Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church.
And it's my joy to bring God's word to you. A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.
We're glad that you're here. And we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good.
They don't need God's grace and no one so bad that they can't have it.
That's why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in his word.
We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark.
You'll remember that the Gospels tell the story of Jesus and his life and his death and his resurrection.
And our stories from last week and this week serve as a pair. They're meant to go together.
Last week showed that Jesus is the one who has power and control over nature.
We're following that up with this week's story, which shows that he has power and control over evil and demonic forces.
And so these two stories are meant to pair together as twins to demonstrate that Jesus' control and power is over everything.
It's over nature and the world. It's over evil and the demons.
As we come to the Gospel, we're continuing to ask the same two questions.
We ask over and over. Question one, who is Jesus?
And question two, how do we respond to him?
As we saw last week, and we'll see again in chapter 8, these are not questions that we are bringing outside and imposing them on the text.
They're actually questions that are coming from inside the Gospel that we're bringing out.
We saw that last week in verse 41 when they ask this question,
Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
That's the question they ask.
That's the question Jesus will ask in Mark chapter 8.
He'll say, Who do you say that I am?
As we come to this passage, we're in Mark chapter 5, verses 1 through 20.
I just want to say there is a lot going on in this passage.
And I'm going to stay focused.
I'm going to try to stay focused on our two questions.
Which is another way of saying I'm going to say something, not everything.
And I'm going to warn you in advance, I'm not going to talk a lot about the pigs.
Okay? Sorry.
Everyone has theories about the pigs.
I'm not sure if anyone knows quite what's going on.
If we have any extra time, it's going to be time that I spend talking about demon possession.
Okay?
With that, we're going to jump in together.
I invite you to turn with me to Mark chapter 5.
You can turn in your worship guide.
You can turn in your Bible.
You can turn in your phone.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's Word.
And God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold.
And it's sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.
And that's why we read now chapter 5, starting at verse 1.
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.
Verse 5.
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.
Verse 9.
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.
And the herd, numbering about two thousand,
rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
Verse 14.
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.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank You again that You speak to us.
You don't speak to us in a foreign language,
but You speak to us in words that we can understand and comprehend.
We ask that You would do that.
This morning, we're aware of how weak and feeble we are,
that we can't hear clearly from You without Your help.
And so we ask that You would send Your Spirit to us now,
that You'd honor Your promise.
In Isaiah 55, that Your Word will not return to you empty,
but it will accomplish what You have for it.
We ask that You would use it to accomplish Your purposes in our lives,
that You would challenge us,
You'd encourage us,
and most of all, You would show us Jesus.
We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
So they say that hindsight is 20-20,
and it turns out it was a really good idea for Jesus to take a nap last week,
because as soon as He gets out of the boat after the storm,
picking up from our previous story,
things do not stop for Him.
It is this sort of non-stop action.
We see in verse 1, they come to the other side of the sea.
That's where they headed out at the end of chapter 4.
And so we're just quickly finishing last week's story
and beginning the new story for this one.
Verse 1, we see the region they're in there in the Gerasenes,
which helps us understand that Jesus is no longer in Jewish territory.
You'll remember that we were in Capernaum in the region of Galilee.
Capernaum had a synagogue in it because it was a place with lots of Jews.
Now Jesus is in this place, not with lots of Jews, but lots of Gentiles.
And He's just moving.
We see this word that's come again and again in the Gospel of Mark,
which is immediately.
It also appears here, verse 2.
Jesus steps out of the boat immediately.
There met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.
And so Jesus is still in the same day
that started at least in the beginning of chapter 4.
He's been teaching.
He's calmed this storm.
He's taken a nap.
It's the evening.
He lands.
And the very next thing He knows,
He encounters this man with an unclean spirit.
Now I want us to pause for a minute
because we need to understand
what we are talking about when we talk about demon possession.
There are two errors that we can run into
when we start talking about demons in this world.
The first error is to believe that everything is demonic.
There's a demon hiding behind every door and in every corner.
You know, you need to say a prayer before you go
to the bathroom in the church
because there might be a demon hiding there.
That's one error.
There are just demons all over the place
and they're doing everything.
The other error that we can fall into
is to believe nothing is demonic.
There are no evil forces in the world.
Anyone who believes something like that is a little bit weird.
As Christians, we believe not in a closed universe,
but in an open universe,
which is to say we believe
there are supernatural forces in the world.
There are powerful things that we cannot see.
First error then is saying that demons always happen.
The second error is to say they never happen.
C.S. Lewis talks about this in his preface
to the Screwtape Letters when he says,
there are two equal and opposite errors
in which our race can fall about the devils.
One is to disbelieve in their existence.
The other is to believe and to feel an excessive
and unhealthy interest in them.
They themselves are equally pleased by both errors
and hail a materialist or a magician
with the same delight.
Materialist being a person who only believes
in the world that we can see.
A magician, someone who believes
that everything is magical all the time.
Okay, those are our two errors.
That doesn't answer the important question though,
which is what are we talking about
when we discuss demon possession?
People probably have all kinds of different ideas,
vague theories about what's going on,
and we need to have clarity about this.
So one man presents it this way.
When the New Testament talks about demon possession,
it is talking about not a psychological problem
of the one afflicted,
but as a matter of alien occupation.
Okay, not a psychological problem,
a matter of alien occupation.
And we've seen that already as we read this passage.
These demons are in a sense aliens
from outside this man.
I don't mean space aliens.
I mean they don't belong to him,
that live inside of him.
They have occupied his body.
It is not simply that he has
some sort of psychological problem.
It is that there is a real,
powerful, demonic presence
that has taken him over.
So when we talk about demon possession,
one of the ways we prevent
believing demons are everywhere
is understanding this definition
that it is an alien occupation.
If it's a psychological problem,
then probably all of us are demon possessed, right?
And so it's with that then
we can begin to understand
what's going on in this story.
It's not just an alien occupation,
but there are certain characteristics
that we can recognize
go along with demon possession.
I had a seminary professor
whose name was Chris Florence,
and he taught us about some of this,
and he talked about the characteristic
that we see in the Bible
of demons having this supernatural,
superhuman strength.
And he told us about his time
before he'd become a pastor
when he worked in a psych ward,
and he would meet people
who met this criteria.
They would have this basically
unexplainable strength.
That's one of the ways we know
we can suspect that we're dealing
with someone who is actually possessed.
And it's not just,
doesn't just come from this one man.
Other sources confirm this.
We see this other places in the Bible.
So for example, in Acts chapter 19,
there's a man who's demon possessed.
He single-handedly fights seven brothers,
and he sends them away running and naked.
There is a superhuman,
unexplainable supernatural strength.
With that understanding in mind,
we're gonna jump right back into the story
because this helps us know what's going on.
If you remember from chapter four,
our previous story,
we were told, verse 35,
when Jesus sat out on the sea,
evening had already come,
which reminds us that it is nighttime now
when Jesus lands and encounters this demon.
In verses two and three,
there's this spooky setting.
The word tombs is repeated twice
to remind us we're in a place
that's filled with death and decay and despair.
That's meant to give us a feel
and in a sense, some symbolism as well
for what Jesus is encountering here.
He is in a sense in entering into the land of the dead.
He is encountering a man
who for all practical purposes might as well be dead.
He's living among the tombs, isolated and alone.
We find out verse five that he cries out night and day.
And so that might also explain
why Jesus is encountering this demon-possessed man at night.
It sounds like he never sleeps.
Maybe that's it.
No, I'm just kidding.
And so there's high tension here in the story.
We, if we're familiar with the Bible,
may know how this ends,
but I want you to think for a second
how you would feel
if you were reading this for the first time.
One of your questions might be this,
what is going to happen to Jesus?
Here's this man.
We've heard, we've learned he can't be bound.
Is Jesus going to get hurt?
And in fact, we know here this sign
checks out for this man
because he does have this supernatural strength.
Verse three,
no one could bind him anymore,
not even with a chain.
So he's strong enough.
He's able to break chains.
Verse four,
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.
And so what we're discussing here
is a type of strength
that's at least a few standard deviations higher
than ripping a phone book, right?
He is beyond that strong man territory.
This is a man who rips,
not phone books, but chains.
No one is able to bind him.
That is the tension that we feel in this story
because Jesus is coming up
against this extremely dangerous and volatile man.
In fact, it sounds like from the story
that Jesus does not cast out this demon immediately.
We jump here, verses seven and eight,
we're actually not told the beginning of the story.
We come into it at the middle of the story
because we're told Jesus, verse eight,
was saying to him,
come out of the man, you unclean spirit.
In other words,
Jesus seems to be having this process
of saying to this man,
perhaps multiple times,
that the spirit needs to come out.
In verse seven,
he names Jesus as the son of the most high God.
Let's pause for a second.
Remember when we talked about
the last time this happened in chapter one,
one of the power of the demonic struggle
is to know someone's name.
And so in calling Jesus by name,
this demon is probably trying to gain
some sort of advantage over him.
Jesus, however, is much more powerful than that.
It does not work on him
in the same way it did not work in chapter one.
But it helps us understand why,
verse nine, Jesus asks him his name.
And he replies,
my name is Legion, for we are many.
Now this isn't a coincidence.
Legion would have been a military unit.
Reminds us that Jesus is in
a sort of military struggle here.
He is taking part in the cosmic war
between good and evil.
He is in a very serious battle
with demonic forces.
And they know that Jesus is more powerful.
And so as he tells them to get out,
verses 10 through 13,
the demons enter into these peace talks with Jesus.
They know they're not going to win.
And so they want to at least
have a surrender that helps them.
Verse 10, they don't want to go out of the country.
And so they present this solution.
If you let us go into the pigs,
that will be satisfactory for us.
And so Jesus here,
he finds that to be a good compromise.
He lets them go into the pigs.
The pigs rush into the sea and they're drowned.
That's verse 13.
Now we could get caught up in the pigs.
Lots of people have lots of different ideas
about what's going on with the pigs.
If we focus on the pigs,
we have missed the point of this passage.
The point is not the pigs.
The point is this man who Jesus meets
frees from the power and forces of evil
and sets in his right mind.
In other words,
the point here is not verse 13.
It is verse 15.
Verse 15, we find out why this is such
an incredible and supernatural event.
Because the people from the surrounding towns
come in to see what's been happening with Jesus
and this man as word spreads
and they see something frightening.
The demon-possessed man,
the one who had the legion sitting there,
clothed and in his right mind.
The pigs, in a sense, are a minor detail.
The major theme is that Jesus has taken this man
who was living among tombs,
isolated and alone,
who might have otherwise been dead,
unable to be bound,
and a pariah in the culture around him.
And he has made him to sit calm,
not crying out day and night,
clothed, finally, rather than naked,
and in his right mind.
Verse 15 is the point of this passage.
As we ask our question,
who is Jesus,
we see Jesus is not just the one
who controls the world.
Jesus is also the one who restores people.
His power is not just for the calming of storms
on seas from last week.
It is also taking people and restoring them
to bear the image of God more and more.
He is taking people and restoring them
to what we read in Genesis chapter one,
that they were made in the image of God
with dominion over the creation.
This man, more than ever before,
is able to image God in a powerful way.
And we can assume as he moves forward,
he will be able more and more
to exercise dominion in this world.
Jesus is the one with power,
not just over creation.
Jesus is the one who restores
and reconciles and redeems individual people.
Jesus takes people and sets them
that they are clothed and in their right mind.
I want you to see, though,
not just Jesus' power,
as incredible as it is,
also Jesus' compassion.
In his divinity,
we see his compassion
simply in the fact
that he moves towards the oppressed
and those in bondage.
Yes, Jesus has the power to free this man.
No, he doesn't have to.
And he does.
In Jesus' humanity,
we also see his compassion.
Remember that this has all happened in one day.
Jesus has been teaching
probably since early in the morning
out in a boat all through chapter four.
Then he gets into the boat.
He's trying to take a nap
and there's a great storm
and his disciples are frustrated with him.
They wake him up
and he has to control nature.
Then he makes it to this other shore
at the evening.
It's probably dark at this point.
And Jesus chooses to then,
after all of that,
engage with this demon.
Jesus' compassion,
both in his divinity
and his humanity,
as he stretches his humanity
to the breaking point.
Jesus doesn't just have the power
to restore people.
Jesus actually does it.
Jesus comes to those
who are in bondage,
those who are filled with shame,
those who are isolated and alone,
and he sets them free.
Now, there's a question for us
about what we're gonna do
with this passage,
and we have a problem,
which is that,
on the one hand,
this is a true story, right?
This is not just some kind
of metaphor or analogy.
Jesus actually healed a man.
He cast out demons
from someone who is possessed.
And I am not currently aware
of anyone in our church community
at Cheyenne Mountain
who is possessed by a demon.
Even more than that,
I'm not aware of anyone right now
outside of our community
who's possessed by a demon.
What in the world
does this passage
have to do with us?
This is actually a question
that I'm asking about
how do we read the Bible?
How do we read stories
that don't directly talk
about our context
and our situation?
I believe you talked
about this a little bit,
those of you who are with
Jim Franks in Sunday School,
about how we come
to these sorts of passages.
And here's what we do.
We look at a specific situation,
we draw out a general principle,
we apply that general principle
to our specific situation.
There's a bridge in other words.
We do not frequently share
the exact situation
of the characters in the Bible,
especially in the Old Testament.
And so we're always pulling out principles
and reapplying them
to new situations.
Principle here.
However,
there is this controlling power
of evil in the world,
Jesus is more powerful.
There are real evil
and demonic forces
in this world
and we don't have to fear them
because of Jesus' power
and his compassion.
Not all people
are demon-possessed
and all people
are slaves to evil
apart from Christ.
Not all people
are demon-possessed
and all people
are slaves to evil
apart from Christ.
This is what Ephesians 2,
verse 1 tells us.
We're dead
in our sins
and our trespasses,
which is a way of saying
that outside of God
and his intervention
in our lives,
we are spiritually dead.
We might as well
be possessed
by many demons
living among tombs,
crying out night and day
by ourselves.
There are places
where we are not
in our right minds
because of sin.
And so, yes,
not everyone
is demon-possessed.
Everyone lives
in a world
with evil
and evil forces.
And Jesus comes
to you and me
as people
who would otherwise
be in the bondage
of sin,
spiritually dead,
and he also
exercises his power
and authority
and control over evil.
He also comes
and sets us
to be clothed
and free
in our right minds.
We are also freed
from the power
and bondage of sin.
For some of us,
that's the freedom
of being able
to finally say
that we are sober.
That is a form
of being in your right mind,
whether it is being
addicted to a substance,
whether it's sobriety
that comes from a time
when you were enslaved
to sexual sin,
whether it's pornography
or something else.
You've had seasons
of fighting
in community
with others,
confessing sin
in transparency,
working forward
as God is at work
in your life
with his people
and by his spirit.
And you know
the peace
and the joy
that comes
from being free
from the bondage
of addiction.
And if you've experienced
that,
you know exactly
what I'm talking about.
You know what it's like
to feel like
you are finally clothed
and in your right mind.
Maybe for you,
it's not sobriety
and addiction,
but you have been
a person who's enmeshed
in relationships
with no boundaries
and you've found
that the fear
of God
is what shrinks
and weakens
the fear
and the love
of man.
Maybe it's being freed
from the power
of evil
that makes you
feel like you
always have
to justify
yourself.
You're the sort
of person
who always
has the last word
in every discussion
because of your
insecurity
and your shame.
You have to control
every situation.
You can never
be at rest
or at peace.
You think
that it makes
you strong,
but instead
it reveals
how fragile
and weak
you actually are
and you don't
realize the toll
that it's taken
on you
and your relationships.
You believe
you have to hold
the world together
and there's a pile
of bodies behind you
to prove it.
And so sitting
clothed
and in your right mind
is being able
to sit still
and be at peace
even when being
misunderstood.
It's being able
to have the relief
and breathing room
that comes
from being willing
to repent
and know
and admit
when you're wrong.
Not occasionally
wrong,
but frequently wrong.
It's the ability
to say that you
messed things up,
especially to those
who have less power
than you.
It's the ability
to say you don't
know everything.
When we come
together every Sunday
morning and we
confess our sins,
when we confess
our sins throughout
the week and in
worship,
the invitation is
for you to come
and to finally be
in your right mind.
It is to finally
be in touch
with reality.
When we speak
our sins out loud
to God
and one another,
there is a sense
in which it breaks
the power
and the bondage
of that sin
in our lives.
It is one of the
tools that God
has given us
to restore us
to our right minds.
This man,
despite his possession,
is coming
to admit
his need
to God.
We're in our right
minds
and as we
understand
God's reality
and his power.
We're in our
right minds
as we understand
the twins
of grief
and relief
that go together.
On the one hand,
we grieve
recognizing our sin
and letting go
of the lies
that we've believed.
And on the other hand,
we have the relief
that comes
from knowing
that we're not
the ones
who hold
the world together,
but God does.
We have the relief
that comes
from knowing
that we can be
human and admit
our imperfections
and sin
and rebellion.
We have the relief
from no longer
having to keep
the game
and charade
and act together
of being always
perfect
and always competent.
We have the relief
that comes
from struggling
with sin
and our appetites,
not being a slave
to sin
and our appetites.
Jesus comes.
He sets us
so that we can be
clothed
and in our right minds.
I had a friend
in college
who had a
radical
transformation
and in his encounter
with Jesus
and afterwards,
he went back
on his computer
and he looked
at the old list
of all the bookmarks,
all the sites
that he had gone through.
Now, I don't think
there was anything
salacious there,
but he was shocked
by his previous self
because there were
ideologies
and communities
that had been
so attractive
to him
and now
in his right mind,
they didn't even
make sense.
He wasn't even sure
why it was
that those things
had appealed
to him
so much
because Jesus
had come
and transformed him.
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is not
just the one
who changes.
He is the one
who changes
our hearts
and minds
and lives.
Christianity
is not simply
a different
mental map,
although it is.
Christianity
is a complete
and absolute
change
and transformation
in our hearts
and our minds
and our lives.
Christianity
does not just
change the periphery
of our lives,
it changes
the center.
This is what we
talked about
a few weeks ago.
It is not an
accessory commitment,
it is a keystone
commitment.
It is something
that comes
and changes
everything.
It changes
our values
and our beliefs
and our lives.
And so this passage
tells us
that when Jesus
comes,
he gives
all of us
a radical
change.
You may not
be possessed
by a demon.
And in fact,
I hope you're not.
And if you are
a Christian,
your transformation
is no less
miraculous.
Jesus has taken
you from
spiritual death
to spiritual life
by the power
of his word.
the change
that Jesus
brings in
your life
may seem
more mundane
from a worldly
perspective.
It is no
less radical.
It is no
less powerful
than what we
see here.
And if you're
a Christian,
you have had
this sort of
interaction
with Jesus
whether you
realize it
or not,
whether you
admit it
or not.
it is a
miracle
to take
someone
from spiritual
death
to spiritual
life.
Jesus
sets this
man free
from bondage
that is
no less
true of you
if you're
in him.
Jesus
has also
made you
clothed
and in your
right mind.
Jesus
and only
Jesus
is the
one who
has the
power
to do
that.
So how
do we
respond to
him?
Just like
we've seen
before,
we have
some positive
examples
and some
negative
examples.
Our negative
example here
are the
locals
who in
verse 17
after seeing
Jesus'
power,
his ability
to cast
out evil
in this
world,
ask him
to live
among them
for years
and transform
them as
well.
or not.
Verse 17,
they are
desperate for
Jesus to
leave.
Why?
Well,
Jesus
has severely
disrupted
the bacon
industry
in the
country
of the
Gerasenes.
God
has
done.
It's
time for
Jesus to
leave
before
things
get worse.
That is
all these
people are
able to
see.
They have
this
extremely
narrow
field
of vision.
They can
only see
what's
right in
front of
them.
This is
what C.S.
Lewis talks
about in
The Weight
of Glory.
He says,
It would
seem
that our
Lord finds
our desires
not too
strong but
too weak.
We are
half-hearted
creatures fooling
about with
drink and
sex and
ambition when
infinite joy is
offered us.
Like an
ignorant child who
wants to go on
making mud pies in
a slum because
he cannot imagine
what is meant by
the offer of a
holiday at the
sea.
We are far
too easily
pleased.
These folks
want to go on
making mud pies
in a slum
because that's
all they can
see.
They don't
realize that
Jesus' power is
showing them that
he's the one who
can actually bring
a holiday at the
sea.
They have let
proximate things
eclipse ultimate
things.
They have let
good things
replace the
best things.
And so they
miss out.
Jesus to them
is merely
an inconvenience.
Jesus gets in
the way of
what they want
most right
now.
The man on the
other hand gives
us a positive
example and not
just a positive
example.
He goes above
and beyond.
Jesus tells him
verse 19 he's
supposed to go
home and tell
his friends how
much the Lord has
done for you and
how he's had
mercy on you.
And so we would
expect if he's good
and obedient he
would go home.
He'd tell his
friends how much
the Lord had
done for him,
how much mercy
he had on him.
Except he
doesn't do that.
19 home and
friends.
Verse 20 he
goes throughout
the entire
Decapolis.
Decapolis is a
term deca ten
polis city.
He goes
throughout the
entire ten
city region on
a tour to
explain to
people in these
ten cities how
much Jesus has
done for him.
It is not
enough for this
man to simply
go home and
share with a
few of his
friends how
good Jesus
is.
No, he is
preparing the
way for Jesus
later in the
gospel of Mark
by going around
to ten different
cities spreading
the word to
everyone he
meets about
Jesus' goodness
and mercy and
grace.
Reminds us of
Jesus' words that
he who has been
forgiven little
loves little.
He who has been
forgiven much
loves much.
This man has
been so affected
and transformed
by Jesus' love
and power in
his life that
he can't help
himself from
going around
and telling
everyone how
good Jesus
is.
Where were
you when
Jesus found
you?
If we have
good news of
transformation
of Jesus in
our lives, we
have to remember
one of two
things.
Either where we
were when Jesus
found us.
Or if we can't
remember that, if
you never knew a
day when you
weren't following
after Jesus, ask
this, where would
you be without
him?
If you wonder
why you don't
have more joy in
your spiritual
life, this is
one of the
answers.
Joy comes
through repentance,
joy comes as
and when we
recognize our
need.
Joy comes when
we realize how
bad things were
without Jesus and
how far he's
taken us and
transformed us.
Joy comes when
we see how
great and
powerful God is
in our lives.
And so the
application here is
not to lay
guilt on us and
say we must go
and share like
this man.
man.
The application
is this, when
we know and
see and
understand how
much God has
done for us,
when we experience
the depth of his
transformation in
our lives, we
will have no
choice but to
share what he
has done.
I doubt that
this man went
home and had to
psych himself up
to go out to the
ten cities.
strategies.
I doubt that he
had to read a
book about
evangelistic strategies
so that he could
convict himself to
go out and share
about Jesus.
No, his life
transformation was
so joyful and
radical and
complete that there
was no other
option for him.
Brothers and
sisters, the same
is true for us.
We must understand
how much God has
changed us in
Christ.
we must know
that his love and
joy and
transformation, his
power over evil
and demonic forces
has come and is
true for us as
well.
If you have lived
as a Christian
your entire life,
it is easy to
forget where you
would be without
him.
And Jesus'
power, his
transformation are
no less real and
no less miraculous
for you.
Jesus has changed
your life.
we see Jesus'
power over evil
ultimately in his
death and his
resurrection.
Because it's in
Jesus' death and his
resurrection that he
puts the greatest
form of evil to
death.
He puts death to
death.
That's what 1
Corinthians chapter 15
tells us.
For as by a man
came death, by a
man has come also
the resurrection of
the dead.
For as in Adam
all die, so also
in Christ shall all
be made alive.
For he must reign
until he has put all
his enemies under
his feet.
The last enemy to be
destroyed is death.
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is the one who
has power over evil.
And so, Jesus is the
one who frees and
restores you and
me.
How do we respond to
him?
We know what Jesus
has done for us
so that we can share
what Jesus has done
for us.
Verse 15.
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.
Let's pray.
Our Father in
heaven, we praise you
and thank you again
for the reminder from
your word of your
power, and not just
your power, but also
your compassion.
We thank you that you
use your power to set
us free.
We ask that you would
remind us this week of
the glory and the
grace of your
transformation in our
lives, that we would
be filled with the joy
that comes from that
knowledge, and we would
share it with those
around us.
We ask these things in
the mighty name of
Jesus Christ.
Amen.