Welcome to the Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Well, this is an interesting story. We've all heard this many, many times. And I'm hoping you come away with something a little different today. The first thing I want to do is give you the setting of the story. What we're going to do is look a little bit at some of the Greek words to see if we can learn a little bit more about what is going on here. And by the way, if you have a bookmark, you might just put a bookmark in Luke chapter 8, verses 26 to 39, because that's the parallel account that we will look at a few times in the sermon. So we read in verse 1 in the Mark passage, it says, Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes, you may say Gerasenes, it's the same place. And the Luke account in verse 28 says, which is opposite Galilee. So the setting of the story, we have two places listed, named, described. The first place is Galilee. This is Jesus' home. I don't know how you are when you look at pictures of the promised land, but I always am left a little wanting. It doesn't look all that beautiful to me. I always, as I've said, it looks a little bit like Barstow to me, and I don't see the beauty in the promised land. But that does not describe Galilee, which was Jesus' home. Galilee was beautiful. Josephus says, the soil is universally rich and fruitful, full of plantations of trees of all sorts. It is all cultivated by its inhabitants and no part of it lies idle. So it's filled with trees, filled with vineyards, filled with produce. It's beautiful. And to the north is Mount Hermon. And feel free to Google Mount Hermon when you get home a little later. You'll see ski resort, a ski resort on the top of Mount Hermon. And Jesus could see this from his home. We don't picture Galilee or the Promised Land being like that, but it was a beautiful place. And of course, a big lake, the Sea of Galilee to the east. The other place mentioned is the area of the Gadarenes, the Gerasenes. It's also known as the Decapolis. The Decapolis was an aligned area of 10 cities. And so where Galilee is beautiful, the Decapolis is the opposite of that. It's ugly, but it's morally ugly. The Decapolis is occupied by Greeks, by Romans, and by certain Jews. And Grotius, the historian, says this about those Jews. In that country, there were many apostate Jews. who had thrown themselves out of covenant with God and had thereby given Satan power over them. So this is the Decapolis where Jesus goes. It's morally putrid and ugly. And interestingly, the Romans, when they sacrificed animals to their gods for atonement, guess what they sacrificed? Pigs. Those pigs that were there on the hillside, we learn later in the story, were most likely being used for sacrifices in the temples. So to get to the Decapolis from Galilee, Jesus has to cross the Sea of Galilee. And the trip to get there is none other in this instance the trip where Jesus' boat almost sinks. It's the same trip. It's the same trip across the great storm and he arrives on the other side. So Christ leaves the shores of his beautiful home through the storm. And he goes across the pagan land that is filled with wretchedness. And by the way, this is Jesus' very first foray into the Gentile territories, his first trip. This is it, the first one that's being recorded for us. Now, in taking a step back, I want to remind you what this is a picture of for us is the picture of Jesus coming from his beautiful home in heaven. And we see these shadows all throughout the scriptures, and you do well to look for them. Jesus comes from his beautiful home in heaven. He crosses this impossible gulf, the incarnation. He lands on the shores of our earth. Sinful, putrid, filled with sin. Now the other thing this reminds us of is election. No one invites him to the Decapolis. He goes on his own accord. He crosses. And he goes to save, and it's the story you'll see, to rescue one man. He risks the trip across to save one man. No one invites him. Of course, this is what he's done for you and me in our salvation. Let's take a look at this man now. We're going to put the pieces together from the Greek of what he was before we find him in the tombs. I don't know how you are with this guy, but I've always been tempted to view him as the town drunk. Kind of the town homeless guy that pushes the shopping cart around and he's just kind of the crazy mumbling guy. But I want to show you a few things if you look at verse 2 in the Mark passage. It says this, and when he came out of the boat, immediately there came and met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. The Luke passage in verse 27, it adds something a little different. It says, I met him a man from the city. The mark word for man is anthropos. It just simply means human being, a human being, a male human being comes to meet him. But the word in Luke is different, it's the word aner. And it's the word that's most often translated husband. You know the Ephesians passage, husbands love your wives, it's aner. And we learned that in all likelihood, this man had been married. This was a man that had been married, he had a life before he was in the tombs. He also says he lived in the cities. In other words, he used to have neighbors. He used to live around others. So he used to be a husband. He used to have neighbors. We also learn in verse 27 of Luke, where it says he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house, but in the tombs. The word house that Luke uses is oikia. He could have used oikon. And the word oikon just means a building. He used to live in a building in the city. But the word oikia means household. It's not building, it's household. He used to live in a household. It implies family. This guy used to be a husband, more than likely he had neighbors, he had a family, lived in a house, lived in the city. If you're still in the Luke if you've got your finger or bookmark there verse 29 B It says this he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles Until I looked at this verse. I always I always pictured this being the magistrates the cops that were locking this guy up but the word guard is the word phylos manos. And everywhere else it's translated protect. It's the word we have in 2 Thessalonians that says, 2 Thessalonians 3.3. He shall establish you and keep you from evil. Keep is this word phylos manos. And we get a little different picture. Who was locking this guy up? More than likely his friends protecting him from his self. He was being guarded. So here's a man, he was a husband, lived in a house, probably had a wife, probably had a family, had friends who were helping him. Who is this guy? He is Joe Ordinary. He's like any one of you or me. Men, he's like you. Women, he's you. He's ordinary man and woman. Ordinary person. He's not, in the beginning of the story, the town drunk. So he's just like you and me. But something goes terribly wrong for this man. Something goes terribly wrong. And so, let's take a look at the condition of this man as he's living in the tombs. In the Mark passage, verse 2, it says this, When he had come out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. Now, the word spirit is pneuma. It's the word that describes the you that lives inside your body. Pneuma. Kind of an interesting thing that as I was preparing this, I realized in the issue of possession, if you're a Christian today, you know that you're possessed, you're possessed by the Holy Pneuma. And the Holy Pneuma lives inside of your body with your Pneuma. You get that picture? So possession, by the way, is a great thing. This kind of possession is not, but we're supposed to be possessed by the Holy Pneuma. The Holy Pneuma is supposed to live in our body with our Pneuma. We're supposed to be fellowshipping together. That's the picture. But this man, he is dwelt by an unclean Pneuma, an unholy Pneuma, a cathartic Pneuma. So we have this situation where the man is being dwelt by something that should not be there. The question comes, how did that thing get there? I don't know how all of you grew up viewing Demon Possession. I always, watching the movies I shouldn't have as a kid, I always pictured you could just be in the wrong place at the wrong time and pow! You know, you're playing with your Ouija board and pow! Right, Sven? I always viewed Demon Possession like that, but as I looked through this, I found not one instance where it was just this accidental, wrong place, wrong time, oh, you've got an unclean pneuma in you. They need permission. And we even get a little hint of this in the Mark 12 passage where the demons beg him saying, ask that they can enter the pigs. And Jesus gives them epitresin. He gives them permission. And so at some point in this man's life, it appears he gives permission. And he's possessed by this unclean pneuma. He opens himself up. He underestimates the danger, which is the essence of every time you and I sin, isn't it? We underestimate it. We say one more time, we underestimate it, don't we? So he makes this decision. But not only that, not only is he possessed when he opens himself up, We learned something interesting in the Mark passage, verse 3. Speaking of the chains, it says, no one could bind him any more with chains. The word anymore is aukēta, and it means not anymore. In other words, there was a time the chains could bind him, but they couldn't anymore. There was a time when they could. And if you even go back, there might have been a time where ropes could bind him, but not anymore. And maybe before that, there was a time where words of admonishment could bind him, but not anymore. And so here he is. It's gotten worse and worse and worse and worse till he is now possessed with legion. What started out as a permission granting something to come into him, it has gotten worse and worse and worse. This man who was a husband, who had a family, who lived in a house, who had friends, here he is. Progressive. And now he's helpless. And as a result of this, this man does the unthinkable. He loses everything. And it should be clear to you, isn't this what sin does to us? We lose. When mankind sins, he loses. When Adam sinned, look what he lost. He exchanged his life for death. So what does he lose? The first thing he loses is his mind. We're going to look at this word, sopranounta, a little later in the sermon, where he has a sound mind. Remember at the end of the story, he's sitting there with a sound mind at the feet of Jesus. So we know the first thing he loses is his mind. And as we choose sin, we lose our mind. Our conscience goes away. Our thinking straight goes away. We exchange a sound mind for a foggy, drunken, darkened, sick, falling mind, failing mind. Second thing he loses is his covering. He loses his mind, then he loses his covering. We learn in Luke 27. For a long time he had worn no clothes. And we know from the Garden of Eden that public nakedness is a picture of the curse of God. Covering is always good. And by the way, as an aside, I think that's one of the things that head coverings show is the blessing and covering of God. I'm not going to talk about that today. But it's an amazing picture when you see the picture of covering all through the Scriptures. It's always a blessing. It's a protection. And I believe when a woman wears a head covering, it's showing this kind of covering. Here's the man, he's forsaken everything. He's forsaken, he's lost his mind, he's lost his covering, and he's lost his home. Can you imagine? Picture your house right now and imagine exchanging your nice warm bed at night with your favorite comforter. And you're going to make a decision to exchange it to go live in the cemetery. Who would do that? And yet that's what sin does to us. That's what this man did. He exchanges living in a home with people to living in a home whose new neighbors were dead people. He lives with dead people. He exchanges his neighbors for them. He exchanges household. to live in a town of dead people and caskets and bones and stench. And that's what sin really is. It's choosing to live there rather than where God tells us to live. And so this is the sad state of where a man is in the story. So before we go on, I want to do a little application. I'm going to take the biblical knife out and cut you a little bit. Because we underestimate sin. We underestimate the cost of sin, just like Adam did. He didn't think it was going to do that. Did he? And when we always say, and I know this, when we sin, we do just, you know, when we give in to sin, we say, just one more time, just one more. That's what we do. We don't think we're ever going to do it again, but just this one more time. And what we do is we minimize sin by giving it other names. We rename sin. I mean, you have the statements like, to err is human. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say, to sin is human? And I'm convinced that all sin, if you boil it down, if you want to have this real simple picture in your mind of what is sin, it's selfishness, idolatry. It's you standing up on this pulpit and saying, I am it, and having the whole world revolve around you. So I want you to think about a guy like Steve Jobs, then. Think about Steve Jobs. How do you look at Steve Jobs? You know, most of us, if we're businessmen, George, we look at him as pretty successful. We look at innovation, don't we? We say, wow. But if you could take biblical glasses and look at Steve Jobs, you know what you'd see? You'd see a man living in the tombs. You'd see a man dwelling in the stench of death. You'd see a man who gave up progressively, little by little by little by little, what could have been life, he exchanges it for death. But because we look through worldly eyes, we see a great man. He was a dead man. And I see minimizing sin, little by little, producing this. And I want to ask you a question. Do you, dads, do you see idolatry as something your children are just going to grow out of? It's just a phase. Your little two-year-old, your little three-year-old is just going to grow out of it. And don't say, don't say no. I don't view it as it because your actions show what you really believe. What you do shows, I don't care what you say. What you do shows what you believe. Let me give you a few instances of what I see. I'll just start with CVP. Here's what I see at CVP. I see kids rushing to the table afterwards when we have our fellowship lunch, not caring anything about anyone behind them. I see plates mounted with food. And I see dads doing nothing. I see kids running in the midst of older people in the church at CDP, playing hide-and-go-seek under the tables, running in and out, not caring anything about anyone around them. Two, three weeks ago, I heard a story of a boy who had gone into our bathroom. Gone into the bathroom, stall, locked the door, crawled out under and thought it was funny. What is that? It's idolatry. And you ask parents, what are the lots of faiths they're going through? Or we'll rename our issues, oh, my child's a tantrum. Or they have attention issues. They have issues. And we'll rename sin with medical or psychological issues. And you know what you're doing when you do that? You're creating sons and daughters that are heading towards living in the tombs like this man. That's what you're doing. You're raising a child that's an idolater to go live in the tombs. That's what we're doing. Let's be honest here. Now, I don't know what issues you have here, but I guarantee you, and I should say about the boy that went in that soul, where was dad? Where were you, dad? Where were you? I mean, you're supposed to be watching and raising our children. Are we really protecting ourselves against raising sons that end up in the tombs? Then do something. And you'll see this when any Sunday, you have an opportunity to see how your kids act going through the line. You have an opportunity to see how your kids play together. Are you allowing them to engage in idolatry? Or are you just saying it's a phaser going through? They're learning how to play with others. I want to exhort you that you don't... And by the way, this is Darwinism. If you're doing this, at least be honest with yourself and say, I come to church, but I really believe in Darwinism. And my kids just grow out of this. If you're really a Christian, do something about this. Start today, go home today, and vow that you'll never allow your children to go down the path of idolatry again. Start doing something about it. Well, back to our story. Let's see what happens here. First thing I want you to see is this man tries three things to fix his problem. First thing he tries is found in verse four of Mark. And it's, they try to chain and shackle him. Well, what is this a picture of for us in the gospel? This guy tries the law. Chain and shackles is a picture of when, outside of the context of the covenant, outside of the context of the covenant, a sinful man takes the law and says, this will fix my problem. Matthew Henry said, the commands of the law are as chains and fetters to restrain sinners from their wicked course, but they break those chains asunder. So the law is not going to fix a man without the gospel of Jesus Christ. The second remedy he tries, he tries to scream it out. He tries psychology. It describes him, day and night, he was in the mountains and the tombs crying out and cutting himself with stones. He's using scream therapy. He's punching the wall. He thinks that's going to fix the problem. The law won't fix this man's problem. Screen therapy won't fix this man's problem. And by the way, you certainly wouldn't find the scripture giving either of those two as the solution to your problem. Third thing he does, he's cutting himself. He's mutilating himself. Verse five. This is a pagan practice. And I think this is a picture of man-made religion being used to fix the problem. Matthew Henry says this, the devil is a cruel taskmaster to those who are led captive by him. He's a perfect tyrant. This wretched creature was crying and cutting himself with stones, either bemoaning his own deplorable case or in a rage of indignation against heaven. Men in frenzies often wound and destroy themselves. The voice of God is, do yourself no harm. The voice of Satan, do yourself all the harm you can. And yet God's word is despised and Satan's word is regarded and embraced. So when we try to use the law to solve our problems, psychological techniques, man-made religion, all these can change outside actions a little bit, but they can't change the inside. This man needed an encounter with Jesus Christ. And so what we see in verse 6 of Mark, an amazing picture. It says, when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped Him. That's funny, because we're told that every time he would run away in a rage. Here he's running towards Christ. How can that be? It says, many a time it seized him, and it said he'd be driven by the demon into the desert. He was always running away. And here in this scene, Jesus lands on the shore, and it's this picture of the moment Jesus gets out, this guy's running towards Him. How can that be? The demon was always driving him away. Let me ask you a theological question. Did this man have the free will to come to Jesus Christ? Did he? Hasn't the Holy Spirit told us he had no power to come to Christ? The demon was always driving him away. This to me is one of the strongest pictures of irresistible grace. Here's this guy. The demon doesn't want to come to Jesus Christ. And yet somehow this guy is running full board to Jesus. I actually think we see two great doctrines here. We see total inability. didn't have the ability to come, we see irresistible grace. We see election. We see everything right here as this man runs towards him. And so breathtakingly, Christ acts on behalf of this man. He journeys across the sea. His boat almost sinks. He comes to rescue one man out of the grip of Satan. He enables him to run and worship him and he puts forth his power for his relief. And how does he do this? He does it by casting this man's wretchedness into the depths of the sea. The very next scene. Let me let me let me finish this, I wanted to read something I missed here. He acts on behalf of this man, as I said, in Mark 13, it says, You know what this is? I want you to absorb this. What was just described for you and me is the cross. I want you to get a picture of this. The swine running down with this man's, it's a picture of a sin nature, his wretchedness, his sin, is put in the substitute and they go plowing into the water. It's a picture of the cross. And one other thing I want you to have a picture of here. I've thought about this a lot. When we talk about Jesus being the Lamb of God, the innocent Lamb of God, He was that, but not while He was on the cross. When he was on the cross, he was wretched. It almost sounds blasphemous to say this, but it's true. We see in John 3 that he was like a serpent that Moses lifted up. Serpent's a picture of Satan. As Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, goes on the cross, he becomes unclean. He becomes like a snake. And in this, he's like the pigs, the cursed animals. And he bears those sins and rushes them into the ocean. And I'm reminded of that great verse in Micah, who is a God like you? Pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. Does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins where? Depths of the sea. This is a picture of the cross. It's one of my favorite pictures of the cross. Now in the very next scene, which I got a little ahead of myself. We read in Luke 35, verse 35, it says this, Luke uses the word, in his passage, the word healed. It's an interesting word. This man is healed. It's esothe. It's the same word that our Baptist friends would use as saved. He got to be saved. It's saved. It's esothe. This man was healed. I don't know if you've ever looked at the word saved like healed, but that's in fact the same word in the scriptures. He's saved. How do we know that this man was saved? Well, in an inward change, certainly. He also had an outward change. You can't get away from that, can you? It has to be an outward change. How is this man different on the outside? First thing is it says he's sitting at the feet of Jesus. It's just an interesting term in the Hebrews' mind. It's the same as saying, I want to be your disciple. It'd be the same way you would say, I want to sit at the feet of George. It would be like saying, I want to be George's disciple. I know he doesn't want that, but it would be the same thing that this man is saying here. He's sitting at the feet of Jesus. He's sitting at the feet of a master saying, I want to learn and be used by this master. So his posture, think about how different his posture is. It's changed. So you can see on the outside what's happening on the inside. Second thing it says the man's in his right mind. Sober minded. So not only is he sitting in a posture before Jesus, he's changed. It says his mind has changed. His posture has changed. His mind has changed. And one other little detail. His clothing has changed. It says he's now fully clothed. He looks different. He doesn't look the same as he was before. He looks different. Now, I want you to imagine something. Imagine the city coming out. Here's the guy sitting at the feet of Jesus. I want you to imagine him saying, I'm in my right mind unchanged and sitting at the feet of his master, but he's still sitting there naked. Wouldn't you say, there's something, I see the right mind in the city, but something's not right here. Wouldn't you say that? Wouldn't you say that there would be a change? Imagine him saying, oh, I'm glad I'm healing. Jesus, you want to come have a meal over in the tomb with me? Let's go in the tomb and sit down at this casket. Well, he'd go, no, his place needs to change, his clothing, his mind. And here's the point. A simple gospel that we hear much about today, the simple gospel, if it does not change you, it is not the gospel. Period. We hear and see many people, don't we, talking about the simple gospel, and you're looking at them going, it'd be like this man going, something's not quite right. And you'll hear, well, don't look on externals. And yet, this man's externals have completely changed, haven't they? And we hear, don't look on externals. The gospel, just the real gospel, changes the inside and the outside. The gospel that does not change you is no gospel. Imagine Christ coming to save this man and not caring anything about how he looked or lived or where he was afterwards. It just went back to Galilee. Jesus didn't do that. I'm going to challenge you. You say you've encountered Jesus Christ. You're sitting here in a very conservative, very liturgical little congregation. You say you're a Christian. Have you really encountered Christ like this man? How are you different than the world around you? Can anybody look and see a difference? And if not, maybe you are still living in the land of death. Because Christ came to free us from all of that. He came to unbind us. Parents, I spoke to you a little bit earlier. I speak to all of us. We've got kids at all different ages. Are we raising idolaters? Don't kid yourself anymore. Take this stuff seriously. Take this stuff seriously. Are we raising covenantal children? Are we raising Philistines? Stop. Today, let's raise covenantal children. So if you've been doing that, I call on you to repent of that and to take sin seriously. So it's a great story with the epilogue. I love. So we have in verse 18 to 20, if you take a look in Mark, it says this, And then when he, when Jesus got in the boat, he who had been demon possessed, begged him that he might be with him. However, an interesting thing, he wants to follow him. What a great, what a great heart. Let him, right? And Jesus says, no, go home. He didn't say Jesus did not permit him, but said, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he's had compassion on you. And he departed and began to proclaim in the Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him and all marveled. So this man, is the first Gentile missionary. He predates Paul. It's the first missionary that goes out. Imagine having a guy like this go in your church. He's a deacon in your church. And the young boys, they don't go, tell us again about when you lived in the tombs. And all the great stories, you know, but he was he was more than likely somebody's deacon, maybe even somebody's elder eventually. And he could he could tell the story, you know, But here's the epilogue. For the next year and a half, if you put the timeline together, for the next year and a half, and Jesus goes back home, by the way, it's dramatic how he comes, raves a storm, saves one man and goes right back. One man. One man. And for the next year and a half, this man is proclaiming the good news in Decapolis. The very next time Jesus comes back over, about a year and a half later, there's 4,000 Gentiles waiting for him. 4,000 Gentiles greeting him to hear his words. So when Jesus sent him back, he knew what he was doing. The gospel always goes forth successfully and brings freedom. What about you? We need to be faithful like this man spread the gospel. But one warning again, I'm going to speak to us, men and women, moms and dads, first things first. You better not be evangelizing the world if you are not first evangelizing your own home. Don't go down to the mission. until you've done it at home first. You are not here to raise idolaters and to go and save the guys down at the rescue mission. That's ridiculous. I mean, that's nonsense. Let's do first things first. We raise our families. We raise covenantal Christian children. And then now you can do it simultaneously. But I'm saying first things first, your children, your home first. So with these words, I'll close the service this morning. Return to your home. Tell your family and friends what great things the Lord has done for you. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material here within, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Elk Grove, California. Furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at NathanClarkGeorge.com