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If you've been with us for a
while, you will recall back in February, we looked at Luke chapter
4 and the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness by Satan. And you may recall that after
failing to get Jesus to sin, to bow down and worship him,
Luke closes the account with these words, when the devil had
finished every temptation, he left him until an opportunity
not more opportune time. It looks like today that one
of those opportune times has come because Jesus is going to
come in great confrontation with a demon-possessed man, possessed
not just by one demon, but a legion of demons. So they, after the
context, the context here in Luke is they have just weathered
this amazing storm. They have seen Jesus still the
sea, still the wind, to rebuke the storm. They've made it through
the other side. of Galilee. They're climbing
out on the shore, and this demoniac man comes running up to them,
yelling and screaming. These guys don't get a break.
They've gone from the fire pan into the fire, and my hope is
that you will be confident in the power of Christ, as you understand,
as did the Demon's Legion, that Jesus Christ is the Son of the
Most High God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we do turn to this scriptural passage that gives us a glimpse
into the dark world, the dominion of Satan, the wickedness that
comes from the fallen angels. And I pray, Lord God, that we
would be like scripture. We would take the devils and
sin and temptation and demons seriously, as seriously as you
do. But we'd also be able to look
to them as a defeated enemy, that we are more powerful than
they because you, the son of the Most High God in the Spirit,
live within us. And we bless you for the strength
that comes in that knowledge. Teach us things from the great
wisdom of the ages today, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.
Please do turn to Luke chapter 8, and we are looking at verses
26 through 39 this morning. It's somewhat of a lengthy passage,
so I'm going to just read as we go along the three component
parts here. You're going to see, and you'll
find this in your home group helps insert, you're going to
see, we're going to look at the lunatic in verses 26 through
29, the legion in verses 30 through 35, and the lessons lost and
learned in verses 36 through 39. So first of all, the lunatic. In chapter 8, verse 26, God says,
Luke writes, Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,
which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on
land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For
a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house
but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out
and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what
have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I beg
you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man. For many a time he had seized
him and was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles,
but he would break free the bonds and be driven by the demon into
the desert. Well, this is the stuff of horror
films, isn't it? I mean, this is a dramatic scene,
especially following the other dramatic scene that the apostles
have just gone through. So they had this frightening
account where they almost get killed by the storm, and then
Jesus calms the storm, and they're more afraid of Jesus than they
are of the uh of the storm and that kind of idea of that that
kind of fear is going to come to us again but they've seen
his power over creation and this is one of the reasons why Luke
includes this account he you he wants to not just leave you
there that he is the creator over creation he is also uh the
one who has power over the forces of evil and of darkness to kind
of set where they are here. They're going to the country
of the garrisons. That is probably in the district of Hippo. It's
one of the major cities of the Decapolis on the other side of
Galilee. Hippo is actually, you can actually walk the streets
of Hippo today. It's up on a great plateau over
Galilee. It's likely that when Jesus talked
about being a city set on a hill, he probably pointed to Hippo
because it would radiate with the sunrise and the sunset so
that all in Galilee could see this glowing city on a hill. It says here, when Jesus stepped
down on land, he's met there from a man from the city who
had demons. There just seems to be this instant
kind of program here. They pull the boat up on the
shore, and then this man comes running out. Now, one of the
things we've seen throughout scripture is that the demonic
activity was at an all-time high, probably not seen this since
then, during the ministry of Jesus Christ. This is Satan's
counter to the ministry of Jesus Christ. He is possessing people. He is sending out his spirits
in to populate that land, to distract them, and to keep them
from coming to faith. in Jesus Christ. So, you know,
it makes you kind of wonder, though, given this setting, is
this man sitting there waiting for people to come to shore so
that he can sort of pounce on them? Now, we understand from
the account in Matthew that there were two demon-possessed men,
but both Mark and Luke seem to want to focus on the chief speaker
here. So, the exhausted disciples, they kind of roll up. They're
probably still wet from the storm at night. The only one who seemed
to get any sleep that night was Jesus. So, they're exhausted
and they come back up into the situation and they're met by
this lunatic. Now, it's interesting that term
lunatic was often used in days gone by. Matter of fact, you
would have lunatic asylums all throughout England to help people
who had mental disabilities. It's considered a now offensive
term, and it really probably is an offensive term. There's
a lot of terms that are considered offensive these days that we
kind of ignore those who were offended in some ways. But this
is probably one, I wouldn't call anybody a lunatic. But a lunatic
would be, have a severe disordered state of mind, they behave wildly
and foolishly and in an uncontrolled manner. So this man certainly
fits that description. It's interesting the word lunatic
comes from the word for moon, luna, because they thought the
different phases of the moon would cause people to have mental
episodes here. So this man's lunacy was actually
spiritual. He is possessed by demons. Now
that's important. Demons are real. Satan is real.
He is a real person, okay, if you want to use that term. And
we live in an age that actually doubts Satan, even though the
evidence of him is everywhere. You can hardly look at the news
without seeing the evidence of Satan. But we believe in one
true God in Trinity. We ought to believe in one true
devil with many, many demons. If you believe that, you're in
something of minority. A recent Gallup poll says that
around half of all the Americans do not believe in a personal
devil. They don't believe in the devil.
And the scary thing about that is about 20 years before, a third
of the people didn't believe in the devil. So you're seeing
an increase in number of people who are doubting the reality
of the devil, but scripture tapes them very very seriously as we'll
see. So for a long time this man wore
no clothes. He had both a shame of nakedness,
but also was exposed to the elements. If you ever camped in the desert,
it gets cold at night, and this man is running around naked.
in the tombs. And he said that he had not lived
in a house, he lived in the tombs. Mark adds that he was constantly
at night and day screaming among the tombs and in the mountains,
which is just terrifying. It's terrifying. Can you imagine
being a real estate agent representing that area? Tommy Davis is trying
to sell a house in this area, you know. Please note the spacious
two car garage. How about the shrubbery out front? They'll take some price off the
top of the house here. I mean, this is just a nightmare,
right? This guy's just out there. They don't know what to do with
him. They've tried to bind him. They've tried to change him. He is out there.
He's insane with demonic activity. And not just one demon, as we'll
see, but many, many demons. David Gooding describes the madman
in the gospel, an extreme example of what satanic forces can do
with a human personality. that has come under their complete
domination. Unlike the Holy Spirit who always
sets man free, develops his personality and increases his self-control
and dignity, satanic forces seem to strive to overpower a man's
personality and ultimately to break down his self-control and
to rob him of all self-respect. Now, y'all, that's important
because the world doesn't take sin seriously. We should. Sin,
sin is the game of the devil. It is the game of satanic forces. It always brings death. It always brings destruction.
It ruins the moment. It ruins the life. It does whatever
it does. If you could just see the demons that are tempting
you, to go down the road of darkness, I think you would be so horrified
you would pursue the light. So it's one of these things that
we have to place ourselves in a position where we can understand
the spiritual forces of wickedness and the heavenly places, as Paul
says in Ephesians, when we are tempted. And I think that will
help motivate us not to go down that road. to develop some self-control,
to show some love, to pursue righteousness, to cultivate habits
of purity in our lives. Otherwise, you've really fallen
into the snare of the devil who hates you, who wants to ruin
your witness. He wants to destroy your family.
And we saw Jesus, He cries out and He falls down before Him.
It's interesting, He actually takes a position of giving reference
here. He falls down before Him. The
devil has already lost the battle before conversation even starts
here. He is compelled. He sees the
Son of Man as a demon. He would recognize the eternal
Son of Man. He sees the Son of Man coming down the beach. He
runs down and falls down in defeat before Him, before anything else. happens. No human could tame
him. No human could keep him bound. They put chains on him.
He broke the chains, and yet Jesus Christ walks on that shore.
Boom! He is completely subdued. He hates God. He hates the Son
of God. He can't stand him, and yet he
has no choice but to bow down and before him. He doesn't love
God, but he recognizes that he is subject to the authority of
the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Now you imagine this scene. What
is going through Peter's mind? What is going through Matthew's
mind? What is going through James's mind as they see this demon coming
down and bow down? before the Son of God. Paul would
tell us later that every knee will bow and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is their great antagonist
and they know that they are in trouble. So he says with a loud
voice, what do you have to do with me and you, Jesus? In other
words, what's going on here? What's your business? You've
come to come, you've come. He kind of knows Jesus has come
to get him. Jesus had an appointment with this demon-possessed man.
He came across the ocean at night in the storm to be able to be
here at this moment. But he says here, Most High God,
He is affirming the deity of Jesus Christ. You will never get better doctrine,
better theology than from a demon. There's no confusion there. They
know exactly who God is. They understand the Trinity.
They understand how someone is saved. And yet, as James says,
the demons believe and they shudder because it condemns them. They
hate God. They want nothing to do with
it, but they understand that He is the Son of the Most High. This is probably not the man's
voice. This is either one or several of the demons speaking
out at this time, just to add some more terror, some more nightmares
there. And then... He says here, I beg
you to not torment me. Isn't that interesting? He recognizes
here's Jesus, even in his human form, is the one who brings judgment
on the world. Matthew adds that you have not
come to torment us before the time. That is, they fear Jesus
is going to cast them into the bottomless pit where there are
some other angels there and where all demons will go. at the end
times. Jesus' half-brother Jude says
this in June 6, "...the angels who did not keep their own domain
but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds
under darkness for the judgment of the great day." Revelation
20.10 says this, "...the devil who deceived them was thrown
into the lake of fire and brimstone, and the beast and the false prophet
were also, and they will be tormented day night forever and ever."
Folks, that's what happens with people who are controlled by
demons. That's what happens to people who sin is not forgiven. I mean, it's very sobering. It's
very sobering. So we actually see it personified
here in this demonic man. They're aware of God's eschatological
timetable, and so they know it's too early. It's not the end time
of man. Jesus is still on the earth here.
In other words, are you changing the timeline here? We know that's
going to happen one day, but are you changing the timeline?
What do you have to do with me? What business do you have with
each other? Why have you come? What's going on here?" They're
just pleading for some information here. God showed up on the beach
and is after them, and they don't know what to do about it. But
he had commanded the unclean spirits to come out of him. So
this ministry sparks this demonic activity. This man that must
have been probably worshiping in pagan temples, perhaps was
extremely immoral, kept skirting over the borders of hell and
opened himself up for demonic activity. But it's interesting,
this man who was terrifying, had to be chained because he
was so violent. He wasn't after Jesus. Jesus
was after him. Jesus was on the offensive. So
we understand this background. Many times he's in chains and
that kind of thing. He breaks these bonds. And no matter how
much people tried to to chain him, only Jesus could actually
free him. It's interesting. There's an
illustration of this. There was a I think he's an Englishman,
an Elliot Warburton. That's gotta be an Englishman.
Elliot's Warburton, right? in 1857 was touring this area
of the world, and he described a similar account of something
that happened here. He wrote in his diary, on descending
from the height of Lebanon, I found myself in a cemetery. The silence
of the night was broken by fierce yells and howlings, which I discovered
proceeded from a naked maniac who was fighting with some wild
dogs for a bone. I bet he missed London at that
point. The moment he perceived us, he
left his canine companions and bounding along with rapid strides,
seized my horse's bridle and almost forced him backwards over
the cliff. That's scary stuff. That's scary
stuff. I mean, you're going through
this bad neighborhood. How do you lock the door on your horse, you know? Cyril
of Alexanders, who was part of the council in Ephesus, who helped
confirm the hypostatic union, described this situation. In
great misery and nakedness, he wandered among the graves of
the dead. He was in utter wretchedness, leading a disgraceful life, deprived
of every blessing, destitute of all society, and entirely
deprived even of reason. You really kind of feel sorry
for this guy, right? I'm not sure how much the town
folks felt sorry for him. Well, enough not to kill him,
I guess. But it's really a pitiful situation.
It's an extreme example, but folks, most of the world is part
of the dominion of darkness. Most of the world, while they
may not be demon-possessed, are heading in this same direction.
Now we see here the legion, a further description of what's going on,
verses 30 through 35. Jesus then asked him, what is
your name? And he said, legion, for many
demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command
them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was
feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them
enter these. So he gave them permission. Then
the demons came out of man and entered the pigs, and a herd
rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When
the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it to the
city and in the country. When people went out to see what
had happened, they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the
demons had gone, sitting at his feet, clothed, and in his right
mind, they were afraid." You ever heard anybody say the Bible's
boring? That ain't boring. That is high drama. That's good
literature. I mean, were you there in your
mind with this? You got this whole herd of pigs thing going
on here? This is a fascinating story,
witnessed by hundreds of people. So Jesus gets into a dialogue
with this demon-possessed man. He says his name is Legion. Of
course, a legion is a military designation of the Roman army.
A legion consists of 6,000 soldiers. Now, whether they were 6,000
or not, we don't know, but at least it's hyperbole for a lot. Two dozen pigs died. Unless there's
a herd mentality, maybe it was at least that many demons here. But legions also kind of talk
about their warlight intentions. They were violent, violent, violent
demons they wanted to destroy. They wanted to sow salt in the
fields of their enemies. As one commentator says, this
was an army of evil living inside of this man. They begged him
not to commit them into the abyss here. Maybe they felt like they
still had work to do. They had to keep this side of
the late pagan worshipping idols. You know, the Apostle Paul says
false worship is the worship of demons. And maybe they were
trying to keep that active. They still had work to do. They
didn't want to face the boss. And while they got cast out,
what do they do? And then they kind of settle on this, this
idea. They're kind of bargaining with
the Lord, trying to get them to show some mercy, to maybe
throw them into the pigs. And Jesus, it's interesting,
Jesus, notice it says, so he gave them permission. Jesus is
in complete control of this situation. You can have confidence in Jesus
in this warfare between good and evil, light and darkness.
He is in complete control of the situation. They have to ask
permission for these things. He goes into this pigs and there's
a lot of ink spilled on why the pigs. I think there's several
reasons. One is it's stunning undeniable
truth that this man is now fixed. These demons are gone. They've
been cast out so that there could be some evidence here. That's
interesting. You might think, I mean, you
businessmen are kind of starting to calculate in your mind how
much pig was wasted on those cliffs going into the ocean.
That's one reason why you attend here at Christ Reformed Church.
I have an answer for you. I preached this sermon several
years ago when we're going through the book of Gospel of Mark. And
we had we actually had a pig farmer who was a member of our
church. So I called Steve Ellis. Steve,
what's the value of 2000 pigs? Well, come to find out a pig
in today's market. Now, of course, this is before
the recent administration where food has doubled in price. But
back then, it was $700 each for a pig. So do the math. Josiah
Ricewig's already done it. $1,400,000 worth of pork just
went flying off of that cliff. So people think, well, that's
cruel to the pigs. Well, that's so valuable and everything. But
isn't that typical of people? They're more concerned about
the pigs than they are the poor demoniac that's been running
around naked in the tombs and has nowhere to go. And this is
the hypocrisy that we see in our nation. I actually looked
up the Bald Eagle Protection Act, 16 U.S.C. 668-668D, enacted
in 1940. If you take a bald eagle feather, it can be a $100,000 fine. And
yet, we now have available at CVS and at Walgreens an abortion
pill that you can get probably for free. So we protect a bald
eagle feather with 100,000... I'm all for protecting bald eagles.
Bald eagle feather for $100,000 and yet you can abort your baby. So when the culture starts complaining
about Jesus and the pigs, we look to what happened and how
this demoniac was freed. So the herdsmen saw this, they
saw the whole encounter, they run to the town. I mean, everybody
knew this guy. He was like local celebrity in
a bad way, right? He was the Otis Campbell of Mayberry
of this particular town. He was always in trouble, always
creating issues and everything. They come back, the whole town
comes out. They want to see this for themselves.
There's all these bobbing pigs. I mean, it's just a crazy scene. And there's the man, calm in
his right mind. And what's he doing? He's sitting
at the feet of Jesus, calm and in his right mind. The demons
are gone. This man's being converted. He's
now a Christian. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5,
if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things
passed away. Behold, new things have come.
That's true for every one of you. But boy, is it true with
this man, no longer identified with Satan, but with Christ,
no longer a son of hell, but a child of God. And like you,
he's sitting at the feet of Jesus. Teach me. I submit to your authority. You are my Lord. I know what
I know what it's like working for Satan. I want to devote my
life to you." He's clothed and he's in his right mind. The work
as every time Jesus does a healing is complete. This is the greatest
transformation you actually see in all of Holy Scripture. And
what's the people's response? this is great. Look at him. Look
how good Bill looks, you know. Let's help him get back. Tell
us about what happened here so that we can worship the Lord.
That's not what happened, is it? They were afraid. They were terrified. In some ways, they were more
frightened now than they were when this guy was running around
having to be chained and screaming and that kind of thing. So you
got here in this dramatic, maybe one of the most dramatic stories
in all scripture, lessons lost and lessons learned in verses
36 through 39. And those who had seen it told
them how the demon possessed man had been healed. Then all
the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked
him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.
So he got into the boat and returned. And the man from whom the demons
had gone out begged that he might be with them. But Jesus sent
him away saying, return to your home and declare how much God
has done for you. And he went away proclaiming
throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
What an end to this story. So basically they got this eyewitness
accounts and everything and they're seeing this idea and you think,
well, I mean, why wouldn't they get converted? Why wouldn't they
get saved? Why? Well, because they're seized
with great fear. Phobia is what they are experiencing. Why? Because Jesus is so good
and Jesus is so holy. because sinful people before
a holy God are terrified of the holy God. You know why they killed
Jesus? Not because he was so bad. They
didn't have any evidence of any sin he'd ever committed. They
killed him because he was so good. You know why they persecute
Christians? Not because you're so bad. It's
because you're holy. You're associated with Christ. So you've got you've got this
terrible situation here. where the whole town is missing
this living sermon that's happening right there. J.C. Ryle, the Anglican bishop, says
this, they cared nothing for Jesus but that their swine were
drowned and their hope of gain was gone. They ignorantly regarded
Jesus as the one who stood between them and their prophets, and
they only wished to get rid of them. English poet John Axenholm
said this in a line of poetry. Rabbi be gone, thy powers bring
loss to us and ours. Our ways are not as thine. Thou
lovest men, we swine. How sad. The economic loss made
them lose their opportunity for eternal salvation. So they move
away from him. They don't like him because he's
holy. And what do they do? Well, they said leave. And Jesus
left. Jesus left. In Revelation, chapter
three, Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door at knock. If anyone
hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and
eat with him. And he with me, the one who conquers,
I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered
and sat down with my father on his throne. Jesus is there. Old Testament scriptures tell
us that for those who earnestly seek him, they will find God.
He's there. He's there. But there's a time when he stops
knocking. There's a limit to repentance. A lot of especially
young people, they think, yeah, yeah, I can see the value of
church and settling down and all this kind of stuff. But I'm
not done sinning yet. They don't say it that way, but that's what
they mean. I want to I want to sow some
wild oats before I get settled down. You may never have that
opportunity. Besides, that sin is actually making things worse
and could even end up killing you. The time of salvation is
today. The time of salvation is here. Don't be like these people and
chase Jesus off because you are more concerned about the swine
than you are your own soul. Then we see that's the lesson
lost. Then we see the lesson learned here. The man begged. It's interesting
here that the demons begged Jesus not to torment him. The people
begged that he leave. And now this man is begging to
go with him. And this is confusing to us,
right? I mean, I mean, talk about your missionary opportunity here.
OK, here's a guy that was demon possessed and he's part of the
team now. Let's make him one of these apostles, right? But
Jesus had a better plan. Ministry begins at home. He says,
no, you stay here. You've got a testimony. That
testimony will diminish the further away from you get from home.
You stay here and you share the gospel. And he says he went away
throughout the whole city and telling everybody what Jesus
had done for him. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? Isn't
that part of our testimony? We're telling people what Jesus
did for us. What a wonderful, wonderful thing
it is. The people rejected him, this demon-possessed man who
will never be considered that again, but a Christian gave him
his entire life. James Montgomery Boyce of the
10th Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia said this, We may not be possessed
by demons, literally, but we are possessed by an evil spirit
of sin, that is, of our own evil natures. Our sin leads us to
various acts of violence, as the demons did in the case of
these poor men. It drives us from the company of other human
beings. It is even right to say that we are dying people living
among the dead people, for life apart from Jesus Christ is a
graveyard. There is no natural hope of being
saved unless Christ comes first. Mark adds at the end of his story,
and everyone was amazed. I bet they were. What a precious
account. So, We gotta keep thinking about
our own situation. Scripture tells us we need to
be honest about our fallen nature. Romans 8 says that we're hostile
towards God. Ephesians 2 says that we are
dead in our trespasses and sins. 2 Corinthians says that the God
of this world has blinded the minds of evil, blinded the minds
of unbelievers. And yet, we can have power over
Satan. We can have power over hell. We can have power over
all of the demons in Jesus Christ. I think about how this story
captures the point in Charles Wesley's famous hymn, And Can
It Be That I Should Gain. I've been singing this hymn for
30 years, and I get choked up every time I come to this point,
because I remember my days living in the fraternity house, living
for the flesh, living for the weekend, living for Saturday
night instead of Sunday morning. Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening
ray. I awoke, the dungeon flamed with
light. My chains fell off. My heart
was free. I arose, went forth and followed
Thee. Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst
die for me? If you're not a believer in Jesus
Christ, you're on the side of the demoniac and all those demons.
If you want to become a Christian today, come see me after the
service of worship and let's talk about how you might be set
free as well. Father, we do love you and we
praise you for the truth of Holy Scripture, God, the account witnessed
by myriads of people. And we will meet this man one
day, a man saved in a radical way. Most of our testimonies
are not as dramatic, praise God. And yet it is still no less a
miracle that you would save any of us. We thank you for the light
that comes, the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I pray that that
light would shine and this church would be a lighthouse of this
kind of hope in Christ's name. Amen.
The Lunatic and Legion - Luke 8:26-39
Series Luke - Dr. Campbell
Sunday Morning Service, September 1, 2024
| Sermon ID | 911241924402716 |
| Duration | 31:44 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Luke 8:26-39 |
| Language | English |
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