet Jairus, the consummate insider, approaching Jesus, now who has come back into the promised land.

[31:19] Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him, and there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue, and falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had only one daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying.

[31:34] As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. The interruption at 42B is a literary masterpiece, and there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.

[31:59] I don't think you should lose the subtleties of the text. Just as you, as a reader, are meant to sympathize with Jairus, whose daughter's condition is all the more sad given her age, she's only 12 years old.

[32:16] I mean, 12 years is much too short. You are immediately pulled to sympathize with a woman whose same 12 years seems to be much too long.

[32:32] And both of them are in need, one in sickness, one near death. The physical condition of the woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years was even more profound than physically what was in play.

[32:52] the effects of this condition would have been socially obliterating to her and spiritually isolating.

[33:11] Leviticus 15 talks about the condition of a woman of Israel with a discharge of blood and it would term her to be literally unclean.

[33:27] The one who was unclean wouldn't have had contact with other people and certainly would not have had contact with God lest their presence in a sense defile back in Leviticus 15 the sanctuary.

[33:43] So here is a woman alone ostracized isolated not only physically drained and financially spent but socially isolated and spiritually without God at least in the eyes of those who worshipped in her day.

[34:07] And yet notice her actions. I love her actions especially in light of the crowds in scene one. Remember in scene one what was their testimony of Jesus?

[34:18] depart from us. Well she comes into the midst of the people I'm guessing pushing her way through these crowds.

[34:35] You ever been in a big crowd and tried to get to the right vantage point? It's a tough thing to do. She is at this point pretending to be a six-year-old kid again leveraging herself low getting between the folks moving moving Jesus I must have Jesus he is my saving hope and she finally gets close enough where you and I would have pulled out the camera to say wow look how close we were and she reaches out and she touches him and he knows the power has gone forth from him the disciples of course are you are you out of your mind I mean we are your entourage we can't keep all the people off you but he knew that one in the crowd would have him for what he could do and so he calls her out evidently it was a fearful thing because it says she came trembling who touched me you know there's a picture we have of

[35:52] Jesus that's kind of soft and approachable and if he came in here today we'd all want to be around him after all little children like to get up on his lap well I'm sure little children did but most adults you'd rather see Jesus in a crowd where you could be anonymous and he was perhaps one of the most intimidating people you would ever meet so that when his disciples are with him in a boat he was someone you didn't really want to have to look at eye to eye at times the crowds themselves that move away from here even here what an intimidating presence he was and notice what she does though she came trembling falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people I think that's a unique phrase in other words this is her publicly testifying of her faith in Christ she gives public declaration in the presence of all the people why she had touched!

[37:00] him she says this is why I have come I long to be made well and I believe that he is the one who can bring it and it says she had been immediately healed and he said daughter your faith has made you well guess what the phrases are she had been saved literally wouldn't saved Luke is dynamically letting you know that she is saved and so he says to her go in peace not merely healed but with access to God you remember this blessing go in peace it's the same thing that he said to the sinful woman in chapter 7 in verse 50 your faith has made you well daughter go in peace it's the same thing that the angels announced before

[38:02] Jesus was born that in those night sky appearances they indicated glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased it's the same thing that Zachariah's prophecy put forward that there would be a guide a guide for our feet into the way of peace and peace for Luke always means your relationship with God is now right it's like the Aaronic blessing Jesus is here acting like the priest would do in number six may the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace now and forever more and in number six it says that as the priest placed that upon the people God says so I will bless!

[39:03] that's what's happened she knows Christ she knows God she has access to the Father are you getting Luke's answer to the question the disciples put forward who then is this he's the sovereign one not merely over created order he's the sovereign one over the spiritual abyss the one to whom the keys of hell are given he's the sovereign one over sickness he's the savior of insiders who look to him faith he's come for the outsiders who aren't even within the promise of faith and the way the text ends he's the savior from death as well jesus said believing this this is now to jairus when they thought well we've lost our chance she's died he says to her do not to them do not fear only believe and she will be well literally she will be saved he does it for her as well that's the way the text ends so

[40:13] Jesus like an ancient prophet of the Old Testament brings back a child from the dead Jesus is God come as promised savior of the world for insiders and outsiders alike he is savior from a disordered spiritual world he is savior from disease he is savior from death he is the one worthy of placing your faith in you do not need to go on in life living in fear while nature is unpredictable he is lord over all while spiritual disorder is unnerving he is strong enough to save while health is unreliable he is strong enough to save and while life is and always will be in the end unsustainable he is strong enough to save there is no limit to his power there is no end to his scope there is no height to which he will not go there is no depth to which he will not submit to save in our text he comes for who he comes first for a man and then he comes for a woman and then he comes for a child and he will come for you there's no one no men men are not beyond his reach women are not beyond his reach children are not beyond his reach who then is this the question is simple as we close do you have faith do you have faith that he is as

[42:08] Luke has presented him and if so you are rightly related to God and able to live for him in all the muck and the gutters of the earth for in those very physical deranged situations he's working his purpose out our heavenly father I ask that this word the word of Christ would hold us and that we would embrace him in faith strengthen and encourage each one put put asphalt beneath their feet may we know that our faith is not misplaced when we turn to him in

[43:08] Christ's name we pray amen