2023.06.18 Oink Oiiiiiiiiiink
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Transcript
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Oink Oiiiiiiiiiink
Psalm 82 • Mark 5:6-13
6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him;
7 and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do You have with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!”
8 For He had already been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
9 And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
10 And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the region.
11 Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding nearby on the mountain.
12 And the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us into the pigs so that we may enter them.”
13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the pigs; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.
Alright, so last week, I told you we’ve been sort of walking backwards through the last several Jesus stories.
This week, we hit the story we’ve referenced several times.
Just as a reminder from last week - [show map]
The likely location of this event is the city of Gergesa. Jesus spends so much of his ministry time in Capernaum and he boats all around this region. But Capernaum to Gergesa was a fairly regular route for boaters crossing the Sea of Galilee.
If you’ve been paying attention the last several weeks, some of the conclusions today may sound like repeats. Might I suggest … perhaps we need to hear them multiple times to get them to sink in.
What do you learn about GOD?
What do you learn about GOD from this story?
What do you learn about GOD from this story?
Last week, we really focused on the fact that God can do anything at all. He can do things we can envision. He can do things we can only dream about. And he can do things we can’t fathom!
Today, Jesus encounters a man who is INFESTED with demons. Look at the beginning of Mark 5...
so we can get some more details.
1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes.
2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him.
3 He lived among the tombs; and no one was able to bind him anymore, not even with a chain,
4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces; and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and cutting himself with stones.
Look at what Jesus is dealing with - he’s getting out of the boat -
On a calm day with favorable winds, that trip would’ve been 6 hours! If you recall, on the trip over was when they encountered the storm we talked about last week … so this was a LONG boat ride.
Imagine taking a 6 hour car ride - then add a massive storm on top of it. Imagine how tired you are when you get out of the car --- and this demon-possessed guy immediately approaches you.
He lives in the tombs because society can’t handle him. They’ve tried to bind him with shackles and chains and nothing can hold him. He screams day and night from the tombs and repeatedly cuts himself.
The entire town is scared of this guy. They’ve tried shackles. They’ve tried chains. He breaks them all. NO ONE IS STRONG ENOUGH TO SUBDUE THIS MAN!
And when Jesus gets out of the boat, in verse 6, the man runs to him and bows down.
Whatever is controlling this man doesn’t respect humans at all! But it certainly respects God. He begs Jesus to not torment him. Verse 8 tells us Jesus had already told him to leave the man and he didn’t!
Then, Jesus asks his name, as if to ask, “Just who am I dealing with here?” “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
What does the demon’s name mean? [Legion] We think of a Legion being a lot … but I don’t think we understand just how many:
LEGION (Gk. legiṓn; Lat. legio).† The primary division of the standing citizen army of the Roman Empire. The number varied from time to time, but in New Testament times a legion consisted of theoretically 6000 men, in actuality about 5000 foot soldiers and 120 horsemen.
Eerdmans Bible Dictionary
Could be THOUSANDS of spirits holding this man hostage? And they’re begging Jesus to not kick them out of the region.
They hatch a scheme to jump into a herd of pigs nearby. Verse 13 - How many pigs were there? Imagine what 2,000 pigs on a hillside looks like - a sea of pink!
Two thousand pigs!
So if each pig only received 1 demon, at the minimum there were 2,000 demons living in this one poor man!
Jesus says, “Get out,” and they go. The pigs run down a steep bank and drown themselves in the sea! Yet another sea of pink.
As we continue with the story, we shift to the humans?
What do you learn about HUMANS?
What do you learn about HUMANS?
Reading into verse 14, who runs and gives the report? The herdsmen (plural)! Why do you think they want to give a report immediately?
Sure, it may have partially been because they were awestruck. But I’d suggest they possibly wanted to make sure the pig’s owners all knew it wasn’t THEIR fault that 2,000 pigs ended up dead in the Sea of Galilee!
Because humans are very interested in self preservation!
Is there anything else we can learn about humans?
As word spreads, and the people start showing up at the shore to see what’s left of the scene.
verse 15 - they see the man clothed and docile, very much in his right mind - imagine THAT shock!
And what do they feel when they see him? Frightened
I’m sure they’re also seeing the sea of pork floating in the Sea of Galilee
Verse 16, they’re told the details from first-hand witnesses.
If you want to learn about humans, look at their responses:
How did the town respond to this miraculous event? They didn’t suggest. They didn’t ask. They BEGGED Jesus to leave their region.
He just arrived! And the townsfolk are begging him to get back in his boat and leave. “You don’t gotta go home, but you gotta go!”
We learn that Humans are scared by what we don’t understand.
How many of you can explain COVID-19 to me … scientifically? Other than our resident immunologist (Dr. Steve Templeton) … most of us only know what we’ve heard on the news or read about in the great medical school of Facebook. [Steve, correct me if I’m wrong….] Steve recently released a book that explains among other details that our societal response to COVID-19 wasn’t really driven by science. It was driven by fear. We made many decisions that were directly contradicted by the science.
Because humans are scared by what we don’t understand.
We are perfectly fine with the “known terrible” even when it may mean we miss the opportunity for an “unknown excellent”. This man has been tormenting the town for years. They couldn’t do anything about him. Jesus SOLVES GERGESA’S BIGGEST PROBLEM! But humans prefer a known misery to the unknown blessings of God. We’re comfortable even in misery, so we resist change at all costs.
Next, let’s look at the interaction with the man and Jesus at the end.
Verse 18
18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. 19 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.” 20 So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns* of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.
When we’ve encountered God, humans often want to leave where we are to follow him.
But what does God tell us to do in verse 19? “Go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you, and how merciful he has been.”
And in verse 20, he does just that … and everyone was amazed.
Humans hesitate to tell people what great things the Lord as done for us. But if we dare to … people will be amazed.
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
Has God been merciful to you?
We don’t need any long stories - just a few sentences — who can give us a testimony of how God has shown you mercy?
[take as many as will tell]
Do you feel uplifted hearing these testimonies?
Guess what …
so would other people?
What needs to change as a result of what you’ve learned?
What needs to change as a result of what you’ve learned?
God’s grace and mercy are amazing!
We talk about it. We sing about it. But we don’t tell the people who so desperately need to hear about it.
THAT is what needs to change!
What really needs to change in us is that God’s people — ALL OF HIS PEOPLE — need to tell more people — ALL PEOPLE — about his mercy, and let them be amazed!
God has been good to us!
God is good to us!
God will be good to us!
Christ has died • Christ is risen • Christ will come again
All we have to do is tell others about how he’s been good to us.
So who will you tell today?