Power Over the Darkness

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, our sermon text today comes from Mark 5, verses 1 through 20, and this is also from the NLT. So they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him. This man lived among the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as often as he was, he snapped the chains from his wrists and he smashed the shackles.

[0:38] No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek he screamed, Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don't torture me. For Jesus had already said to the spirit, Come out of the man, you evil spirit.

[1:15] Then Jesus demanded, What is your name? And he replied, My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man. Then the evil spirits begged him again, and again, not to send them into some distant place. There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. Send us into those pigs, the spirits begged. Let us enter them. So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.

[1:57] The herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there, fully clothed and perfectly sane. And they were all afraid.

[2:23] Then those who had seen what happened told the others about the demons, and the pigs. And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. But Jesus said, No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you, and how merciful he has been. So the man started off to visit the ten towns of that region, and began to go. He began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed at what he told them.

[3:04] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We ask your blessing upon this word. May your Spirit speak to our hearts and our minds. May our eyes be opened. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[3:25] So we are in week one. We are in week three of our series on miracles. And today is a hard day, I think, to digest. We have to come to terms with the fact that demons exist. But while we live in a spiritual world, it's really strange to think about, because we're physical people, and we're limited by our sight that only perceives physical things. We don't always want to acknowledge the spiritual things either. We especially don't want to acknowledge the dark spiritual things. But there is a great spiritual battle happening in and around us constantly. And we could never begin to fully understand it. It's already difficult for us as practical 21st century people who are influenced by realism and science, to accept the testimony of miracles. But when we think of miracles that are involving exorcism of demons, our acceptance tends to just fly right out the window. And yet the Bible is filled with talk of these spiritual battles. Job was a faithful man, but he was struck with tragedy after tragedy in his life. And physical afflictions, all because Satan decided he wanted to do battle for his soul.

[5:01] And Elisha's eyes were opened when he saw a spiritual battlefield filled with chariots of fire fighting for him. Ephesians 6.12 tells us, For our struggle is not against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm, sorry, for our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

[5:32] And the surrounding verses in Ephesians 6 tell us to put on the armor of God so that we can be prepared to fight spiritual battles that we face. But the most convincing evidence of all that demons exist is that Jesus Christ himself believes in them.

[5:54] He senses their presence. He knows what they're about. He knows their ploys and their schemes. He understands their destruction. He speaks to them. And in return, they believe in him. They call him by his name and his title, which we saw earlier when Adele read this in Mark 1. The demon first called him Jesus of Nazareth, acknowledging his humanity, that he is from a place on this earth. But then in the very next breath, it called him the Son of God.

[6:34] They know who he is. They know what he came to do and what he is capable of. And they know enough to be terrified of him. We don't. We tend to dismiss it. C.S. Lewis said that there are two equal bodies, but opposite errors we can fall into concerning Satan and his demons. And the first is to disregard and disbelieve in their existence.

[7:04] But the second is to believe in them and to have an unhealthy interest in them. Spiritual warfare exists. Demons exist. But we cannot say that demonic possession is to blame for every sickness or mental illness or sin that we encounter.

[7:25] We are not helpless against demons or demonic possession. And Jesus is the reason why. 1 John 4.4 says, Greater is he who is in us than he who is in this world. We have Christ on our side. And these accounts of Christ casting out the impure spirits are not just nice stories that make us feel good. They are proof that Jesus is the ultimate victor over the spiritual realm.

[7:59] Satan is no match for God. They are not equivalent beings. They are not dual deities, one representing good and the other representing evil. If you think of cartoons with an angel and a devil on your shoulder, that's not how it works. They are not equal. Satan is a created being. He is a fallen angel. And he is fully subject to God's power and authority.

[8:28] The demons in our passage today thought they could have power over Jesus. Sure, they were afraid. But there were many of them. There were so many of them. And they called Jesus by name. They thought that might do the trick because calling somebody by name was a symbol of authority over a person. But Jesus didn't need to know their name. He didn't need to know their name to expel them. Even though he asked their name, he maybe asked their name for the benefit of the people who were in this Gentile area who had not had faith in God so that they could see God's power at work over an entire legion of evil spirits. But the point is that this entire legion of spirits threw everything they had at Jesus and they were no match at all.

[9:21] All that being said, without Christ, we would be powerless against these beings. And that is why Jesus casting out demons is not just miraculous, but it might possibly be one of the greatest miracles that we encounter. So Hans-Erik used some physics equations to put into perspective the sheer magnitude of Jesus' miracles of provision. And that was spectacular. But there is no equation and no scale to demonstrate how powerful Jesus must be to put in place beings who are capable of defying all the laws of physics and all the laws of this world as we know it. And that was probably why the people were truly terrified of Jesus after he cast the demons from this man. On the one hand, we can say they were afraid because he cost them money in the destruction of their livestock. But the scripture doesn't say that they were greedy. It doesn't say that they were angry. It says they were afraid.

[10:30] This miracle was so great, so beyond comprehension, that they were terrified. They had learned to live with what was demonic and broken in the world. It was hard, but they managed to deal with it. But here was somebody who had power, even over the demons.

[10:52] Not only that, but when Jesus asked for the name of the demon, the response was legion. In ancient Rome, a legion referred to about 6,000 foot soldiers plus over 100 horsemen. So with just a few words, one man, Jesus, cast an entire 6,100 of these things.

[11:21] 6,100 of these unseen and horrifyingly terrible, powerful beings was cast out just by one man. And it was obvious that Jesus had untold amounts of power over these terrible, terrible beings. But these beings had power over the people.

[11:43] So what did that mean for Jesus' power over the people? And that terrified them, because what could Jesus do to the people with that power? They were more than happy to live life suffering, because they knew that suffering. It was bad, but it was familiar.

[12:02] Jesus' power and authority brought something unknown, and for all they knew, it could potentially be worse. They didn't know that he brought freedom. They only saw the immense power over the darkest forces, and they trembled. So this poor man, who was possessed by a legion of demons, is really a microcosm. He was forced into the darkness and brokenness. He was dehumanized. To the Jews, he was about as unclean and vile as a human being could get.

[12:36] He was a Gentile. He lived near pigs and pig farmers, which was an unclean thing to do in the Jewish opinion. He was unclean. They were unclean animals to the Jews, but he was also driven to madness. And through that madness, he was driven to live away from his family, away from society, and instead he dwelled amongst the burial caves, the graveyards. To be in a graveyard amongst the dead made Jewish people unclean. So to the Jews, some translations, like the NLT, says that he howled when he cut himself with rocks. That isn't a human sound.

[13:24] Howling is the sound of beasts. So this darkness that overtook him, made him unclean, made him inhuman, made him destroy himself. And he's a microcosm, because that is humanity. Everything that this man was, represents humanity in the fallen world we live in. We're all under the curse of Satan in this world. And because of that, our very humanity is marred and challenged. We live partial lives because of the darkness and brokenness that Satan unleashed over us. We seek that which will destroy us, or that which will destroy others. We lust after the things that make us broken. We are not able to live into wholeness without Christ. We are not all possessed by demons. I'm not saying that. But we do all face demonic influence.

[14:27] Demonic influence keeps people in brokenness and darkness. But most of all, demonic influence is destructive. And we all face that. Think of all the sins that you could possibly think of. Think of the influence of this world, as opposed to the influence of Christ. And that is demonic influence. It leads us to unwellness. It leads us to hurtfulness.

[14:52] Now the demons begged for Jesus not to destroy them, even though they themselves, by their very nature, lead other beings to destruction. And Jesus granted them access to the pigs. There are only two miracles of Jesus that lead to the destruction of life. The first is that fig tree that wasn't bearing fruit. And it shriveled from just a word from Jesus. And so one might realize that the fig tree wasn't really fully living if it wasn't bearing fruit or serving its purpose. But the other was this. This casting of the demons into the swine. Because 2,000 pigs went crazy and ran directly into the sea. I said that the people were afraid because of the sheer power and authority of Jesus. And I genuinely believe that. But the people were also upset. 2,000 pigs is a lot of money. A rough guess would be to say it was about half a million dollars worth of livestock by today's rates, at least. And somebody's entire family business and livelihood just jumped into the sea.

[16:07] Jesus was costing them a lot of money by being there. At the same time, we know God's eyes on the sparrow. And though two sparrows are sold for a penny, not a single one falls without God's notice. So how much more must God have lamented the destruction of the life of those pigs?

[16:29] 2,000 of them. But it was nothing compared to the celebration that God must have had when this one human life was made free from the bondage of demon possession. Where demons seek aimless and chaotic darkness and destruction, God seeks order in the chaos and order for freedom and wholeness.

[16:58] That is what Christ wanted for this man. He recognized it instantly when he walked up to the man. But the people were under the influence of a demonic world. They were caring only about the money that was lost in the herd of pigs.

[17:13] But God loves each and every human soul. This man's soul was more important to him than the money lost on pigs. The people could not comprehend that kind of freedom in their own lives. And so they begged instead to be free of Jesus, instead of begging Jesus to free them from their burdens.

[17:38] Now, I want to say demon possession is a hard thing to talk about. It's a slippery slope. Because there was a time when we blamed a lot of stuff on demon possession. And there was a time when Christians made big mistakes in this area.

[17:55] It's a slippery and frankly dangerous slope to compare mental illness to demon possession. But with demonic activity comes brokenness, and with brokenness comes demonic activity. They often come hand in hand. It's a cycle.

[18:14] And a lot of demonic possession has presented as either physical or mental illness. And we know now rightly that illness, both physical and mental, should be treated by medical professionals. But demonic influences still exist even within these illnesses.

[18:34] So many of you know I have bipolar disorder. And I'm so grateful that with proper medical treatment and years of really quite vigorous intentionality, I find myself in a much, much healthier place these days. But in the beginning, before I was diagnosed, and even for a long while after I was diagnosed, I was nowhere near healthy. I was locked down in several psychiatric wards. And still I was drowning. I was drowning in my own mind. I was a person unrecognizable to who I am now. I had no control over my mind. It was a chaotic tornado of relentless screaming. Just thoughts attacking my own brain from every direction, every minute of every day. Even in my sleep, I had nightmares. And I could barely distinguish one thought from the next. I didn't even think of myself as being human much of the time. One thing I thought I knew almost all of the time was that I was meant to die. To take my own life and rid the world of the burden of my soul.

[19:53] And even when I wasn't being compelled to think of taking my own life, my soul was so battered that I truly thought I was dying anyhow. And the only thing that brought me any peace, the only thing that I could ever truly get my mind to focus on in that time, was scripture.

[20:15] So I would recite scripture to myself over and over. I would just recite the promises that I knew of God. I would speak those promises against the darkness in my mind. Without even knowing of demonic presence, I knew that the darkness was coming. That the darkness was not meant to be there. And I spoke scripture to it.

[20:38] And those scripture verses and those promises were the only things that gave me silence and peace. I'm not saying that mental illness is the same thing as demon possession. And I really want to make that clear. We should go away understanding that those are not the same thing. But those particular thoughts I was having were demonic in the first place. And they were a powerful influence. And as powerful as they were over me, they could not hold a candle to Christ's power in my life.

[21:13] Because Christ gave me peace the instant I spoke his scripture over them. And Christ gave me freedom. Now I still await healing from bipolar disorder. It may come and it may not. And that's okay. It's not always a pleasant journey, but it's okay. It's not the force of evil that those thoughts were. So from the darkness of demonic thought, Christ delivered me. And the freedom of being able to breathe without those thoughts crushing me and drowning me is indescribable.

[21:50] That's what those people needed. And they didn't know it. They needed that indescribable feeling of freedom from that which was oppressing them. But they didn't know it, so they sent Jesus away instead. Our world is drowning in the demonic. And I don't mean to say that we should start seeing demonic influence everywhere we look. And I don't think it's fair to blame our shortcomings on demonic influence either. We must take responsibility for our sin and not pass it off by saying, well, the devil made me do it. But I do think that the powers of death and destruction over this world are powerful, and we need to take them seriously. The good news is no matter how powerful that demonic hold over our world is, Christ is greater and has more power. A whole legion of demons was demolished by a few calmly spoken words from Jesus.

[22:52] Even more, the whole realm of Satan was rocked when Jesus died on the cross, then rose again. Death and brokenness and chaos and destruction has already been defeated by Christ. And we can be free from the power of the forces of evil by simply proclaiming Christ's name.

[23:13] And on that note, let's pray. Our God, you are big, and you are powerful, and you have authority. God, we pray that you would help us to use your authority in our lives to live for you and to live away from demonic influence. These things we pray in Jesus' name.