WEBVTT

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 Okay, we're going to look at this for a few minutes this evening and depending on our

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 time, I'm not going to take long, but we might just throw a discussion in as well, but also

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 if anyone has got a Bible, just be aware of the passage, but also have a couple of verses

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 and want anyone to look up at the appropriate point and read out.

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 So what we find here is that Mark is unfolding a picture and we actually looked at the next

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 chapter last time, so I'm doing it back to front.

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 He's just unfolding a picture of who Jesus is, okay, and I want us to get that picture

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 of who Jesus is to help us worship, help us imitate Him, and also help us to understand

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 how we share Him better in our day-to-day living.

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 It's a tremendous passage, I really love it, and there's several things that I want to

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 say quickly and I hope it will be a good forum for discussion next week.

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 First is the surprise, the surprise element that Jesus wants to teach His disciples, but

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 also obviously us, because He's reaching out here beyond His own borders.

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 He's reaching beyond the Jewish country and the Jewish people, because He wants to break

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 down this insularity that the Jews have and that His disciples have about Him being their

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 Messiah and that's all that matters, and their self-importance.

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 He's come to be their redeemer and their King.

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 It's all about them.

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 So He's really ruffling feathers here.

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 He's really taking them by the lapels and He's going to shake them with the story, because

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 He wants them to know and He wants us to know because it's important for us.

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 He loves the Gentiles.

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 So He's gone into the Decapolis, which is beyond Israel, it's on the east side of the

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 lake of Galilee.

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 And we know there was very few Jewish people living there.

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 I think we've seen that before recently.

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 A lot of Roman retired Roman soldiers would live there, but a lot of Gentiles.

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 Pig farmers obviously, not many Jews were pig farmers.

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 So it was a Gentile country and Mark is wanting us to know as well that the Gospel goes beyond

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 the Jews to the Decapolis, to the pig farmers, to Legion, to Scotland, to Edinburgh, to wherever

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 the Gospel is preached.

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 That's why He came.

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 It's a precursor for the Great Commission that He's beginning to push people, push His

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 disciples to remember the Great Commission.

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 He loves the Gentiles.

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 He also wants them to know He loves the unclean, this whole story and the ones that we looked

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 at last time.

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 It's about people who would be regarded as unclean, obviously here, someone who's possessed

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 by demons.

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 But also, we've seen it in the other stories with the women who had an issue of blood and

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 then the girl, Gyrus' daughter, who died.

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 And He loves what they regarded as unclean.

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 And here, it's a person, a life, a person with a name, even though it's not a great

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 name, Legion, a story, a family.

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 And Jesus is reminding us and His disciples that that's the case.

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 And the surprise is also that there's, in Legion, this guy who's inhabited by all these

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 demons, these demon possessed, that Legion is attracted to Jesus.

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 I think that's an interesting aside.

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 The minute Jesus steps off the boat, Legion, it goes to Him.

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 And then in verse 6, we're told again that He runs to Jesus and falls down before Him.

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 So even in the midst of this demon possessed guy, there's a real person who somehow is

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 attracted to Jesus.

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 Is this His last hope, this guy who's desperately in need?

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 So there's surprise.

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 But there's also an uncomfortable mystery.

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 Someone want to look up Ephesians 6 verse 12.

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 And then someone look up, no, just Ephesians, I think, just now.

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 Ephesians 6 verse 12.

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 Someone want to read that out.

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 Sam, you look like you've got it.

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 So Paul reminds us where the battle is.

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 It's the spiritual forces of evil.

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 And that's part of the uncomfortable mystery of this story here is that Jesus is reminding

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 us of where the real battle is in our lives.

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 Now, in this story, there's lots of mystery.

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 If you don't find mystery in this story, I don't think you're reading it properly because

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 there's demons.

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 And there's demons who believe and who shudder.

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 There's pigs.

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 There's pigs that go galloping down a hill.

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 2,000 of them.

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 And demons enter the pigs.

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 There's lots of mystery in this story.

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 There's also that uncomfortable reality about the destructive power of evil.

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 It's an extreme case.

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 It's not just an everyday conversion story.

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 It's an extreme case.

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 Legion is like the living dead.

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 He's a one man horror movie.

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 Yeah, all you can imagine in a horror movie, Legion is that guy.

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 And it's horrific.

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 He's not just demon possessed, singular.

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 He's demon possessed, plural.

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 He's got all these demons in him that have given him his name Legion.

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 He's isolated.

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 He's violent.

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 He's self destructive.

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 And he's hopeless.

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 He's living in the tombs.

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 No one can go near him.

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 He has shackles and they break them off.

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 So it really is a picture of the extreme dark power of evil.

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 And of course, there's mystery in the story because there's fear in it as well, isn't

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 there?

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 I don't blame the fact that people for being afraid.

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 Because Christ comes at the upsets, the community status code, isn't he?

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 Not just by healing Legion, but by sending the demons into their pigs.

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 2,000 of them, which would have been a whole lot of economic loss.

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 So there's this fear where there's a human miracle.

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 There's this guy, Legion, that they knew who's healed miraculously.

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 But there's massive economic loss and they didn't understand.

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 And we're told that they were afraid and they wanted Jesus to leave them.

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 Don't be too hard on them.

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 I don't blame them terribly much for that.

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 We might have done the same ourselves when we see the power of Jesus and what he's doing.

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 So you could say, we see a new Legion, but please, Jesus, leave our region.

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 We've got to put it through there for you.

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 Okay, so there's an uncomfortable mystery in this story.

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 But it's also a story of absolute power, absolute power.

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 And Mark is wanting us to learn that about Jesus, not just for the disciples, but for us.

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 It's a very dramatic story because the demons recognize who Jesus is.

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 And demons are quite scary for us, the dark side, the underworld.

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 And yet these demons who sometimes we might be afraid of need permission from Jesus to

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 do anything, they beg of Him to not send them into the abyss before their time.

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 That's in the Luke account.

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 We're told that they knew they were defeated.

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 They knew who Jesus was.

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 They give Him as great.

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 He's the Son of the Most High God.

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 They know.

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 And Mark is revealing for us his power over darkness to bring healing, to bring defeat

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 over sin and death, and to change desperate hearts.

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 So we have here a beautiful power, as opposed to the ugly power of the demons that we have,

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 the ugly power which destroys and is brutal and rips people apart.

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 But you've got the beautiful power and the greater power of Jesus to restore and to heal.

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 And there's a reminder that without Jesus Christ, darkness does reign.

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 Not just at an individual level, but in humanity.

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 When Christ is taken out of the picture and when people stop believing in Jesus or stop

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 believing in God, and I've used this phrase a lot, I like this phrase, it's not that they

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 don't believe in nothing, it's they believe anything.

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 And we're seeing that in our society as even God's common grace is sometimes removed from

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 us.

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 There's a disordering, people are not thinking straight and increasingly they're like they're

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 living dead.

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 You need, and I need to give thanks for common grace, for the grace of God, not necessarily

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 in saving grace, which we also give thanks for, but the common grace that allows His

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 patience to let people not become like Legion.

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 And then there's the glorious healing of course of Legion, where He's in that great

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 phrase as well, clothed and in His right mind in verse 15.

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 Beautiful, very simple, clothed and in His right mind.

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 And that's just a picture of the amazing healing that Jesus had brought into His life.

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 So there's that reality of uncomfortable mystery, surprise, absolute power, and then there's

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 more mystery, okay, and then I'll just apply it for a minute or two.

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 There's more mystery.

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 There's three cries to Jesus in this passage, three different cries, it's the same word

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 each time, paricalio, it's the Greek word, that there's three appeals to Jesus from three

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 different parties in this story.

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 And there's mystery in the way Jesus responds, because if I'd sat here with you and had given

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 you these three requests, and how Jesus would answer, we would all have given the opposite,

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 probably, if we didn't know the story.

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 So in verse 13, and I'm struggling a bit because it's quite dark at this place, and

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 I'm going blind and the printing is small.

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 Verse 12, rather, they begged, that's the same word, okay, it's the begging word I'm looking

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 at, they begged Him, that is the demons, send us into the pigs, let us enter them.

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 And He says yes to the demons.

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 He says yes to the disembodied demons so that they can find a body, pigs, and go into them.

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 And He then, they knock the pigs over the cliff into the water, and it quite often speaks,

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 I think water had a kind of significance for the destruction even of demons I've read

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 somewhere.

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 So they begged, and He said yes.

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 And then in verse 17, the people also began to beg, it's the same word, to depart from

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 the region.

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 They pleaded with Him to leave.

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 He said yes, He said yes to the demons, and He said yes to the people to leave the region.

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 And in verse 18, we're told that, yeah, verse 18, Legion, as He was getting into the vote

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 Jesus, the man who had been possessed with demons, it's not called Legion interestingly

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 there, the man who had been possessed with demons begged Him that He might go with them.

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 And He says no.

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 Now we would have probably all thought the opposite, wouldn't we, that Legion wanted to

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 go with Jesus, yes, come on, come with me.

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 The demons know, the people know I'm going to stay here.

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 But there's mystery in Jesus' answers.

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 And that's great because if we're looking at the Gospels, we'll always find that Jesus

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 doesn't do what we expect Him to do.

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 And that's because He's God, and His ways are higher than our ways.

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 So just briefly can we learn some of the things that we can learn quickly, not just about Christ

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 and ourselves, but also, and I haven't mentioned anything about this yet, sharing our faith.

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 It's a bad thing in our conclusion to make points that you haven't mentioned in your

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 main bits of preachers, don't do that, okay?

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 The first thing is we all need to be appealing to Jesus in the same way that Legion here appeals,

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 and even the demons appeal to Jesus.

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 He was falling on His knees.

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 And in our response to Christ, there must always be this foundational falling onto our

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 knees, recognizing who He is.

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 Let's stop making Him powerless and small and weak and indifferent.

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 You've never met anyone like Legion who needed redeeming.

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 He was the living dead.

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 Jesus just could speak into His healing.

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 And we need to be appealing constantly in submission to this Jesus for His help and His guidance,

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 for His wisdom and His grace, and for that transforming power in the darkness of our

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 own hearts that sometimes remains.

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 Okay, that's the first thing.

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 We need to be appealing to Him.

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 Second thing is that He knows what is best.

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 It's a great story that reminds us of that with regard to the answers He gives.

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 His timing is right.

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 His word is true.

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 He's not a joker and He's not a fraud in your life today or in mine.

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 And maybe especially when we think evil seems to be continuing in its destructive path.

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 When the pigs in your life keep thundering down the slopes and you wonder what on earth

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 is going on, when we don't understand, I don't understand really what's happening with the

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 pigs.

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 And it's like all these things.

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 You go to all the different commentaries, none of them have an answer to the difficult

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 questions really.

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 They all have theories and ideas about, you know, putting, making the people think about

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 do they care more about pigs and Legion and all that kind of stuff.

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 But we don't really know.

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 And we don't know why demons would go from a person into a pig and why they needed to

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 be an embodied person.

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 There's lots of questions.

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 And lots of questions about evil, aren't there?

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 We always have lots of questions about evil.

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 But we know He knows and He knows what's best.

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 And you need to know and remember that the cross is His only answer.

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 It's not one of many, it's not one of potential different answers He could have had to evil

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 and sin in our lives.

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 The cross 2000 years ago in Israel is the only answer, the only way He could be both

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 God, both just and both loving and both a Savior and Lord.

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 And it's the most, it's the weakest act, isn't it?

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 Weakest act, being nailed to a tree, but it's also the most powerful act that's ever happened

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 in the universe because of what was unseen, the battles that Sam read about from Ephesians.

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 And He knows what's best because like the demons who know that there's an abyss to come,

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 there's a judgment to come.

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 He knows that, there's a judgment to come.

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 And we need to know that.

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 In all the mystery and darkness and struggles that we're facing, He knows, okay, that's

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 the second thing.

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 I'm nearly done.

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 Third thing, and I haven't mentioned anything about this, but there was a family who needed

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 healing.

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 There was a family who needed healing.

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 Verse 19, go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.

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 What it says really there is in there, it says go home, go to your own.

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 That's literally what Jesus says to Legion, isn't that beautiful?

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 And isn't that how God often works?

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 Legion had lost his family.

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 They'd probably battled and tried and prayed and struggled with him, but he was uncontainable

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 and he was dead to them.

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 He was lost to them.

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 And their pain would have been great, I'm sure, known and loved.

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 So heartache.

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 But what a reunion, eh?

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 Jesus says go home to tell them how much, tell them about the mercy that they've had.

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 And what Jesus is saying there, isn't he reminding us that when we're converted or when someone

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 comes to faith, it always affects more than one person.

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 It very often affects a family.

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 And when Jesus saved you, he wanted you to be a witness and a testimony to your family,

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 to those who are closest to you.

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 That's the most important thing, isn't that a beautiful thing that Jesus does?

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 He puts him back, he doesn't take him with him, but he says, look, go back, your family

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 needs healing too.

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 It's not just you.

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 And when we talk about evangelism and souls, let's remember where our first circle of

00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:31.920
 influence is to our nearest and nearest, to our family, to our wives, to our husbands,

00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:38.120
 to our children, to our siblings, to our cousins, to the people that know us best.

00:18:38.120 --> 00:18:39.720
 Can you imagine the change?

00:18:39.720 --> 00:18:48.120
 It would have been for them to see him even more than Jesus.

00:18:48.120 --> 00:18:52.480
 And that brings us to the reality that not only a family, and I hope you're praying for

00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:55.440
 your families, just add in that.

00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:00.440
 But also the community needed to hear about God's mercy.

00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:03.279
 I love that part of it.

00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:08.840
 I would have loved to have heard Legion's testimony as he shared it, how much God, the

00:19:08.840 --> 00:19:14.559
 mercy that God had had on him, Jesus had on him, when he told the people in that community,

00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:21.000
 go and tell your family and those that are your own, back into the community.

00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:25.720
 Now do you see the beauty and the mercy of Jesus there?

00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:27.119
 He said no to the people.

00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:30.039
 Sorry, he said yes to the people when they said leave, go.

00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:31.759
 We're afraid of you.

00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:33.279
 Don't stay here.

00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:36.119
 In his mercy he said yes.

00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:39.400
 He left them, but he didn't abandon them.

00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:40.960
 Isn't that the great thing?

00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:42.160
 He says, okay, I'll leave.

00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:43.160
 I understand.

00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:44.160
 I know it's difficult.

00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:47.799
 But look, I'm sending you a new person.

00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:49.440
 I'm sending you one of your own.

00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:57.559
 I'm sending someone you know and he will share how much mercy he's been shown and he will

00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:04.600
 be Jesus' message to you and Jesus' mercy to you.

00:20:04.600 --> 00:20:05.840
 Isn't that great?

00:20:05.840 --> 00:20:12.920
 Someone that they knew and they despaired of became the one who was the one who testified

00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:17.279
 to the Jesus who had left because they were afraid of him.

00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:21.399
 That's why I said at the beginning, don't be too hard on the people for saying that

00:20:21.399 --> 00:20:23.920
 they were afraid of Jesus.

00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:27.920
 I think we would have been as well in the circumstances, but he didn't just abandon

00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:29.039
 them to that.

00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:34.079
 He sent them legion, which was a great act of mercy.

00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:39.480
 And I think there's a great calling on us to remind us of what Jesus has asked us to

00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:43.319
 do in the Great Commission as Christians here in St. Columbus and Edinburgh.

00:20:43.319 --> 00:20:48.720
 We're not to be to go back to another sermon, staring up into heaven watching Jesus who's

00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:50.439
 been ascended.

00:20:50.439 --> 00:20:56.359
 We're not to just ask to follow Jesus in the way legion did kind of luxuriating in the

00:20:56.359 --> 00:21:01.119
 mercy that he's shown us and just sitting looking at him and growing and grace and in

00:21:01.119 --> 00:21:02.119
 faith.

00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:04.519
 Important though that is.

00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:06.519
 We're to do more than that.

00:21:06.519 --> 00:21:21.359
 We are to recognize that he sends us, he sends us to those who are lost because I think it

00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:27.839
 would be too much for them to see Jesus as it were.

00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:29.759
 That's speculative.

00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:34.319
 But he uses us and that's his calling.

00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:39.159
 And so I would just say in conclusion, share our story.

00:21:39.159 --> 00:21:49.279
 Go and tell your people and those who know you how much the Lord has done for you and

00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:51.960
 how he has ad-merci on you.

00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:57.359
 It doesn't say give the three steps of the gospel or the five steps of the gospel or

00:21:57.359 --> 00:21:59.079
 even the Roman road.

00:21:59.079 --> 00:22:06.599
 Whatever valuable these particular techniques of sharing the truth are.

00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:11.799
 And I think today people more than ever see through formulaic presentations of anything,

00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:12.799
 including the gospel.

00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:19.720
 But if we can learn, and this is the hardest thing of all, if we can learn to share how

00:22:19.720 --> 00:22:25.319
 much the Lord has done for us, how he's transformed us, well none of us are legions.

00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:26.319
 I know that.

00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:31.960
 None of us are in the same boat, it's not a good illustration, because he didn't get

00:22:31.960 --> 00:22:32.960
 in the boat.

00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:37.559
 But nonetheless we are legion.

00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:44.519
 He's symbolic of the deadness in our souls without Jesus and of our desperate need.

00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:46.960
 And so we are in many ways all legion.

00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:48.679
 We are all the sick women.

00:22:48.679 --> 00:22:50.599
 We are all the daughter of Jairus.

00:22:50.599 --> 00:22:57.759
 Because that's what Mark is trying to tell us, that we are people who have a story as

00:22:57.759 --> 00:22:58.759
 Christians.

00:22:58.759 --> 00:23:01.679
 And stories are great today.

00:23:01.679 --> 00:23:03.319
 Stories are powerful today.

00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:09.240
 I think that my friend is the key to evangelism.

00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:12.359
 It can't be taught in some ways.

00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:16.359
 It needs to be lived and learned.

00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:21.839
 And we need to be aware of mercy before we can share it.

00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:31.519
 So the deeper our understanding of what Jesus has done for us will enable us to mould our

00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:33.959
 story.

00:23:33.959 --> 00:23:37.159
 Even if we practice it in front of the mirror, there's nothing wrong with that.

00:23:37.159 --> 00:23:38.159
 Do that.

00:23:38.159 --> 00:23:39.159
 Practice it in front of the mirror.

00:23:39.159 --> 00:23:40.659
 Your story.

00:23:40.659 --> 00:23:42.719
 Practice the difference Jesus is making.

00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:49.440
 And maybe it's going to challenge us, well actually what difference is he making?

00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:52.360
 Is there anything that really sets me apart?

00:23:52.360 --> 00:23:55.839
 Of course there is in our own hearts and souls.

00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:03.559
 But we need somehow to be able to verbalise that so that people know and understand.

00:24:03.559 --> 00:24:04.920
 And we leave the rest to Jesus.

00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:07.240
 He just sends us.

00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:09.519
 And he wants us to be his witnesses.

00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:12.240
 So that's a great story.

00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:17.519
 And there'll be great questions will come from that which you can discuss.

00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:23.920
 It'd be good just to have a quick discussion for five minutes but I know it's not a great

00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:31.279
 environment for discussion or questions or anything about the story.

00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:34.000
 But has there been any questions that they want to ask?

00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:35.000
 I would love a bit of discussion.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:37.839
 I'd love a bit of discussion.

00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:43.039
 You could try and catch me out even.

00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:47.039
 I didn't ask you to come ready to discuss so.

00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:50.639
 But it's great.

00:24:50.639 --> 00:24:55.439
 And I hope that it will spark a lot of discussion when you meet.

00:24:55.439 --> 00:24:59.359
 And I hope you will go and think about it as well.

00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:02.199
 Very much.

00:25:02.199 --> 00:25:04.039
 Because it's a great challenge for us isn't it?

00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:05.720
 We love to see the church grow.

00:25:05.720 --> 00:25:07.920
 We love to see new people come in.

00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:17.200
 We would love to see people come into faith in this dark, difficult, hard context in which

00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:18.640
 we live.

00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:24.720
 And I think understanding the Legion and the way what Jesus is teaching us from Legion

00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:28.440
 will help us and will help our prayers.

00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:30.960
 We'll educate our prayers towards that.

00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:31.960
 So okay.

00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:33.960
 I'll pray briefly.

00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:41.680
 Father God, we thank you for just the privilege of sharing that story.

00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:43.440
 One we know well.

00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:48.680
 One we've maybe read many times and we've maybe laughed at the pigs running down the

00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:52.160
 hill and wondered what on earth that's about.

00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:56.160
 We confess we don't really know.

00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:59.680
 But we recognize there's really deep truth here.

00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:03.840
 And really fresh, significant truth.

00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:08.799
 And about our understanding ourselves.

00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:12.799
 Understanding what you've done for us.

00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:16.839
 And bowing our knee to you as the one who's worthy of worship.

00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:23.639
 And we thank you that you always so often do what we least expect.

00:26:23.639 --> 00:26:26.599
 Because your ways are higher than our ways.

00:26:26.599 --> 00:26:31.039
 And if we're going to live like that, if we're going to live in that higher way ourselves,

00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:40.680
 we need to be rooted deeply in your character and in your love and in your grace and in your

00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:44.559
 power because we can't do it on our own.

00:26:44.559 --> 00:27:03.559
 Amen.