Mark 5:1-20 "He Who Had Been Demon Possessed"

Good Morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

I do hope you will join us for our upcoming conferences and events. These conferences and events are designed to help you to grow spiritually…

BUT ALSO… to grow in relationship with each other. I’ve had several people comment on how our church is active and our people genuinely enjoy one another… and I would agree… and we want everyone to be a part of that.

Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 5 as we continue our chapter and verse journey through the Gospel of Mark. Mark 5:1-20 today.

In the past few weeks we have been looking at the Long Day of the Lord… where Jesus did so much ministry that He fell asleep on a boat as He and the disciples sailed into a great windstorm.

As the boat was filling with water, the disciples thought they were going to die… and so they came to Jesus asking Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

And, if you’re in a storm in life… and you feel like God doesn’t care… or that He’s sleeping during your storm… go back and listen to the message from last week… you can find it on our app or website… I assure you, God does care…

And, the peace that Jesus had in the midst of the storm… where He could sleep during the storm… because He’s bigger than the storm… that’s a model for us…

What is the storm… compared to our Lord?

I love the witness a Christian lives when they can rest during their most intense storms of life.

The account from last week… and our account today are tied together…

Last week, we saw Jesus demonstrate His power and authority over the forces of nature as He calmed the storm rebuking the storm and saying the words, “Peace, be still!”

Today, He will demonstrate His power and authority over the forces of evil as Jesus cast out demons from a tormented man… He too had been in a storm.

And, in both accounts we see Jesus is over all… that He is divine.

In our account today, we will see several surprising interactions…

The demons, the people of Gadara… even Jesus Himself respond in some very interesting ways…

And, in the end… Jesus will once again calm the storm… though this time the storm rages inside of the man who will be referred to as “He Who Had Been Demon Possessed”… the title of our message today.

Let’s Pray!

Mark 5:1-5 “Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.”

What a scene… Jesus and the disciples come through the storm… arrive at Gadara… and their welcoming party is a horror scene… a naked demoniac who is known for violence… Welcome to Gadara!

Last week we read in Ps 107 that the LORD guides those who cry out to Him in a storm… to their desired haven.

I’m not sure this is that place!

But, let’s pull up our map to look at where our account today takes place…

Jesus and the Twelve have sailed from the region of Galilee to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and now are in the country of the Gadarenes.

Which is a location that has stumped scholars… generally speaking we are somewhere on the map, but take notice that there are three similar sounding areas on this map… Gergesa, Gadara, and Gerasa.

And, ancient manuscripts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke have variant readings (Gergesenes, Gadarenes, and Gerasenes) of our setting today.

We will observe in our reading that this city is near a steep place by the sea, and there is a graveyard.

Third-Century Christian Scholar, Origen, theorized this account occured in Gergesa (modern day Kursi)… where there are steep cliffs and ruins, so Gergesa is a strong possibility.

At the bottom of our map, is the town of Gerasa…a possibility, but this town is 35 miles from the Sea of Galilee… and, we’ll see in our account the pig tenders will flee… run into the city and return with the townspeople… 35 miles to the town and back is quite the stretch… so, this is likely not the location.

It’s been suggested that there was another town called Gerasa (just south of Gergesa), a small village that was part of the region of Gadara. This location is a strong possibility…

According to Josephus… Gadara had “villages...situated on the borders of the Sea of Galilee...”

And, this town likely was a port town… judging by our next slide which depicts a 2 Century A.D. coin from Gadara…

Notice the Roman War ship, indicating Gadara likely was a port town.

And, we do know some piggies are going to run off a cliff into the sea in a few scenes from now.

So, while it’s difficult to say exactly where we find ourselves today… certainly we are on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee… and somewhere in this Decapolis Region… no longer Jewish territory… otherwise there would be no herd of swine… solidly they are in Gentile Territory.

In the Decapolis region… Deca… polis… “ten cities”… Ten Hellenistic cities in what today is the Golan Heights.

And, Jesus travels over to this region for an appointment with just one man… and then He leaves.

I love that. Jesus didn’t need the multitudes. Traveling far… through a storm…The Good Shepherd leaving the 99 for the 1.

And, what a 1 He was…

Mark describes this demon possessed man… this demoniac as…

An “unclean spirit” (as he was possessed by a demon… dwelled in tombs… in a land of pigs… with Gentiles)… many reasons he could be considered unclean.

Who lived in tombs (among graves… among the dead)…

He was untamable… his strength was off the charts as townspeople would bind him with metal chains that he would break apart…

Luke adds “he was kept under guard.”

And, he was self-destructive… driven into the wilderness by the demons… where night and day he cried out and cut himself with stones.

Matthew describes him as “exceedingly fierce [violent], so that no one could pass that way...”, people avoided that area….

So his violence extended to others, but when he couldn’t harm others… he cut himself with stones committing self harm.

Luke wrote “...he wore no clothes...”

Now… plug that into your brain, and imagine him running up to Jesus in his birthday suit… ecto plasm dripping from his nose… crying out with a most ungodly voice, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”

Quite the welcoming party!

And, if we take all this in and we had to describe the personality of these demons… what words would you use?

Destructive? Merciless?

You can see the personality of the demons based upon how these men were acting.

I don’t think words like loving or benevolent came to mind, because demons are NOT that.

Mark and Luke record one demon-possessed man, Matthew records two!

So, there were actually two demon possessed men…

And, there are many ideas as to why there is a variance between one or two demoniacs…

Which I think is just a matter of being an eye witness… Matthew was actually there… he was a first-hand eye witness… where Mark captures Peter’s account and Luke interviews many… and when a story is retold… some details don’t make the cut.

There was one key demoniac… the center of attention, but another was present as well… both driven to this area by the townspeople… kept in isolation… to keep them away from causing violence to others…

It’s amazing to me that there is a growing trend of mislead people becoming increasingly bold about demonic worship.

Misled to think they will gain power… this demon possessed man was no doubt powerful… he could not be bound…

But, in no way was he in power… He had no power… he lost control… his own voice drowned out…

His own will lost…

Demons seek to inhabit God’s creation… living beings… mankind that was made in the image of God…

Not to enhance, but to deface that which was created in the image of God…

Like a spray paint artist who would spray over a marble statue… it just doesn’t work…

This account in the Gospels clearly testifies of the harm demons intend to mankind.

The parallel from that culture to ours is fascinating to me… neither society really knows what to do with the demon possessed…

In Gadara, they tried to bind him under lock and key… removed him from society… put him under watch…

Is our society truly that different? How many people have institutionalized in Psychiatric Hospitals… what they used to mental institutions… or insane asylums… even lunatic asylums…

Under lock and key… removed from society… put under watch…

The big difference is in Gadara, they recognized the man had a demon…

Where in our society… you won’t find that diagnosis… not in mainstream society… “schizophrenic” would be the label.

I remember when I was about 20, I did a three month internship at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson, near Baltimore, MD.

Originally, when it opened in 1891, it was called the Sheppard Asylum.

I have a slide depicting the hospital in 1945… looks like a backdrop for a horror film… how would you like to get a postcard with that picture on it?

Kind of gives you chills.

Again… I spent 3 mos of my life working there! What an experience!

I remember this one day… there I was a young intern… green as could be… working in the Adult Crisis Stabilization Unit…

Which meant we received people who went off the rails… got checked into the hospital… typically forcibly… and they stayed on our unit for a few days to a couple weeks…

And, I remember this one day… a young man… a little older than me took to me as a peer.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia… and like our demonic was running around the highway… also in his birthday suit.

The will land you in an asylum.

But, we made small talk… why not?

A few days later… he requested for me to join a meeting with his Dr. and his Father because he didn’t want to take his meds.

He asked me, “Marc, I don’t want to take my meds, but they want me to… what should I do?”

I’ll never forget that moment… time stood still… I didn’t know quite what to say… and I didn’t want to sound stupid… and I look at the Dr. and his Father and they were both giving me the death stare like, “If you don’t tell him to take his meds… we’re going to put you in a straight jacket and leave you in the basement!”

I felt really intimidated by them.

So, I muttered out something like, “Uh… yeah, I think you should listen to them.”

Then everyone relaxed for a minute.

I don’t remember seeing him after that, but I heard that he was supposed to be discharged, but… he stripped back down to his birthday suit, and sat in the lobby of his wing.

They kept him a few more days.

I wish I would have known Jesus in that season because more then meds… that young man needed to hear the gospel.

Well in that season so did I.

I’m not sure if that young man was demon possessed, but there we some definite parallels.

Well, let’s continue in Mark… and next take a look at a dialogue between Jesus and the demon possessed man…

Mark 5:6-10 “When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. [as in he prostrated himself before Jesus] 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” 8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many. 10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.”

Wild interaction… the reality of what Jesus was experiencing in this scene is something for us NOT to ignore… NOR for us to over emphasize… and we probably know Christians guilty of both.

Of either thinking demons are just superstition.

Or of thinking demons are in everything… “I have a spirit of fear… a spirit of weak knees… a spirit of bad breath.”

That last one might be true. But, do you get what I’m saying? Some people take it too far. Demons aren’t in everything.

Their presence is real, but just like the demons in this scene… they are confined to one location… they’re not omni-present…

In Job 1, the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan replied, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

Some people who doubt the reality of demons feel this way because they have not personally experienced an explicit encounter with demons.

Some say it’s because our society is distracted by wealth… and we’ve grown spiritually complacent… and the very real manifestation of demonic possession in our society would only wake people up spiritually.

But in third world countries where they have no wealth, we hear more reports of demon possession.

And that could be true.

I was thinking this week about how easy today it is for demons to quite literally get lost in the crowd.

Think about how many more people are on earth since the 1st century.

Estimates of the world’s population in the 1st century average around 240 million.

Do you know what it is today? 8.1 billion.

That means there’s 7.86 BILLION more people on earth than in the first century, but the same amount of demons.

Scripture seems to indicate that angels and demons (who are fallen angels)… aren’t reproducing…

Jesus said in Matt 22:30 “… they neither marry nor are given in marriage...” (comparing people of the resurrection to angels)…

I’m not sure how many demons are on earth…

Some think that Satan… the fiery red dragon in Rev 12… lead 1/3 of the angels to fall with him? And, if so, how many was that? We can’t say?

But, the ratios of demon to humans today have to be out of control…

It’s like the teacher to student ratio… ridiculous…

And, don’t take that comparison too far… I’m not implying teachers are demons!

I’m married to a teacher… And, She’s an angel!

That was pretty smooth, wasn’t it? I’m getting browny points today!

But, look… my point in this… even if we see less demonic activity today… it doesn’t mean demons are a fairy tale.

Looking at these verses, I find it very comforting to observe the great level of control Jesus has in this situation… and how the demons must submit to Him.

Look back at V6… Mark writes the demons run to Jesus and worshiped Him. Luke wrote “… fell down before Him...”

This is homage, but not love… not worship as in reverential awe.

There have been many people in history who have bowed a knee to kings… even if they despised the king.

But, they did it because he was the king.

There’s a similar idea of knowledge of God intellectually found in James 2:19 which states, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

A key point in James… and in Mark 5 with the demon worshipping or bowing down to Jesus is that you can theologically know who Jesus is…

You can know that He’s the Son of the most High God.

You can even talk to God… just like these demons did in Mark 5…

But, if you’re not surrendered to God… if He’s not the Lord of your life… truly… you’re in the same position as these demons…

And, in James the demons trembled or shuddered knowing He will exact future judgement upon them… it frightens them… and for good reason…

This demon in Mark asks Jesus, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”

They had no business together. Their natures were opposite from one another. “...what communion has light with darkness?”

The NET bible translates this verse… “Leave me alone Jesus...”

The NLT states, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus?”

The demon recognizes that the Holy One of God was present in his midst…

Demons have a good grasp on theology… they understand it… they just rebel against it.

And, this demon while rebellious… he recognized he was no match for Jesus…

Thus he runs to Jesus and falls down before Him… hoping for a sliver of mercy… as the King of Light stands over this shadow… this evil presence.

The demon knows that light dispels darkness… and he was in danger.

Thus he begs… “I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”

“Don’t torture me!” he cries.

Matthew records in Matt 8:29 “Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

Isn’t that just amazing?… these demons take no issue torturing these men, but when faced with their own torture… they cry out like babies.

Many people of the world are just the same… vicious… until they are corned and exposed. They act like demons in their own right.

Another fascinating observation is demons know there is a future time coming when they will meet their end… and it’s not a good end…

Demons have a good grasp on eschatology.

At the beginning of Rev 20… an anonymous angel comes down from heaven and binds Satan and cast him into the bottomless pit… where he would be bound for a thousand years…

Can you imagine… a bottomless pit? Endless falling… no ground… maddening wind ever blowing past your ears…

Satan is released after that for a short time and he deceives many to rebel against God… and fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them all…

Rev 20:10 states… “The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

From endless falling to endless burning… day and night forever and ever torment.

And, this is the same end for anyone who would reject the free gift of God… that Jesus came to die for our sins, and through faith in Him… we are saved.

Just a few verses later Rev 20:15 states, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Unbelievers meet the same end.

The demons here in our scene today ask Jesus, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

“Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

The demons believed in this eternal reality and the thought of their impending torture made them shudder.

There was nothing the demons could do to reverse their fate. They sealed it long ago when they rejected God… there’s no salvation… no Gospel… no propitiation for them…

But there is for us… many of you said, “Yes” to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but you also know those who have not.

And, what to do with Jesus is the most serious… most eternal… most forever and ever decision one can make…

Eternity is real… Heaven is real… and the Lake of Fire… Hell is real.

And, people blow it off… they don’t shudder… they don’t tremble, when they should.

They also put it off… “I’ll think about it later… I’m just not ready yet.”

There’s nothing to lose in bending the knee to Jesus… and eternity to gain.

Life is a vapor… you don’t know what storm is around the corner…

Seize the time today to accept Jesus as Lord.

Well, back in Mark… in V8 Jesus now says, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?”

Jesus doesn’t have to perform a ceremony to cast the demon out… He doesn’t have to go through a check list of using the cross and holy water…

Mk 16:17 declares “...those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons...”

So, Jesus just commands the demon to come out… because Jesus had greater authority.

And for us… 1 Jn 4:4 declares “...He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world...”

Who namely is Satan… as 1 Jn 5:19 declares “...the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

Satan is “the ruler of this world” according to John 12:31…

2 Cor 4:4 calls him “the god of this age”…

And, Eph 2:2 titles him… “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience...”

He’s greatly influencing this world for darkness, but again…

“...He who is in you [the Holy Spirit] is greater than he who is in the world...”

And, so… with a word Jesus just commands the demons… “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!”

And, Jesus asks, “What is your name?”

Some think to know the name of the demon gives you the authority over the demon, but I don’t think that’s the case here.

I’m not even convinced that Jesus is speaking to the demon… He may be lovingly reaching out to the man…

Wanting to know the name of the man who has been separated from human love, and hurt so badly by these demons.

However, it’s not the man, but the demon who responds in V9, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”

In Jesus’ day, a standard Roman legion was 6000 fighting men, but a legion could vary from 3000 to 7000.

There were 2000 pigs that these demon went into.

So, when this demon says “legion,” it implies a lot… perhaps not 6000, but many…

Many demons… organized like a Roman Legion… fierce, threatening… and ready to fight like a Roman Legion....

I seriously doubt Legion is his actual name… Jesus said the devil “is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44), so why would we believe this is his name?

Legion is an idea… there were a lot of demons… not all were named Legion.

V15 calls this man the one who “…had the legion...” like it’s a condition.

They’re not the Foreman’s… with George Jr, George III, George IV, George V, George VI… plus Georgetta… that’s not what’s going on here…

Notice in V11… the demons beg Jesus not to send the out of the country…

Which makes more sense in Luke account where Luke 8:31 records “And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.”

The abyss… Gk. abussŏs- meaning “bottomless pit” or the “unfathomable deep.”

That holding place before judgment reserved specifically for demons…

Not their final judgment… which is the Lake of Fire.

But, these demons know their end, and they dread it.

They feared expulsion from Gadara meant being cast into the “bottomless pit”… that place of confinement before the judgment…

So, they seek a compromise…

Mark 5:11-13 “Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. 12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” 13 And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.”

A large herd of swine was not surprising for this Gentile region… it would have been unheard of in Israel… for pigs are unclean according to Lev 11:7 / Deut 14:8.

Notice the pigs run into the sea, further supporting the geography of Gadara or Gergesa being close to the sea of Galilee…

The demons are begging Jesus… imploring Him… to send them into the swine over the abyss…

And, this not only shows us how fearful they are, but also this testifies that demons have to submit to God.

They have to gain permission from Jesus to even go into pigs.

They don’t have free reign to do whatever they want.

In Job 1, Satan had to get permission to tempt Job to curse God.

And how did Satan do it? He certainly didn’t pull his punches…

He destroyed Job’s livelihood… killed all ten of his kids… and then plagued Job with painful boils from head to foot…

The nature of demons is destructive…

And, we see that here in Mark. Not only to the men they possess, but what is the first thing they do as they enter the pigs… they destroyed the pigs…

As soon as the demons enter the pigs they cause a stampede… “… the herd ran violently...”

The pigs are out of their minds.

They’ve become “deviled ham.”

I’m sorry, I had to… Pastor’s are required to weave that into the sermon when they teach this passage.

I think I lose my ordination or something… if I don’t do it.

Can I also point out that 2000 pigs destroyed in this tragedy!

Did you know that the average pig yields 20lbs of bacon… x2000 pigs… that’s 40,000 lbs of bacon down the drain… literally.

Truly demonic… wasting all that bacon.

And, what happens when these pigs die? It will cause the people of Gadara to ask Jesus to leave.

And, this is the true tragedy of this account.

And, this exposes the true nature of demons…to destroy God’s creation… and to create a division between man and God.

Which I imagine the demons think they accomplish looking at what happens next…

Mark 5:14-17 “So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. 15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 16 And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. 17 Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.”

What a terrible response… a man who was demon possessed… a terror to the region… a terror to himself… has been healed.

The destructive demonic force inside him exited his body… entered into the pigs… and destroyed them.

Jesus did not cause the destruction of the pigs anymore than he caused serious harm to Job.

God simply permitted Satan and the demons to act… and they destroyed.

The man who formerly ran around naked… is now clothed… “and in his right mind.”

And their response?

They were afraid… which can be translated as “awestruck.”

And, I’m not sure if it was because the man was better… or that sinking feeling over how much money they just lost…

But, they also knew they were powerless against Jesus because He had true power…

He dealt with the root cause of this man’s issues… the demonic force that they failed to tame.

They hear the first-hand account of the events of the day… and they determine Jesus has to go… in fact they beg him to leave.

This is terrible… and it reveals their hearts. They placed more value on 2000 pigs, then 1 man’s soul.

D.A. Carson stated, “They preferred pigs to persons, swine to the Savior.”

They cared more about bringing home the bacon… then bringing home a brother.

Their idol was money… found in the commerce of swine.

And, so Jesus doesn’t fight them… He honors their request…

Mark 5:18-20 “And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. 19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” 20 And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.”

3x… In VSS 15, 16, and 18 we see a reference to this man’s name… or at least a description of who he once was… “…he who had been demon possessed...”

No longer is he afflicted… no longer a voice in the background of his mind… drowned out the the voices of so much evil that inhabited him.

He encountered Jesus and now he was clothed and in his right mind.

How many of us could say the same? That we’re NOT who we used to be?

Imagine is one day we brought in name tags to write our own version of “…he who had been demon possessed...”

What would you write about yourself?

I could write a lot about myself. I’d have a chest full of name tags.

“He who was alcoholic...”

“He who was building his own kingdom...”

Many of us were just like these demon-possessed men… wretched, out of our minds, harmful to others, avoided…

Couldn’t we all write many things we were delivered from? Ways in which Jesus made us new… when we encountered Him.

Earlier we sang “Amazing grace how sweet the sound… That saved a wretch like me...I once was lost, but now I'm found… Was blind but now I see...”

How true is that of our lives?

Just look around the room at how good you all look because of Jesus!

If you only knew the histories of the people you are sitting near… you might be a little more nervous.

It’s amazing how Jesus cleans us up… and then brings us together.

And, as this man is now in his right mind… he desires to be close to Jesus…

He begs the great physician “that he might be with Him.”

What a beautiful request… I want to follow you… I want to be near you… you saved my life and now I give my life to you.

Some of you have said the same thing… fully surrendered to God.

That’s how I live my life… you want me to stay or go… firmly plant or uproot… my life is yours God… do with it as you please…

Surprisingly, for this man as he begs Jesus that he might go with Him…

Jesus says, “No.”

The demons asked, “Permit us to go into the swine...” Jesus said, “Yes.”

The unbelievers of Gadara asked, “Please leave our region.” Jesus said, “Yes.”

Now… He who had been demon possessed begs, “Let me follow you!” And, Jesus says, “No.”

Three petitions… three requests… even prayers (for what else do you call talking to God)… and Jesus answers in the affirmative to the ungodly and denies the delivered.

Isn’t that mind blowing?

Listen, don’t be discouraged when God says, “No.”

He has a plan and a purpose and we don’t know the mind of God.

He loves you, and His restriction may because He has a better plan for you… and a better plan for His Kingdom.

And, that was the case with this man… Jesus had a better plan.

In V19, Jesus tells the man “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”

He tells the man to share his testimony… his powerful witness of the goodness of God.

Your testimony is a sermon all of you should be able to preach. It’s your story of what Jesus has done for you.

And, that’s how this account closes… the man proclaims in Decapolis… in the region of ten cities “...all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.”

And, I don’t think the story ends there, because 6 mos- 1 year later… there is another time that the disciples come back to this same Decapolis region… where this man had been proclaiming about Jesus…

And, in Mark 7:31-37, let’s read what happens…

“Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

When Jesus comes back to this region… the people don’t ask Him to depart… they begged Him to heal a deaf man with a speed impediment… and when He did, the people were overwhelmingly astonished… and could not restrain themselves from telling everyone…

And, how is it that they even knew about Jesus? About His miraculous power to heal?

I can’t say for certain, BUT… could it be that they all heard of Jesus from he who had been demon possessed?

Jesus sailed across the sea and touched ONE LIFE… and from that ONE LIFE many others would hear about Jesus because he was faithful to obey Jesus’ command… to tell others ‘what great things the Lord had done for him...”

This whole account is a testimony that nobody is beyond help…

This man was formerly shackled, violent, naked, and had the legion…

But, was transformed into the man who carried a testimony of the compassion of God.

No one is beyond hope.

Let’s pray and take communion remembering all He has done for us!

1 Cor 11:23-29 “...the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

Please distribute the elements...

Communion is a time for us to look three directions…

We look back remembering Jesus’ sacrifice… His broken body and shed blood for the remission of our sins.

His new covenant. Salvation by faith and in grace.

Look forward in hope of His imminent return… we proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. He is coming.

And, looking inward to examine yourself…and take communion in a worthy manner.

Time to do business with God.

Once you have prayed… take the communion elements individually.

Our worship team will play one worship song, and then close us in prayer.

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If you have never accepted Jesus as Lord...

...either let the cup pass and do not partake in communion -or- the better option...

...accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today.

Pray to God and tell Him you believe in Jesus and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, and ask for forgiveness.

...then take communion. And, be sure to let us know. Salvation is something to celebrate!

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