WEBVTT 00:00:02.670 --> 00:00:04.990 Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:05.129 --> 00:00:07.969 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:08.589 --> 00:00:11.029 This epiphany in Lent, we're back in the Gospels, 00:00:11.310 --> 00:00:14.189 specifically the Gospel of Mark. We are seeing 00:00:14.189 --> 00:00:17.390 the revelation of God in Jesus. Mark is showing 00:00:17.390 --> 00:00:21.030 us the true King becomes a servant for us. He 00:00:21.030 --> 00:00:23.769 says right at the heart, the Son of Man came 00:00:23.769 --> 00:00:26.489 not to be served, but to serve and to give his 00:00:26.489 --> 00:00:30.519 life as a ransom for many. And Mark is nearly 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:33.560 always asking his audience, what do you make 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:38.700 of that? So, what do you make of this good news? 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.219 We'd love to meet you and we hope you'll consider 00:00:43.219 --> 00:00:45.299 coming and joining with us each Sunday morning 00:00:45.299 --> 00:00:47.380 at 10 a .m. in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:47.899 --> 00:00:50.119 You can find us online at secondcitychurch .org 00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:53.039 and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We hope 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:57.700 you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Lord, we thank 00:00:57.700 --> 00:01:01.920 you for your word. We thank you for its breadth 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:05.519 and depth, its beauty, most of all how it reveals 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:08.640 you as the one who loves sinners, as the one 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.959 who comes to us in our need, who lifts us up 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:15.219 out of the miry clay, who sets our feet upon 00:01:15.219 --> 00:01:20.540 the rock of Christ. And we gotta pray that even 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:22.620 this time this morning as we look at this text 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:26.230 that you would Give us a greater sense of your 00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:30.049 great love for us, your great mercy for us. And 00:01:30.049 --> 00:01:32.250 like this man long ago, we would have a greater 00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:36.329 desire to be with you, to speak of you, to share 00:01:36.329 --> 00:01:41.469 about you, and to live with you. Speak, we pray. 00:01:42.069 --> 00:01:47.950 Amen. We are in Mark chapter 5 you just heard 00:01:47.950 --> 00:01:51.469 this text and this text of course comes immediately 00:01:51.469 --> 00:01:54.349 after the crossing of the Sea of Galilee that's 00:01:54.349 --> 00:01:58.730 where it begins heading over to town of the garrisons 00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:00.290 the region of the garrisons actually people are 00:02:00.290 --> 00:02:02.709 a little bit uncertain of exactly what town that 00:02:02.709 --> 00:02:05.489 is though some most people believe now actually 00:02:05.489 --> 00:02:08.750 that there was a town of a similar name right 00:02:08.750 --> 00:02:11.949 in that area, the Decapolis, which means the 00:02:11.949 --> 00:02:14.270 10 towns on the other side, which were Gentile 00:02:14.270 --> 00:02:17.669 towns. And that that town was actually recently 00:02:17.669 --> 00:02:20.550 discovered when they were redoing some road work 00:02:20.550 --> 00:02:23.889 over there. Kind of interesting. Anyway, all 00:02:23.889 --> 00:02:26.169 three of the synoptic gospels, the synoptic gospels 00:02:26.169 --> 00:02:28.569 are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They tell similar 00:02:28.569 --> 00:02:31.830 stories, sort of in a similar chronology. They 00:02:31.830 --> 00:02:36.550 all have these two stories together. The story 00:02:36.550 --> 00:02:39.469 of Jesus crossing the sea with his disciples 00:02:39.469 --> 00:02:42.210 in the midst of this crazy storm and simply speaking 00:02:42.210 --> 00:02:45.270 and the wind and the waves do his bidding. And 00:02:45.270 --> 00:02:50.009 then right next to it, this man possessed, overcome, 00:02:50.849 --> 00:02:54.610 and Jesus just says, come out. Powerful words. 00:02:56.110 --> 00:02:58.810 Which say Mark and Matthew and Luke are all putting 00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:01.969 before us that Jesus is truly Lord and he's Lord 00:03:01.969 --> 00:03:05.590 of all. He's Lord of the physical, and the psychical, 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:08.849 and the spiritual, and all of it. And he has 00:03:08.849 --> 00:03:13.289 authority over all of the chaos. Lord of it. 00:03:14.490 --> 00:03:18.409 But what are the responses? Well, one thing we 00:03:18.409 --> 00:03:20.270 saw actually, we see in both texts, I'm gonna 00:03:20.270 --> 00:03:24.849 get back to this, is fear. Both texts actually 00:03:24.849 --> 00:03:28.169 have that as the response. One, though, is a 00:03:28.169 --> 00:03:32.569 fear that leads to acceptance, and one to rejection. 00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:38.449 One of the great stories in the Bible is the 00:03:38.449 --> 00:03:41.870 story of the conversion of Paul from Saul to 00:03:41.870 --> 00:03:46.650 Paul. Many of you know that Paul is the great 00:03:46.650 --> 00:03:48.550 author of most of the New Testament, not most 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:51.770 of it, he wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New 00:03:51.770 --> 00:03:54.169 Testament. Some people think Hebrews, I think 00:03:54.169 --> 00:03:55.689 the argument is better that somebody else did, 00:03:57.349 --> 00:04:00.349 but you know, Paul, this great missionary of 00:04:00.349 --> 00:04:03.569 the faith, this one who went and He largely started 00:04:03.569 --> 00:04:07.370 the Gentile church after this man, by the way, 00:04:07.469 --> 00:04:12.629 he's the first Gentile missionary. And his conversion 00:04:12.629 --> 00:04:15.189 story, actually it's told three separate times 00:04:15.189 --> 00:04:17.230 in the book of Acts, and then it's told again 00:04:17.230 --> 00:04:20.050 shortly in the book of Galatians. It actually 00:04:20.050 --> 00:04:24.629 gets more words dedicated to it in the New Testament 00:04:24.629 --> 00:04:28.490 than are dedicated to the stories of the resurrection. 00:04:30.430 --> 00:04:34.689 Kind of strange. Here's the thing, before his 00:04:34.689 --> 00:04:36.810 conversion, like I said, Paul's name was Saul, 00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:39.189 and he was a leader of the Jewish religious community. 00:04:39.410 --> 00:04:41.589 In Galatians 1, he actually says this, I was 00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:45.529 advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age 00:04:45.529 --> 00:04:49.050 among my people, so extremely zealous was I for 00:04:49.050 --> 00:04:52.410 the tradition of my fathers. He was a religious 00:04:52.410 --> 00:04:57.670 leader, zealous. Yet, he also says right there 00:04:57.670 --> 00:05:00.970 in Galatians 1, he says, He persecuted the church 00:05:00.970 --> 00:05:04.769 of God violently and tried to destroy it. He 00:05:04.769 --> 00:05:09.730 was violent. He was destructive. Destructive 00:05:09.730 --> 00:05:14.689 violence. And in Acts chapter 26, when he's recounting 00:05:14.689 --> 00:05:16.470 the story of his conversion, he says that he 00:05:16.470 --> 00:05:19.649 was convinced that I ought to do many things 00:05:19.649 --> 00:05:22.209 in opposition, in opposing the name of Jesus 00:05:22.209 --> 00:05:25.670 of Nazareth. So you'll probably know that he 00:05:25.670 --> 00:05:29.139 locked up saints, right? He says actually he 00:05:29.139 --> 00:05:31.920 cast his vote that some of the early Christians 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:34.139 would die. He's actually in the story right there 00:05:34.139 --> 00:05:37.540 with the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter seven. 00:05:39.579 --> 00:05:47.259 And yet, this person encounters Jesus. This one 00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:52.100 who violently is trying to destroy others in 00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:55.620 his zealous religiosity encounters Christ. He's 00:05:55.620 --> 00:05:59.519 on the way to to get Christians all the way up 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:03.980 town. He says, in raging fury against them, I 00:06:03.980 --> 00:06:06.560 persecuted them even to foreign cities. That's 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:08.660 what he talks about in Acts chapter 26. So he's 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:11.480 on the way to Damascus and there he meets Jesus 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:16.540 and there he is entirely, entirely changed. Oddly 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:18.540 enough, in all the accounts actually, he recounts 00:06:18.540 --> 00:06:22.519 how Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting 00:06:22.519 --> 00:06:26.370 me? that his sin was actually in the front to 00:06:26.370 --> 00:06:29.170 Christ. That his work against Christians was 00:06:29.170 --> 00:06:32.110 a work against Jesus. But right then and there 00:06:32.110 --> 00:06:35.149 he meets Jesus. He's full of grace and compassion 00:06:35.149 --> 00:06:38.689 as he always is. And to this man who had rejected 00:06:38.689 --> 00:06:41.829 Christ and who had persecuted his people, he 00:06:41.829 --> 00:06:46.350 gives a new name. He gives a new heart. He gives 00:06:46.350 --> 00:06:49.810 a new life. And he gives a new mission. And it 00:06:49.810 --> 00:06:54.379 is like this. A light switch goes off. goes on 00:06:54.379 --> 00:06:57.980 and it is a changed, dramatically changed life. 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:03.779 No wonder it's told again and again. Well, okay, 00:07:03.779 --> 00:07:05.879 so we have this story in Mark chapter five of 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:09.300 this demon possessed man. And I said right at 00:07:09.300 --> 00:07:10.939 the beginning that it's put right alongside, 00:07:11.079 --> 00:07:12.720 every time it's told, it's put right alongside 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:16.980 Jesus calming the storm. Even some of the language 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:22.480 is familiar as I mentioned. But here's this idea 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.740 that Jesus has power over all things, that he's 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:29.259 Lord of all, that the God who made creation also 00:07:29.259 --> 00:07:31.439 is the God who is actually intent on recreating 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:34.319 not just creation largely, but the particularities 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:37.379 of individuals. And here's where I want us to 00:07:37.379 --> 00:07:39.699 go this morning. I want us to see how this story 00:07:39.699 --> 00:07:42.319 is actually in many ways a paradigm for Christian 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:46.000 conversion. In this little story, we see what 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.839 God does for us. in Christ. The power of Christ, 00:07:49.860 --> 00:07:53.959 not just over the storms of creation, but over 00:07:53.959 --> 00:07:59.740 the souls of humankind. So first, okay, I want 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:03.040 us to see the power of sin and Satan. Okay, first 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.079 I want to see the power of sin and Satan. Because 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:12.319 in a very real sense, this man was who you and 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:17.250 I were before you knew Jesus. Or, and this may 00:08:17.250 --> 00:08:18.730 sound really harsh if you don't know Jesus yet, 00:08:18.790 --> 00:08:20.410 this man is actually a picture of who you are 00:08:20.410 --> 00:08:30.850 without Christ. Now, I'm aware that the Bible 00:08:30.850 --> 00:08:34.370 doesn't actually pull back for us the curtain 00:08:34.370 --> 00:08:36.830 behind the physical. There's actually not a ton 00:08:36.830 --> 00:08:39.559 of stories of... demon possession in the Bible. 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:42.960 You know, you kind of have two sort of trenches 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:44.940 when you talk about demon possession. You have 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:46.840 some people, they're like, it's all over the 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:48.659 place. And some people are like, no, no, no, 00:08:48.659 --> 00:08:51.059 don't talk about it. And there's this kind of, 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:53.460 you know, we kind of have to deal with it, even 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:56.000 though it's not kind of all over. It's actually 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.539 kind of interesting that even though the gospel 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:00.539 seemed to treat it as absolutely real, it's not 00:09:00.539 --> 00:09:03.409 something you see all the time. But when you 00:09:03.409 --> 00:09:05.370 do see it, like in this instance, I think it's 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:07.129 actually very instructive for us to kind of sit 00:09:07.129 --> 00:09:09.870 with it and say, why is this being told to us 00:09:09.870 --> 00:09:14.230 right now? One of the things that the Bible makes 00:09:14.230 --> 00:09:17.029 pretty clear is that outside of the work of Jesus, 00:09:17.850 --> 00:09:21.110 we're all this man, okay? We're under the power 00:09:21.110 --> 00:09:23.629 of sin and Satan. And I want you to hear me out 00:09:23.629 --> 00:09:26.929 because I bet there are some of you who may be 00:09:26.929 --> 00:09:30.639 checking out church this morning. You're not 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:32.820 even sure what you think about the whole spiritual 00:09:32.820 --> 00:09:35.539 realm, and you're here and you're like, whoa, 00:09:35.539 --> 00:09:37.700 I came when they're talking about demon possession. 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:42.379 This feels a little, I don't know, this may be 00:09:42.379 --> 00:09:47.440 a little extreme here. I wanna speak to that 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:50.120 a little bit. But I think there's a lot of you 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:52.299 here also who are just regular church attenders 00:09:52.299 --> 00:09:54.039 and you actually wanna hear God's word and you 00:09:54.039 --> 00:09:57.639 wanna receive it. But you also might think it's 00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:00.399 a bit much for Peter, for this guy up here, the 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:03.320 pastor, to say, hey, you are like this man outside 00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:06.559 of Christ. The power of sin and Satan is what 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:10.700 is actually controlling and destructive. Is that 00:10:10.700 --> 00:10:13.480 a bit much, Peter? Tone it down a little bit. 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:17.480 So I wanna first address you churchy folk, okay? 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:22.720 I know who you are, you know who you are. The 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:27.480 regular folk. So later on in the gospel of Matthew, 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:33.820 in Mark chapter eight, the disciple Peter rebukes 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:36.320 Jesus. Here's what happened. Jesus says, he must 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.200 die and in three days he's gonna rise from the 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:41.980 grave. He must suffer and die is actually what 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:43.659 he says. He says he must suffer and die on the 00:10:43.659 --> 00:10:46.259 third day, rise from the dead. And it's actually 00:10:46.259 --> 00:10:48.360 really interesting. It doesn't just say Peter 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:50.399 rebukes him, but it says that Peter took him 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:53.200 aside. Imagine that, he's like, Jesus, I gotta 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:56.230 talk to you about that. You know, he takes Jesus' 00:10:56.330 --> 00:10:58.210 side and he starts rebuking him. What are you 00:10:58.210 --> 00:11:01.789 doing talking about suffering? And what is Jesus' 00:11:02.309 --> 00:11:07.070 response to Peter? Yeah, I heard some of y 'all 00:11:07.070 --> 00:11:12.389 mumbling that. Get behind me, Satan. He names 00:11:12.389 --> 00:11:17.940 Peter. With an actual name of Satan when he's 00:11:17.940 --> 00:11:20.419 actually going against the reality of who God 00:11:20.419 --> 00:11:23.720 is in Christ and what that means He says get 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:25.799 behind me Satan for you are not setting your 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:27.159 minds on the things of God but on the things 00:11:27.159 --> 00:11:29.240 of man that when we set our things mind on things 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:32.480 of man, there's actually a way in which we can 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:40.820 be called Satan Hey a little strange maybe It's 00:11:40.820 --> 00:11:42.879 as though Jesus is saying it's his way, Satan's 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:49.159 way or my way. This way or that way, those are 00:11:49.159 --> 00:11:52.220 your options. Outside of the power of Christ, 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:56.259 you are under the power of sin and Satan. John 00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:59.759 chapter eight, so another eight chapter, but 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:02.740 in the gospel of John, Jesus, this time he's 00:12:02.740 --> 00:12:05.960 talking to religious leaders who he often keeps 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:09.710 his most intense words for. But these were the 00:12:09.710 --> 00:12:12.269 people that knew God. Their job was to study 00:12:12.269 --> 00:12:14.850 the Bible. Their job in some ways was to look 00:12:14.850 --> 00:12:16.929 for the Messiah. They were the religious leaders 00:12:16.929 --> 00:12:18.710 who were looked up to for their teaching and 00:12:18.710 --> 00:12:22.090 all that. And Jesus tells them this in John chapter 00:12:22.090 --> 00:12:25.129 eight verse 42. If God were your father, you 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:28.529 would love me for I came from God and I'm here. 00:12:29.649 --> 00:12:32.649 I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 00:12:32.669 --> 00:12:36.149 He says, you can choose to receive me or two 00:12:36.149 --> 00:12:39.639 verses later, verse 44, he says this. You are 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:47.360 of your father, the devil. That's what he says. 00:12:49.179 --> 00:12:53.440 You're either in Christ or you are of the father, 00:12:53.659 --> 00:12:56.179 the devil. What she says then, and your will 00:12:56.179 --> 00:13:00.279 is to do your father's desires. What I'm saying 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:01.940 is that the Bible does teach us that outside 00:13:01.940 --> 00:13:03.919 of the power of Christ, we are under the power 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:09.179 of sin and Satan. The other text I wanted to 00:13:09.179 --> 00:13:11.600 mention was what we heard in Ephesians that Gordon 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:13.820 read for us. There we read this, you heard this. 00:13:14.220 --> 00:13:16.240 You were dead in your trespasses and sins and 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:18.399 what you once walked, following the course of 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:21.259 this world, following the prince of the power 00:13:21.259 --> 00:13:27.000 of the air. You are following the prince of the 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:30.919 power of the air. Outside of Christ, you're under 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:34.860 the power of sin and Satan. That's what the scriptures 00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:39.409 tell us. Okay, so here's what we see, right? 00:13:39.409 --> 00:13:42.669 When we look at this man who the disciples of 00:13:42.669 --> 00:13:44.570 Jesus come across when they make their way across 00:13:44.570 --> 00:13:49.690 the Sea of Galilee, we're invited not just to 00:13:49.690 --> 00:13:53.169 look at his state under this destructive power 00:13:53.169 --> 00:13:58.970 of this sort of demon that's called Legion, but 00:13:58.970 --> 00:14:00.529 we're not just supposed to look at his state, 00:14:00.549 --> 00:14:02.049 but what I'm saying is that there's actually 00:14:02.049 --> 00:14:05.590 an invitation to look at our state. We kind of 00:14:05.590 --> 00:14:07.230 look and we think, oh, this is an extreme situation, 00:14:07.230 --> 00:14:09.289 but if you look at these other texts, the idea 00:14:09.289 --> 00:14:12.450 is that if you are outside of Christ, you're 00:14:12.450 --> 00:14:16.389 under the power of Satan like this man was. Your 00:14:16.389 --> 00:14:21.509 inclination is towards sin. The Bible teaches 00:14:21.509 --> 00:14:24.409 us that unless we are subject to Christ's rule, 00:14:25.129 --> 00:14:27.669 that he is our Lord, then we are subject to the 00:14:27.669 --> 00:14:35.129 rule of Satan. Father, the devil. Prince. of 00:14:35.129 --> 00:14:39.490 the power of the air. But I know what you're 00:14:39.490 --> 00:14:42.269 saying. You're like, Peter, this dude is like 00:14:42.269 --> 00:14:45.049 running around. He can't keep chains bound. He's 00:14:45.049 --> 00:14:48.029 hanging out in the cemetery up off of Her Street, 00:14:48.470 --> 00:14:50.289 which I go to occasionally when I'm looking for 00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:53.789 mushrooms, but not like this guy does. Gosh, 00:14:53.789 --> 00:14:56.169 I just gave away one of my mushroom spots on 00:14:56.169 --> 00:14:59.570 a sermon. But what you're saying is that we don't 00:14:59.570 --> 00:15:03.289 see demon possession like this, if at all. What 00:15:03.289 --> 00:15:07.700 are you talking about? Well, let me say this. 00:15:07.779 --> 00:15:11.419 The devil's more clever than that. The devil 00:15:11.419 --> 00:15:13.860 doesn't really want to advertise very much. Do 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:16.279 you know that? Not like, hey, listen to what 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:20.840 I'm doing all the time, you know? Many of you 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:24.220 have recently read C .S. Lewis's book, The Screwtape 00:15:24.220 --> 00:15:29.320 Letters, and you read in that book actually the 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:33.000 power of keeping people under the idea of just 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:39.120 materialism. Don't let them see what you're doing. 00:15:40.139 --> 00:15:45.500 Put on a disguise or you're more powerful that 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:49.659 way. And we know actually that the rejection 00:15:49.659 --> 00:15:52.759 of the belief in the supernatural actually does 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:55.419 do great harm to the work of Christ and actually 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:59.519 does great gain to the work of Satan. Atheistic 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:02.279 communism in the 20th century alone killed over 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:08.250 a hundred million people. Rejection of God. Think 00:16:08.250 --> 00:16:14.409 of how destructive our ideas are under sin. Think 00:16:14.409 --> 00:16:17.009 of how destructive the idea is if you only live 00:16:17.009 --> 00:16:20.490 in the here and now. You must take what you can, 00:16:20.590 --> 00:16:24.470 when you can, however you can. Live for the present. 00:16:24.809 --> 00:16:27.370 Just the material world is all that exists. How 00:16:27.370 --> 00:16:31.240 destructive can that be? Some of you know who 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:33.460 Samuel Rutherford is, the great 17th century 00:16:33.460 --> 00:16:37.299 Scottish pastor and theologian. He wrote this, 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:42.460 I love a rumbling and raging devil rather than 00:16:42.460 --> 00:16:45.919 a subtle devil. And she says a subtle devil is 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:50.240 far more difficult to fight against, to see. 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:57.799 That's so often what we have. Okay. So my argument 00:16:57.799 --> 00:16:59.919 for you church folk is just simply, hey, the 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:02.039 scriptures and Jesus himself seems to say unless 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:05.440 you under Christ, you were under the power of 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:10.180 sin and Satan. But I kind of want to, I want 00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:12.359 to try to give an argument for you who are not 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:15.000 so sure about God or not so sure about Jesus. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:16.980 And you're certainly not so sure about this whole 00:17:16.980 --> 00:17:19.480 talk about sin and Satan and stuff like that. 00:17:20.619 --> 00:17:23.059 You were just wondering about the reality, the 00:17:23.059 --> 00:17:25.319 existence of the spiritual at all. So this stuff 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:29.920 is a bit far. Well, I mentioned that in John 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:32.980 chapter 8, Satan is called the father of all 00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:36.279 lies. Well, the Bible begins actually with this 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:39.160 story in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:41.160 And this is perfect reality that's taking place. 00:17:41.299 --> 00:17:43.539 Perfect communion between Adam and Eve. Their 00:17:43.539 --> 00:17:45.880 fellowship is perfect. Their openness. They're 00:17:45.880 --> 00:17:48.279 not ashamed of themselves. And they walk with 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:51.259 God. And then Satan comes in and he tells them 00:17:51.259 --> 00:17:55.579 lies. And they actually buy into that lie. lie 00:17:55.579 --> 00:17:57.500 in that sin, actually that listening to Satan 00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:00.019 creates an estrangement from one another. What 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:01.740 actually happens is immediately they begin to 00:18:01.740 --> 00:18:03.920 hide from each other and they begin to hide from 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:06.019 God. And then actually as the story builds, what 00:18:06.019 --> 00:18:10.539 happens is death and actually societal conflicts 00:18:10.539 --> 00:18:12.720 and all these other kinds of conflicts that come 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:14.599 out of this idea that they're listening to the 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:20.680 voice of Satan. What I want to suggest to you 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:22.119 is actually that part of what's taking place 00:18:22.119 --> 00:18:24.660 in this story by this man being possessed is 00:18:24.660 --> 00:18:26.640 destruction. And there's actually, this is what 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:28.859 the Bible tells us is sin is always accompanied 00:18:28.859 --> 00:18:31.900 by destruction because Satan actually always 00:18:31.900 --> 00:18:33.640 desires destruction. You may not believe in him, 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:37.339 but I bet you actually might, you might buy the 00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:39.680 idea that sin and destruction always go together. 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:44.859 So let's take a stereotypical sin. What are the 00:18:44.859 --> 00:18:49.450 stereotypical sins? One of them is drunkenness, 00:18:49.670 --> 00:18:53.670 right? That's one of them. You go to church and 00:18:53.670 --> 00:18:55.450 you're like, what is the pastor gonna preach 00:18:55.450 --> 00:19:02.349 against? Sleeping around, not tithing, drinking 00:19:02.349 --> 00:19:04.450 too much. Those are probably the stereotypical 00:19:04.450 --> 00:19:08.670 sins. Talk about one of them for a second. I 00:19:08.670 --> 00:19:11.430 mean, Christians do think that actually the abuse 00:19:11.430 --> 00:19:13.250 of alcohol and over drinking is a sin, so that's 00:19:13.250 --> 00:19:15.390 true. And I think most people would say, yeah, 00:19:15.390 --> 00:19:20.460 Christians probably think that. So what happens 00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:24.740 when you drink too much? You get a headache. 00:19:24.779 --> 00:19:26.799 You don't show up to work as well. That's destructive 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:31.079 for your work habits probably. Oftentimes it's 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:33.359 related actually to hiding. We know that's the 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:38.920 case. So it's often related to lying. It often, 00:19:38.940 --> 00:19:42.700 often leads to relational harm to the breakup 00:19:42.700 --> 00:19:45.259 of relationships. So it creates relational distance. 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.079 It harms our work life. It harms our physical 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:51.000 well -being. What I'm saying is that this sin 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:54.099 actually leads to destruction, just like what 00:19:54.099 --> 00:19:56.119 we're seeing in the text that we have before 00:19:56.119 --> 00:19:57.839 us with this man who's possessed. He's leading 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:03.099 a destructive life. One study that I saw found 00:20:03.099 --> 00:20:06.119 that an increase in alcohol consumption tends 00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:09.259 to lead to a 20 percent higher divorce rate. 00:20:10.380 --> 00:20:13.019 And that did say an increase of a leader within 00:20:13.019 --> 00:20:16.130 a certain amount of time. Okay, but what I'm 00:20:16.130 --> 00:20:18.130 suggesting, you can at least, even if you don't 00:20:18.130 --> 00:20:21.109 buy the idea that this man is actually a picture 00:20:21.109 --> 00:20:23.289 for us outside of Christ, you can at least say 00:20:23.289 --> 00:20:25.690 that if you're going down a way that Christians 00:20:25.690 --> 00:20:28.410 would say is sinful, then you're leading to destruction. 00:20:28.529 --> 00:20:30.329 Okay, that's kind of my basic argument there. 00:20:30.630 --> 00:20:32.069 I don't know if that was, if y 'all could follow 00:20:32.069 --> 00:20:36.309 that very well. What I'm suggesting is that what 00:20:36.309 --> 00:20:39.890 the Bible says is that the power of Satan and 00:20:39.890 --> 00:20:44.500 sin is a destructive power. It hurts, it harms 00:20:44.500 --> 00:20:48.420 yourself and others. And I don't think you necessarily 00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:51.660 even have to agree with the idea of Satan and 00:20:51.660 --> 00:20:54.779 sin to maybe buy into that kind of idea, that 00:20:54.779 --> 00:20:59.279 way of thinking. And we see this really clearly 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:01.839 in this passage. Jesus and his disciples, they 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:03.619 make their way, right? And they see this man, 00:21:03.619 --> 00:21:05.619 he's living among the tombs, which would have 00:21:05.619 --> 00:21:08.220 meant automatically for them that he was unclean. 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:11.039 So they're living in a, this is a Gentile area. 00:21:14.289 --> 00:21:17.130 And actually the name Gerasim, that's more of 00:21:17.130 --> 00:21:22.569 a Greek name than a Jewish name. And so he's 00:21:22.569 --> 00:21:24.549 living a destructive life. He's actually been 00:21:24.549 --> 00:21:26.930 estranged from a community on some level. We 00:21:26.930 --> 00:21:28.990 see that he's tried to be bound. They've tried 00:21:28.990 --> 00:21:30.710 to bind him, most likely because he's actually 00:21:30.710 --> 00:21:35.009 been very violent. So this demon possession has 00:21:35.009 --> 00:21:37.390 actually led to the destruction relationally. 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:40.980 and probably physically towards others. And then 00:21:40.980 --> 00:21:44.740 finally actually read that it's actually leading 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:48.819 him towards self -destruction. One of the things 00:21:48.819 --> 00:21:51.539 that we read is that he cuts himself with stones. 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:54.119 So the picture you're supposed to get is the 00:21:54.119 --> 00:21:57.420 destructive reality of the possession, this demon 00:21:57.420 --> 00:21:59.839 possession of this man. The fact that this man 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:06.509 is under the power of Satan. Okay. Further, when 00:22:06.509 --> 00:22:08.569 the demons are sent into the pigs, what happens 00:22:08.569 --> 00:22:11.190 is that this destructive pattern is actually 00:22:11.190 --> 00:22:14.490 over, is sort of shouted towards us again. What 00:22:14.490 --> 00:22:16.710 do they do? They then run and they actually are 00:22:16.710 --> 00:22:19.650 drowned, which some commentators think that this 00:22:19.650 --> 00:22:21.589 is actually part of the way that Jesus is actually 00:22:21.589 --> 00:22:23.150 destroying them. He's saying you're actually 00:22:23.150 --> 00:22:24.569 going to be destroyed even though you don't want 00:22:24.569 --> 00:22:28.250 to be. I'll say this, I know that that doesn't 00:22:28.250 --> 00:22:30.890 sit very well with us, the death of all these 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:35.759 pigs. but they were an unclean animal for a Jewish 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:39.700 audience, right? And we're gonna get around to 00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:41.200 why I think that's actually a significant part 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:45.680 of this story, okay? Anyway, my point here is 00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:50.940 that this text tells us that sin and Satan lead 00:22:50.940 --> 00:22:54.099 towards destruction and that you are either under 00:22:54.099 --> 00:22:57.160 the power of sin and Satan and therefore you 00:22:57.160 --> 00:22:59.940 are actually bent towards destruction or you 00:22:59.940 --> 00:23:03.480 are under the power of Christ. And then so the 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:05.559 second move actually is not just the power of 00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:08.000 sin and Satan and destruction, but the power 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:11.440 of Christ who always leads towards healing and 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:17.279 being whole. So we have this man, this man who 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:21.519 is possessed by Legion, which by the way, Legion 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:24.039 was the largest grouping in the Roman army. It 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:27.859 was typically four to 5 ,000 men, but the point 00:23:27.859 --> 00:23:34.279 is a lot. And he's just wrecking havoc, right? 00:23:34.299 --> 00:23:36.759 Breaking chains, living among the tombs, cutting 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:39.900 himself, living by himself, all this destruction. 00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:44.640 And then almost, it's not a passing comment, 00:23:44.660 --> 00:23:50.640 but it seems so simple. They find this man clothed 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:56.259 and in his right mind. Here's the man clothed 00:23:56.259 --> 00:24:00.170 and in his right mind. What the Greek says, the 00:24:00.170 --> 00:24:05.509 word there is SOFRONUNTE. This was a common idea 00:24:05.509 --> 00:24:07.549 in ancient philosophy that related much more 00:24:07.549 --> 00:24:10.609 than just right thinking. It's not just that 00:24:10.609 --> 00:24:12.849 he had his right mind, but that his body was 00:24:12.849 --> 00:24:15.329 actually working properly. He was working properly 00:24:15.329 --> 00:24:18.690 relationally. That his whole being actually was 00:24:18.690 --> 00:24:24.390 as it was meant to be. Being is controlled by 00:24:24.390 --> 00:24:27.559 the relation of the parts to one another. and 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:29.720 all the parts were working together for the man 00:24:29.720 --> 00:24:35.759 now. He was whole. He was healed. It wasn't just 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:38.500 correct thinking, but correct doing and thinking 00:24:38.500 --> 00:24:41.339 and emoting and living with others and all of 00:24:41.339 --> 00:24:45.579 it. One thing that I read said that it's difficult 00:24:45.579 --> 00:24:48.160 to define the word soffroneo, which is the Lima 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:52.359 of this word, soffroneo, because it's not just 00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:55.930 concerned with knowledge. By the way, that's 00:24:55.930 --> 00:24:58.170 like the word sophistry, you know, the sophrine 00:24:58.170 --> 00:25:00.910 -o. It's not just concerned with knowledge itself, 00:25:01.309 --> 00:25:04.089 but with the knowledge of knowledge. It's just 00:25:04.089 --> 00:25:07.789 this all -encompassing dynamic of whole and healthy 00:25:07.789 --> 00:25:13.630 and right and full living, wise living, wisdom. 00:25:16.490 --> 00:25:20.009 This is the power of Christ. Here's this man, 00:25:20.349 --> 00:25:24.509 destructive in every aspect, clothed. seated, 00:25:25.109 --> 00:25:29.029 full, healed. Can you imagine how dramatic that 00:25:29.029 --> 00:25:34.369 must have been? The people come upon him, the 00:25:34.369 --> 00:25:37.230 herdsmen, the herdsmen of the pigs, right? It 00:25:37.230 --> 00:25:38.890 says they actually go to the city's end of the 00:25:38.890 --> 00:25:40.369 countryside. They're just telling everybody they 00:25:40.369 --> 00:25:43.670 can't, this man destroyed my pigs and then they 00:25:43.670 --> 00:25:48.410 all come and they see him and they go, oh, changed. 00:25:49.480 --> 00:25:51.819 This is the guy that lived up by the tombs. This 00:25:51.819 --> 00:25:53.980 is the guy that would cut himself I saw his arms 00:25:53.980 --> 00:25:56.740 just torn up with blood This is the guy that 00:25:56.740 --> 00:25:59.480 we tried to bind and he kept breaking the chains 00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:02.460 and he is seated there whole and in his right 00:26:02.460 --> 00:26:09.599 mind That's when it says actually they were afraid 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:12.460 just like the disciples on the Sea of Galilee 00:26:12.460 --> 00:26:16.279 he speaks in the work and the waves calm and 00:26:16.279 --> 00:26:22.500 Jesus speaks in this man healed. It was then 00:26:22.500 --> 00:26:24.099 that they saw the great change that had come 00:26:24.099 --> 00:26:29.339 over this man that they were so afraid. Christ 00:26:29.339 --> 00:26:33.680 and his power over the waves and the wind and 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:39.019 he uses the same power to convert, to change, 00:26:39.220 --> 00:26:45.180 to radically alter this man's entire life. Friends, 00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:47.779 I'm just saying this is the power, this is the 00:26:47.779 --> 00:26:52.279 story of conversion. This is the God who saves. 00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:56.500 This is the power of Christ to change. And this 00:26:56.500 --> 00:27:01.000 is your story if you are in Christ. I mean, Paul 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:06.279 will say, you're a new creation. The old is gone. 00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:13.500 The news come. You were an old man. That old 00:27:13.500 --> 00:27:16.839 way of being is entirely in the past. You have 00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:22.180 new life. This is salvation. Once far off, once 00:27:22.180 --> 00:27:27.339 enemies, brought near, friends. Once following 00:27:27.339 --> 00:27:30.640 the prince of the power of the air, the spirit 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:34.259 at work and the sons of disobedience. But now, 00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:39.319 by grace, we've been saved. This here, just this 00:27:39.319 --> 00:27:44.680 little picture. is your story if you are in Christ. 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:51.579 New life. Good news of Christ for you. Jesus 00:27:51.579 --> 00:27:53.839 brings those who were once given over to death 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:57.660 into destruction, into darkness, into his marvelous 00:27:57.660 --> 00:28:04.140 light. This is the power of Christ. The truth 00:28:04.140 --> 00:28:06.299 is that this story of conversion has happened 00:28:06.299 --> 00:28:09.099 again and again and again and again throughout 00:28:09.099 --> 00:28:14.900 the centuries. Think of Zacchaeus, that wee little 00:28:14.900 --> 00:28:18.259 man. Let's see, he was the tax collector and 00:28:18.259 --> 00:28:20.519 he was taking far more than he should have. In 00:28:20.519 --> 00:28:22.680 fact, he says, I'm gonna repay fourfold because 00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:28.720 I took so much, but I can do that. Changed, given 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:32.819 over to following Jesus, his destructive selfishness, 00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:37.500 his greed. Now given over to following Christ. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:44.140 His life was turned upside down for good, coming 00:28:44.140 --> 00:28:47.480 incredibly generous. It's the story of the Philippian 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:50.420 jailer right there, right there in the jail, 00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:53.980 giving his life to following Christ. Think of 00:28:53.980 --> 00:28:58.420 Lydia also in Philippi. We don't know exactly 00:28:58.420 --> 00:29:01.680 if she was living out of Griebus. She had built 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:05.250 this great purple empire. And now she's the one 00:29:05.250 --> 00:29:08.529 who's welcoming the early church into her house. 00:29:09.569 --> 00:29:12.630 And this wonderful woman given over to following 00:29:12.630 --> 00:29:15.829 Jesus. This is the story of St. Augustine. Some 00:29:15.829 --> 00:29:19.670 of you know his famous conversion. This is the 00:29:19.670 --> 00:29:22.089 story of C .S. Lewis and Martin Luther and Martin 00:29:22.089 --> 00:29:25.390 Lloyd Jones. This is the story of God's work 00:29:25.390 --> 00:29:28.809 in the world, life of an individual, his power, 00:29:29.009 --> 00:29:31.029 just as his power was over the wind and the waves, 00:29:31.089 --> 00:29:36.200 the power over the human soul. to change. The 00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:39.759 story of John Bunyan, John Wesley. Some of you 00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:45.180 know the story of Etta Lineman. She studied under 00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:49.940 Boltmann and for years was a teacher of theology 00:29:49.940 --> 00:29:53.319 in German universities. Specifically, she was 00:29:53.319 --> 00:29:55.799 a skeptic. She didn't believe it. She was very 00:29:55.799 --> 00:29:57.519 open about not believing it. She was open about 00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:00.099 it all being a big farce, even though she taught 00:30:00.099 --> 00:30:05.839 the Bible and theology. God changed her. She 00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:08.539 says this, and it's exactly what the man among 00:30:08.539 --> 00:30:11.700 the tombs could have said. God immediately took 00:30:11.700 --> 00:30:16.440 my life into his saving grasp and began to transform 00:30:16.440 --> 00:30:19.960 it radically. My destructive addictions were 00:30:19.960 --> 00:30:23.240 replaced by a hunger and a thirst for the word 00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:28.359 and for fellowship with Christians. God has done 00:30:28.359 --> 00:30:33.420 that time and time and time again. I hope he's 00:30:33.420 --> 00:30:37.079 done it in your life. I hope you can say the 00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:40.740 same thing. This was in the past. Now he has 00:30:40.740 --> 00:30:43.519 given me a hunger and a thirst to be with him, 00:30:44.619 --> 00:30:47.259 to be with fellow Christians, because this is 00:30:47.259 --> 00:30:50.819 the story of conversion, the work of God saving 00:30:50.819 --> 00:30:57.039 us out of our destruction into his saving life. 00:30:58.920 --> 00:31:01.339 Now, here's what happens in Mark quite a bit 00:31:01.339 --> 00:31:05.529 because Mark is the gospel that is most intent 00:31:05.529 --> 00:31:09.269 on discipleship. Maybe you've caught this, I 00:31:09.269 --> 00:31:11.609 think I've said this a couple of times this spring. 00:31:12.509 --> 00:31:14.089 But one of the things that happens in Mark is 00:31:14.089 --> 00:31:17.910 that he often leaves us with options. Jesus does 00:31:17.910 --> 00:31:19.329 this quite a bit in the other gospels too, but 00:31:19.329 --> 00:31:23.490 he does this most often in Mark. And the question 00:31:23.490 --> 00:31:26.170 is, well, what do you do with it, church? Who 00:31:26.170 --> 00:31:31.559 are you? Where are you? So here's the first big 00:31:31.559 --> 00:31:33.940 option that Mark leaves us with in this text, 00:31:34.519 --> 00:31:40.019 reject him. Because the truth of the matter is, 00:31:40.119 --> 00:31:41.900 right, the gospel actually is deeply offensive. 00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:43.700 The message of Jesus actually is very offensive. 00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:45.839 The message of Jesus says, you don't have anything 00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:50.799 in and of yourself that can earn your way to 00:31:50.799 --> 00:31:53.940 God. In fact, you're controlled by the prince 00:31:53.940 --> 00:31:56.819 of the power of the air. You're just like this 00:31:56.819 --> 00:32:03.250 man who's bent towards destruction. So many people 00:32:03.250 --> 00:32:06.150 don't want to hear that. Think about this, okay? 00:32:06.170 --> 00:32:08.390 These herdsmen and the people that had gathered 00:32:08.390 --> 00:32:10.329 around Jesus and this man sitting in his right 00:32:10.329 --> 00:32:15.210 mind, what do they do? They beg Jesus to depart. 00:32:18.829 --> 00:32:21.509 They don't want to come face to face with God 00:32:21.509 --> 00:32:25.569 and Christ. They really actually, and this is 00:32:25.569 --> 00:32:27.029 probably really what's going on with the pig 00:32:27.029 --> 00:32:29.950 narrative, they don't want to have to come face 00:32:29.950 --> 00:32:31.950 to face with what it will demand of their life. 00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:37.579 It's actually gonna change how they live They 00:32:37.579 --> 00:32:40.799 won't just be living for economic gain and how 00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:44.380 many pigs they can own All the rest they actually 00:32:44.380 --> 00:32:46.859 have to give all of their life over to Jesus 00:32:46.859 --> 00:32:49.839 Well a whole lot of people maybe you're one of 00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:55.079 them you hear this and you say want that I'll 00:32:55.079 --> 00:33:00.359 take the here and now. Thank you very much Too 00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:07.900 offensive cost too much No, thanks. That's the 00:33:07.900 --> 00:33:14.599 first big option. Reject Jesus. Reject it. But 00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:16.539 the second option is actually the one that's 00:33:16.539 --> 00:33:21.119 given the most attention here. And the second 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:24.920 option is actually to be changed by Christ. And 00:33:24.920 --> 00:33:26.180 there's three ways that we see this change. I've 00:33:26.180 --> 00:33:29.859 already alluded to them a little bit. Simply 00:33:29.859 --> 00:33:33.339 you have a changed life. Meaning the pattern, 00:33:33.579 --> 00:33:36.119 your way of being in the world, the things that 00:33:36.119 --> 00:33:41.059 you do are different. This man is seated, not 00:33:41.059 --> 00:33:42.839 thrashing about, he's not breaking chains, he's 00:33:42.839 --> 00:33:44.819 actually changed. Like his way of being in the 00:33:44.819 --> 00:33:46.940 world, his way he even acts with his body is 00:33:46.940 --> 00:33:50.960 different. He is seated and he is with Jesus 00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:56.359 and he is clothed, not naked any longer, and 00:33:56.359 --> 00:33:59.220 he's in his right mind. Would you say he has 00:33:59.220 --> 00:34:03.619 had a dramatically changed life? The old is old. 00:34:03.980 --> 00:34:09.900 He is put on the new. He's no longer wrecking 00:34:09.900 --> 00:34:12.340 havoc, thrashing about, hurting others. He's 00:34:12.340 --> 00:34:17.380 not hurting himself. Interestingly, it says at 00:34:17.380 --> 00:34:19.099 the end that he goes back to the towns of the 00:34:19.099 --> 00:34:21.059 Decapolis, the very towns likely that rejected 00:34:21.059 --> 00:34:24.039 him and bound him with the good news. He's a 00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:27.360 changed life. The other thing I want to say is 00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:32.019 that he has a changed heart. He desires to be 00:34:32.019 --> 00:34:35.039 with Jesus. This is the language of the heart. 00:34:35.420 --> 00:34:37.739 He actually wants to be with his Lord. Verse 00:34:37.739 --> 00:34:41.199 18 says this, and he was getting, as he was getting 00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:43.099 into the boat, as he, Jesus was getting into 00:34:43.099 --> 00:34:45.079 the boat, the man who had been possessed with 00:34:45.079 --> 00:34:49.059 demons begged him. That same word that, you know, 00:34:49.139 --> 00:34:51.599 others begged him to leave. He says, I want to 00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:55.579 be with you. Begged him to be with him, to be 00:34:55.579 --> 00:35:02.320 with him. This man desires the Lord. You've changed 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:04.980 life, you've changed heart. And then you have 00:35:04.980 --> 00:35:13.940 changed words. Jesus tells him, go home to your 00:35:13.940 --> 00:35:16.219 friends and tell them how much the Lord has done 00:35:16.219 --> 00:35:20.400 for you and how he has had mercy on you. And 00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:24.000 immediately it says, he went away, he was obedient 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:29.409 and began to proclaim. In the Decapolis, which 00:35:29.409 --> 00:35:30.969 is the very towns that probably bound him, like 00:35:30.969 --> 00:35:35.730 I said. How much Jesus had done for him. It changed 00:35:35.730 --> 00:35:39.329 words. And this is always what happens. This 00:35:39.329 --> 00:35:41.309 is what happens when you come to Jesus. You can 00:35:41.309 --> 00:35:43.050 either reject him or you can be changed by him. 00:35:43.250 --> 00:35:45.650 And it will always change your life. It will 00:35:45.650 --> 00:35:48.170 change your desire. You will long to be with 00:35:48.170 --> 00:35:51.949 Jesus. And it will change your words. You will 00:35:51.949 --> 00:35:58.860 not but be able to speak of him. Maybe some of 00:35:58.860 --> 00:36:03.300 you saw this but Larry Sanger who was the inventor 00:36:03.300 --> 00:36:08.059 of Wikipedia and For years wanted nothing to 00:36:08.059 --> 00:36:14.239 do with Jesus In fact, he did his PhD in philosophy 00:36:14.239 --> 00:36:17.679 and he said he ran in he ran in circles in the 00:36:17.679 --> 00:36:20.260 atheistic circles of people that wanted nothing 00:36:20.260 --> 00:36:25.030 to do with Jesus And yet on April 5th of this 00:36:25.030 --> 00:36:27.650 year, he wrote out his testimony. He says this, 00:36:27.789 --> 00:36:29.849 he says, it's finally time for me to confess 00:36:29.849 --> 00:36:34.010 and explain fully and plainly that I am a Christian. 00:36:34.989 --> 00:36:36.730 Actually, if you read it, he says, some of you 00:36:36.730 --> 00:36:41.050 are gonna be really surprised by this. But it's 00:36:41.050 --> 00:36:43.989 the same thing that Paul did. Let me tell you 00:36:43.989 --> 00:36:47.230 all that the Lord has done for me. It's the same 00:36:47.230 --> 00:36:49.679 thing this man did. It's the same thing that 00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:52.400 Edda Lineman did, the same thing that St. Augustine 00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:58.760 did and John Bunyan did. Friends, here is conversion. 00:36:59.960 --> 00:37:03.300 Here's a new life. This life is offered to you 00:37:03.300 --> 00:37:08.619 in Christ. It is. Part of what's happening here. 00:37:09.219 --> 00:37:11.980 You come under the power of Christ, be changed. 00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:16.719 Changed life and a changed heart, changed words. 00:37:19.260 --> 00:37:22.239 There's the power of God on display, over the 00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:24.380 winds and the waves, but also over Satan and 00:37:24.380 --> 00:37:29.460 sin. And it is on offer to you. Will you come 00:37:29.460 --> 00:37:35.800 to him? Will you be healed? Will you hear him 00:37:35.800 --> 00:37:39.659 say, as Saul did so long ago on the road to Damascus, 00:37:40.480 --> 00:37:46.119 turn? Why are you persecuting me? Come. See. 00:37:47.079 --> 00:37:53.300 Have new life. Does Mark so often does he lays 00:37:53.300 --> 00:37:57.760 these options before you and what will it be? 00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:04.460 Lord We thank you for the dramatic change that 00:38:04.460 --> 00:38:06.579 you gave this man and we thank you Lord that 00:38:06.579 --> 00:38:10.159 you have done this in us God I pray that we would 00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:13.559 be those who can see what you have done in us 00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:16.219 and that will Gladly speak of it Lord. I pray 00:38:16.219 --> 00:38:20.690 that we right now in this room would assess Can 00:38:20.690 --> 00:38:23.369 we even say what you've done in our lives? Can 00:38:23.369 --> 00:38:27.130 we say what is different about us because we 00:38:27.130 --> 00:38:29.989 worship Jesus, we're part of his people? And 00:38:29.989 --> 00:38:33.190 Lord, if we cannot, God, would you do a great 00:38:33.190 --> 00:38:39.309 work in our lives, even right this instant? Would 00:38:39.309 --> 00:38:41.349 you do the dramatic work that you did in this 00:38:41.349 --> 00:38:45.849 man's life, saving him from his destructive ways? 00:38:48.969 --> 00:38:51.530 God, and bring us to new life in Christ. Lord, 00:38:51.550 --> 00:38:54.349 some of us, we've given our lives to you and 00:38:54.349 --> 00:38:56.050 we can speak of that, but Lord, there are other 00:38:56.050 --> 00:38:59.610 areas of our life that we need you to work dramatically 00:38:59.610 --> 00:39:05.710 in. God, touch those areas now. And then Lord, 00:39:05.730 --> 00:39:07.809 would you also give us opportunities to speak 00:39:07.809 --> 00:39:11.030 maybe to one another, even today, of how you're 00:39:11.030 --> 00:39:15.690 changing us, how you're shaping us, how you're 00:39:15.690 --> 00:39:21.320 making us part of the new creation. Harkening 00:39:21.320 --> 00:39:24.500 back to the day before the evil lies of Satan 00:39:24.500 --> 00:39:33.460 were bought, lived into. God change us, please. 00:39:33.699 --> 00:39:40.139 Convert us anew. For our prayers, Lord. Amen. 00:39:41.900 --> 00:39:44.019 Thank you for listening to Second City Sermons 00:39:44.019 --> 00:39:46.699 podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged you 00:39:46.699 --> 00:39:48.940 to worship God and to celebrate the gospel of 00:39:48.940 --> 00:39:52.340 Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this podcast 00:39:52.340 --> 00:39:54.780 and joining us in person each Sunday at 10 a 00:39:54.780 --> 00:39:57.500 .m You can find us online at secondcitychurch 00:39:57.500 --> 00:40:01.059 .org and on Instagram Facebook and YouTube Thanks 00:40:01.059 --> 00:40:02.679 again for listening. God bless