A maniac who became a missionary

Series: Close Encounters

“A Maniac Who Became a Missionary”

(Sunday Morning November 8th, 2009)

Passage: Mark 5:1-9

· O.S. As Most of Us Know, Jesus’ Divine Power Was Manifested in Numerous Different Ways While He Was Present on This Earth

We Know, for Example, That He Had Power Over Nature

He Demonstrated This Power in Luke Chapter 5 by Saying His Disciples to…"…’Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.;’” (Luke 5:4)

They Did This; and Then, We are Told Verse 6 That They Caught Such a Great Quantity of Fish That Their Nets Began to Break (Luke 5:6)

This Means, of Course, That Jesus Knew Exactly Where Those Fish Were, and He Did That With a Fish Finder

Now, if You Think That’s Something, This Next Story Ought to Really Blow Your Mind

For You See, Jesus Demonstrated His Power Over Nature Again in Matthew Chapter 17 When Some Tax Collectors Came to Him Asking Him to Pay What is Called There “The Two Drachma Tax”

Jesus Wanted to be Careful Not to Offend These Men

So, He Told Peter to do This; He Said, “…go to the sea and throw in a hook (By the Way, I Love to Bring Out the Fact That Jesus Told Him to Use a Hook, Because Those Folks From PETA Have Launched a Campaign Against Using Fish Hooks), and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me" (Matt 17:27)

Now, I Trust That Most of You Will Agree With Me When I Say That This Was an Amazing Thing

In Fact, It Demonstrated Both His Omniscience and His Omnipotence (Elaborate = One Coin in the Vast Sea, Found by One Fish That Came to One Hook)

· St =Jesus Also Demonstrated His Power Over Nature by Calming Storms

We Have One Example of This in Verses 39-41 of the Previous Chapter

In Addition to This, He Demonstrated That He Had Power Over Disease Many Times

And He Even Demonstrated That He Had Power Over Death by Raising Jairus’ Daughter From the Dead, Which Occurred Later in This Same Chapter, and Also by Raising Lazarus From the Dead in John 11

It’s Hard to Top That, of Course, Unless We Bring Up the Fact That Jesus Not Only Demonstrated His Power Over That Which is Natural and Physical But Also Over That Which is Supernatural and Spiritual

And He Did That Too

In Luke Chapter 4, for Example, We are Told That Jesus Encountered a Demon Possessed Man at a Synagogue in Capernaum

He Commanded the Demon to Come Out of the Man Without Harming Him, And That is Exactly What Happened

Then, the Bible Says That All of Those Who Witnessed This Were Amazed and Began Saying to One Another

“…’What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out’” (Luke 4:36)

Those People Were Amazed by the Fact That Jesus Had Authority Over Just One “Demon” or “Unclean Spirit”

But in This Passage That We are Looking at This Morning, We are Told That Jesus Encountered a Man Who Was Possessed by a Legion of Demons

And a Roman Legion Numbered Anywhere From 2000 to 6000

In Luke 8:2, the Bible Says That Mary Magdalene Had Been Delivered From Seven Demons

So, We Know That It is Possible for a Person to be Possessed by a Multiple Number of Demons, and This Man Was Possessed by Thousands of Them

All I Can Think to Say is That It Must Have Been Crowded in There Even Though We are Referring to Spirit Beings

· St = Now, if You Consider the Fact That All That Makes Life Meaningful for Any Person is Spirit, Life, Freedom, Community and Creativity, We Find in “Legion” a Complete Negation of Everything God Intends for Human Life

i. God Intends for Us to Have His Spirit, But “Legion” Was Filled With Demons

ii. God Intends for Us to Have Life, But “Legion” Lived in a Graveyard

iii. God Intends for Us to Have Freedom, But “Legion” Was Manacled and Bound
iv. God Intends for Us to Have Community, But “Legion” Was Cut Off and Isolated

v. God Intends for Us to Have Creativity, But “Legion” Was Self-Destructive

And So, We Find in “Legion” a Complete Negation of Everything That God Intends for Human Life

In Fact, We Could Say That We Find in “Legion” the Finished Product of Satan’s Work

But Nevertheless, Jesus Was Powerful Enough to Deliver Even This Man

And He Was Not Only Delivered, He Was Also Converted and He Eventually Became a Missionary in a Region Known as the Decapolis (Lit. Ten Cities)

· Q.n = Now, Can You Imagine Someone Like Charles Manson Becoming a Missionary?

Well, I am Here to Tell You That Even This is Possible Because of Jesus’ Divine Power, and His Ability to Transform a Person’s Life

In Fact, That is What This Passage of Scripture is All About

So, With This in Mind, I Want Us to Examine the Effects of Three Different Influences Upon This Maniac Who Eventually Became a Missionary

And the First Thing I Want You to See is That This Man Was Influenced by Satan

I. This Man Was Influenced by Satan

1) The Reality of Satan’s Existence

According to Newsweek Magazine, 25% of Americans do Not Believe That the Devil Exists

And Even Among Christians, It is Usually Only Those Who are Described as Conservative Evangelicals That Believe in a Personal Devil

So, for That Reason, I Feel Compelled to Remind You This Morning About the Fact That the Bible Says That the Devil is Very Real

In Fact, We are Told in Isaiah 14 That Satan Was Once an Angel Named “Lucifer”,But He Attempted to Usurp the Authority of God

He Made Five “I Will” Statements, and His Fifth “I Will” Statement Was This; He Said, “I Will be Like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14)

Immediately After Lucifer Made That Statement, He Was Cast Out of Heaven, and We are Told in Revelation 12:4 That, for Some Strange and Unknown Reason, One Third of the Angels Joined Him in His Rebellion“Lucifer,” or “Satan” as He is Now Called, and These Other “Fallen Angels” or “Demons” are Very Well Organized Into Different Ranks, and They Work Together Trying to Thwart God’s Plans and to Terrorize the Human Race

a. Demons are Symbiotic

This Simply Means That They Attempt to Use Other Creatures

We Know, for Example, That Satan Gained Control of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden

And in Luke 11:24, Jesus Said This; He Said, “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.'”

This Tells Us That Demons Often Seek to Find a Human Host, and They are Capable of Oppressing, and in Some Cases, Even Possessing People

In Fact, We are Told in Luke 22:3 That “…Satan entered Judas…” (Elaborate)

b. Demons are Influential

We are Told in Daniel 10:13, for Example, That a Demon Had Managed to Gain Control Over the King of Persia

This Tells Us That Some Demons Have Been Assigned to Specific World Leaders, and That They are Intent on Influencing Them to do Evil Things

I Believe This Helps Explain Why Adolph Hitler Became Obsessed With Trying to Destroy the Jewish Race

I Also Believe That Some Men and Women Today Have Been Influenced by Satan, and This Helps Explain the Sadistic Nature of Their Crimes

Those Who Molest and Kill Innocent Children, for Example; and People Like Jim Jones Who Presided Over a Mass Suicide, and People Like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold Who Were Responsible for the Columbine Massacre

It is Also Possible That This Man Named Nidal Malik Hasan, Who Shot and Killed 13 People at the Fort Hood Army Base This Past Week, Was Influenced or Perhaps Even Possessed by a Demon

· Q.n = How Can We Know?

· Ans = We Really Can’t

For You See, Most of the Time Satan and His Demons Prefer to Operate in a Secretive and Clandestine Fashion

That’s Why We Don’t Find Much Information About Satan and His Demonic Cohorts in the Old Testament

In the Book of Acts, We Have Only Two Occasions When a Case of Demon Possession is Mentioned, and This is Never Mentioned in Any of the Epistles

This Does Not Mean That They are no Longer Active in Our World Today, But It Does Mean That They are Not as Overt

For Some Reason, They Were Extremely Active While Jesus Walked Upon This Earth, and He Often Chose to Expose Them and to Vanquish Them

Perhaps, This is Because Satan Was Desperately Trying Stop Something That Was Inevitable Going to Come

Namely, the Redemption of Mankind and His Defeat and Eternal Damnation

c. Demons are Powerful

We are Told About a Boy Who Was Tormented by a Demon in Luke 9, and the Bible Says That This Demon Would Seize Him, Throw Him to the Ground, and Cause Him to go Into Convulsions

We are Also Told That the Disciples, on That Occasion, Could Not Cast Out This Demon, Even Though Jesus Had Given Them the Authority to do So

But of Course, No Demon is Able to Resist the Authority of the Lord Jesus; So, Jesus Came and Rebuked That Demon and It Came Out of That Boy

There is Even Somewhat of a Humorous Story in Acts 19 About Some Jews Who Tried to Imitate the Apostle Paul’s Ability to Cast Out Demons

Acts 19:15-16 (Turn and Read – or Just Look Up at the Screen)

I Would Say That Those Guys Got Whooped, Wouldn’t You?

* T.S. 1) The Reality of Satan’s Existence

2) The Evidence of Satan’s Presence

a. This Man Had Super-Human Strength

Verse 4 Says That He Had Often Been Bound With Shackles and Chains

And the Word “Bound” is in the Perfect Tense in the Greek Which Means That He Was Thoroughly and Completely Bound

But Even Then, He Was Able to Break These Shackles and Chains Into Pieces

b. This Man Had Self-Destructive Behaviors

These Demons Would Make Themselves Felt at Different Points of Time

And When This Occurred, He Would Cut Himself With Stones and Let Out Ear Splitting Screams

John 10:10 Says “… the thief (Satan) comes only to steal, kill and destroy…”

And So, It Should Not Surprise Us to See That This Man Was Involved in Some Self-Destructive Behaviors (Ex. When People Commit Suicide)

c. This Man Had a Sadistic Temperment

This Was a Violent Man

In Fact, We are Told in Matthew 8:28 That This Man Was so Exceedingly Violent That He Would Not Even Allow Someone to Pass by the Road – Terrorized People

d. This Man Had a Strange Obsession

In Luke 8:27, We are Told That He Ran Around Without Any Clothes On

In Other Words, He Was an Exhibitionist, a Streaker

One of My Seminary Buddies Used to Call Him “A Nude Dude in a Rude Mood”

And of Course, This Should be Regarded as a Shameless and Aberrant Behavior

The Bible is Very Clear About Modesty and Clothing, and Public Nakedness is a Certainly a Sign Sexual Perversion

In Fact, Revelation 3:18 Mentions the Shame of Nakedeness

And Let Me Also Add That This Was Another Way This Man Was Tormented

For You See, It Gets Cold in the Wintertime, and a Person Can Get Seriously Sunburned if Their Body is Not Covered in the Summertime

NOW LISTEN TO ME, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Demonic Possession Does Not Appear to be Directly Related to How Sinful a Person Might Be

In Fact, the Bible Mentions Young People Becoming Demonically Possessed Who Had Probably Not Sinned as Much as Some Who Were Much Older

So, It is More Likely That a Demon or Demons Can Gain Control of a Person’s Life as a Result of a Certain Type of Behavior or a Bridgehead

A Christian, as I Said Early Cannot Become Demon Possessed, But They Can be Demon Oppressed

But Every Non-Christian is Vulnerable

And This is Especially True if They are Involved in Occult or an Addiction of Some Time (Ex. Ted Bundy Became Addicted to Pornography)

II. This Man Was Influenced by Society

1) This Man Had Been Rejected

a. This Man’s Problem Was to Some Extent Psychological

And by That, I Mean That the Doorway, the Entry Point, the Bridgehead That Took Him From Sanity to Insanity, Even the Demonic, Was at Least in Some Way Related to the Rejection That He Had Known All of His Life

b. Luke Tells Us in His Gospel That This Man Was From the City

We are Also Told That He Had a Home and a Family, But He Had Been Rejected by His Family, and His Friends, and His Community

As We All Know, Some Families are Dysfunctional

Jacob’s Family Was Like That

Jacob Had Two Wives Competing for His Affections; This Led to Some Intense Sibling Rivalries That Ultimately Resulted in Joseph Being Rejected by His Brothers and Sold Into Slavery

And Let’s Not Forget That Jesus’ Own Mother, and His Brothers, and His Sisters, Called Him a Madman in Mark 3:21

So, Just as Joseph Had Been Rejected by His Brothers, and Just as Jesus Had Been Rejected by His Brothers and Sisters, This Man Had Also Experienced Rejection

2) This Man Had Been Restrained

Verse 4 Says “He was often bound”

In Other Words, He Had Been the Object of Negative Solutions All of His Life

And in This, We See the Powerlessness of Society as It Faces Satan and Sin

The Society’s Solution is to Restrain

The Society’s Solution is to Incarcerate

You See, This True Story Reminds Us of the Fact That the Society’s Solutions Have Always Been Extremely Limited (In Fact, Today, It Seems That We’re Counting on Slogans are Going to Save Us Example = “Just Say ‘No’” “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” )

Ill: I Heard About a Prisoner Here in Texas Several Years Ago Who Was so Incorrigible That It Was Costing Our State Over $400,000.00 a Year to Keep Him Incarcerated

Controlling This Man Was Extremely Expensive, But This Was the Only Solution That Our Society Could Find

App: Of Course, the Problem With the Solutions of Society is That They Only Deal With Our Social Problems at an External Level

But the Bible Says That All Men are Born Into Sin, All Men Have a Depraved Nature, and Socially Deviant Behaviors Actually Emerge From Within

That is What Jesus Taught Us in Matthew 15:19 When He Said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders”

3) This Man Had Been Renounced

Verse 4 Says “no one was strong enough to subdue him”

This Means That They Had Given Up on “Legion”

They Had Come to the Conclusion That They Couldn’t Reform Him, and They Couldn’t Restrain Him; So, They Came Up With a Compromise

As Long as Legion Stayed in the Tombs, and the Other People Stayed in Town, They Were Willing to Basically Call it a Tie and Leave Him Alone

· Pt = The Society Had Failed to Reform This Man

And I Have Some News for You This Morning

I Believe That, More Often Than Not, the Society Will Fail

In Fact, Even the Society at It’s Best Will Fail

We are Told in Revelation 20:7-8 That at the End of the Millenial Reign of Christ, Satan Will be Released, and He Will Find an Immediate Following of People

· Q.n = Why?

· Ans = Because Even a Utopian Society Cannot Solve the Basic Problem of Mankind For You See, Man’s Basic Problem is That He is Totally Depraved

III. This Man Was Influenced by the Savior

1) Jesus Came to This Man

I Don’t Believe Jesus Did Anything by Accident

Luke 19:10 Says That He Came to Seek and to Save the Lost

And for That Reason, I Believe Jesus’ Plan All Along Was for That Boat to Come to a Stop Right in Front of This Greco-Roman Graveyard

And When Legion Tried His Best to Intimidate Him, Jesus Didn’t Run Away

I Would Not Have Been Surprised if the Disciples Had Run Away, Because They Had Already Been Scared Twice (i.e. Storm at Sea i.e. Jesus Calming the Storm)

The Disciples Might Have Run Away, But Jesus Didn’t Run Away

Instead, Jesus Gave This Man Something That He Might Never Have Experienced in His Entire Life, and That Was Unconditional Love

And That Began When Jesus Called Him “A Man”

He Looked Like a Monster, and He Acted Like a Monster, But Jesus Called Him a Man

2) Jesus Confronted This Man

Jesus Said, “What is Your Name?”

Luke 6:8 Tells Us That Jesus Knew the Thoughts of Men, and John 2:25 Tells Us That Jesus Knew What Was in Man

· Q.n = Jesus Knew Who This Man Was; So, Why Did He Ask Him His Name?

· Ans = I Believe Jesus Had to Get Legion to Own Himself Before He Could Disown Himself

And at This Point, This Man Demonstrated Some Very Disturbing Behavior

Some of His Behavior Seemed to be Controlled by His Human Nature, and Some of His Behavior Seemed to be Controlled by His Demonic Nature

It is Doubtful, for Example, That This Man Would Have Instantly Recognized Who Jesus Was, and That He Would Call Him by Name (Elaborate)

3) Jesus Corrected This Man

And by That, I Mean That Jesus Took Whatever Was Twisted About This Man, and He Straightened It Out

And by Doing So, Jesus Demonstrated That He Had Absolute Authority Over Satan and All of His Demonic Cohorts

The Original Greek Indicates That Jesus Was Already in the Process of Commanding These Demons to Come Out of This Man When They Begged Him Not to Send Them Into the Abyss

· Q.n = Now, What is the Abyss? and Why Were These Demons Afraid of It?

· Ans = Well, Right Now, Some Demons are Allowed to Occupy This Realm, But Other Demons Have Been Considered so Vile That They Have Already Been Incarcerated in This Place That is Called “The Abyss”

The Abyss is a Prison for Demons, and Jesus Has the Authority to Send Them There

· Pt = Jesus Has the Authority to Cast Demons Into the Abyss; These Demons Knew That, and They Were Terrified by This Reality

Now, at This Point, This Event Becomes Very Interesting

And What is Interesting About It to Me is That Jesus Grants Two Apparently Unreasonable Requests, But He Rejects an Apparently Reasonable One

a. Jesus Granted What the Demons Requested

They Asked Jesus to Cast Them Into a Herd of Swine, and This Happened

In Fact, It is Revealed by the Fact This Herd of 2000 Pigs Immediately Stampeded Down a Hill and Started Jumping Into the Sea of Galilee

· Q.n = Why Did Jesus Allow This to Happen?

· Ans = It Revealed His Power Over Demons

In Fact, I Believe the Number is Given Here to Support the Reality of This Man’s Condition

In Other Words, It Shows Us That He Really Was Infested by Legion of Demons

And It Also Revealed the Nature of Demons, Jesus Said in John 10:10 That Satan Has Come ONLY to Steal Kill and Destroy

· St = Someone Once Told Me That This is How We Got “Deviled Ham,” But I’m Really Not Sure About That (Pause)

I do Know, However, That the Greek Here Indicates That Each of These Pigs Jumped Intermittently, One by One Into the Sea

So, Apparently, They Committed “Sueyside” (Pause)

· Q.n = Now Again, Why Did Jesus Grant This Request?

· Ans = I Believe He Also Did It to Comfort This Man

For You See, This Provided Him With a Visual Image That Verified a Spiritual Reality

And by the Way, This is an Excellent Reminder of the Fact That God Values Human Life far More Than He Values Animal Life

In Fact, Not Only Did Jesus Allow Satan to Kill These Pigs, He Also Commanded the Israelites to Sacrifice Thousands of Lambs Just to Illustrate Their Need for a Redeemer

b. Jesus Granted What the People Requested

The Bible Says That, When the Citizens of That Region Learned What Had Happened to These Pigs, They Asked Jesus to Leave

Apparently, They Were More Concerned About Pigs Than They Were About People

So, They Said to Jesus, in Essence, This; They Said, “Jesus, This is How It Is. You Save Souls, But We Sell Sausage. We Cannot Afford to Experience This Kind of a Financial Loss; and So, We Don’t Want You Hanging Around Here Anymore”

They Asked Jesus to Leave, and Jesus Honored Their Request

c. Jesus Rejected What This Man Requested

This Man Who Was Named “Legion” Was Now Clothed and in His Right Mind, and He Wanted to Leave and Follow Jesus

He Was Basically Asking if He Could Come Along and Become One of His Disciples, But Jesus Said, “No”

· Q.n = Do You See Some Grace in That?

· Ans = I Do

Because It Tells Me That, Even Though the Citizens of That Region of Gadara Had Asked Jesus to Leave, Jesus Still Extended His Grace to Them

He Extended His Grace to Them by Commanding This New Convert to go and Share What God Had Done for Him, and This is Exactly What This Man Did

i. One of the Synoptic Accounts Says That Legion Went Home to His Family (Elaborate = Unusual Reunion)

ii. Another Synoptic Account Tells Us That “Legion” Went and Preached in the Region of Gadara

iii. And Still Another Synoptic Account Tells Us That Legion Went and Preached to “the Decapolis” Which Literally Means “Ten Cities”

So, This Tells Us That God Even Used This Man Known as “Legion” to Impact Ten Cities for Christ

And in Mark 5:20, the Bible Says That “Everyone Marveled” (Imperfect Tense)

NOW LISTEN TO ME, ARE YOU LISTENING?

Often Times, When a Person is Genuinely Converted, They Want a Change of Geography Just Like This Man Legion Did, Don’t They?

They are Embarrassed About the Life They Lived Before They Knew the Lord; So, They Want to go to a Place Where No One Knows About Their Past, and That Way They Can Have a New Start

This is Often What They Want, But This is Rarely What Jesus Wants

What Jesus Wanted Was for This Man to go Back to His Family, to go Back to His Community, to go Back and Mingle With Those Who Knew Him Best

Jesus Wanted Those Who Knew All About This Man’s DISINTEGRATION to See His INTEGRATION and to Admit That Only God Could do This

Invitation: Now, I Love This Story, Because It Shows Us What God Can do for Someone Who Has Been Written Off by Society

a. God Can Take a Jacob, a Deceiver, a Supplanter, and God Can Turn Him Into “Israel” - “A Prince With

God”

b. God Can Take a Cursing Fisherman Like Simon Peter and Turn Him Into the Great Preacher of Pentecost

c. And God Can Take a Man Like “Legion” and Use Him to Take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Ten Cities

1 John 3:8 “…The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil”

And That is Exactly What Jesus Did Right Here, Didn’t He?

And I Want You to Notice That It Was an Inside Job

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”

I Have Met a Lot of People in My Time Who Think That They Have to Straighten Their Life Out Before They Can Come to Jesus. But That is Not How It Works

First, a Person Must Come to Jesus; And Then, He Will Straighten Your Life Out, Because It’s an Inside Job