The Gym or the Dump?

I’ve been to the dump up here and other places we’ve lived. You load up your truck, or in my case, trailer towed by an SUV, pay your fees, go to where they want you to dump your stuff, back in, unload, and hope that your vehicle’s 4WD torque can pull you out of the mess.

Get in, get it off, get out as fast as you can.

That’s a place where stuff goes to die and decompose.

At the dump, they burn everything to destroy it. Burning it, breaks in down and it returns to the soil where it originally came from.

Bulldozers are churning everything, turning it over, stirring it up so the stuff on top not exposed to the fire get turned into the fire so they can be destroyed, too.

And, you don’t want to be downwind. At all. Ever.

There are scavengers everywhere. Birds. Animals. And, sadly, ppl who must find the basics of life that can sustain them.

But, this is where you send stuff to destroy it. Stuff should break down and be ruined, never to have any value ever again.

I’ve been to the gym several times. I’ve got exercise equipment in my house.

I’ve got a Peloton bike and Sara has a treadmill.

The reason I exercise is I want to die healthy. Why else subject yourself to such pain?! It hurts. My legs ache, my lungs hurt, and I am exhausted when I finish.

But, then, I feel better, sleep better, therefore I feel better. My weight stays under control, therefore I feel better.

Sara is churning on the treadmill while I’m churning on my bike and we’re burning up, burning calories, and burning muscle fiber.

You know the physiology. Stressing your muscles breaks down muscle fiber. It damages muscles. When you’re hiking, biking, walking, snow-shoeing, pickle-balling, golfing, stretching, yogaing, pilatesing, whatever your “-ing” is, you are damaging your muscles when you do it.

When it burns, it means the muscle fiber is being damaged and breaking down.

But, then, when you rest, the muscle fiber heals, grows, and improves.

At the dump, things churn and burn and are ruined. Destroyed. Wrecked.

At the gym, things church and burn and are rebuilt. Strengthened. Improved.

Spiritual warfare is a lot like this. Satan is as alive and active as Jesus. He is wise and powerful. But he is destructive and ruinous. And He is no match for Jesus.

Jesus is constructive and creative. Jesus is more powerful and more capable.

1 John 4:4 NIV

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

He who is in the world is doing everything He can to ruin what God is doing for His kingdom before God completely ruins Him.

When you encounter spiritual forces like this, and the battle is on, what will be your outcome? Who will win? It depends on what you do to fight them.

If you try on your own, you will lose and you will lose something or someone important to you.

Many Xians confuse their difficult times. We can give Satan way too much credit. Or, not enough when we face hard times.

How can you tell the difference between Jesus sending you into a storm that is life-altering or even life threatening, and Satan leading you into a storm that destroys you?

It’s the difference between the gym and the dump.

Jesus sends you to the gym to break chains, strongholds, bad habits; so that He can rebuild you better, stronger, and more faithful.

Satan tries to lead you to the dump to destroy you, wreck your marriage, family, finances, health and anything He can do to ruin what God is doing in you and thru you.

Jesus sends you hard places to strengthen you. Satan sends you hard places to destroy you.

Know the difference. But the response is pretty much the same. Is Jesus trying to build you up, or is Satan trying to tear you down? Either way, you win when you ask for Jesus for help.

The discs need to get this. So do we. They were about to become the point people of this new organization. We are now. And we have an enemy who does not want anything God has created or will create to survive. We are in a war. We’ve already won. But the battles still continue.

Jesus led the guys out of the boat and into a spiritual storm for them to begin to get this.

This story is written in 3 passages. Matthew 8, Luke 8, and Mark 5. We’re spending out time in the Mark passage this morning.

As always, I’ll start w/ the context. B/C the context has a lot to do w/ understanding and interpreting what’s going on here so our application is more accurate.

Context

From the dept of redundancy dept. You may be tired of hearing this. But it is important to the meaning of the passage we are in today.

Jesus came to establish his kingdom on earth. All Israel had to do for that to happen was accept Him as God’s promised Messiah. They didn’t. They rejected Him. He wasn’t what they expected.

Since they rejected Him, he rejected them; as a nation. Individuals can still believe and receive what He offers.

Jesus then changed course, a bit. The kingdom will still be established on earth, but the 2nd time He comes. So, He changed his teaching, a bit. He had to prepare the discs for what life would be like during this age until he returns. So, parables.

Immediately after the parables, he told them to get into the boat, they were going to the other side. He sent them into the teeth of a life-threatening storm. They were going to die if He didn’t do something.

He did. They had to learn to trust Him when they encountered these life-threatening situations b/c they were about to. He would be right there, in the front of their boat, in the form of the HS who would be living inside them, and they should not panic, but simply ask for help.

From that storm, they landed on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And they immediately came in contact w/ a man who had a serious spiritual problem.

So, Jesus took them from a natural storm directly into a supernatural storm where he had an important lesson for them to get. There are a number of similarities in these 2 storms and I will point a few out as we go thru today’s lesson.

They landed and immediately come into contact w/ this guy who was desperate for help.

Contact

Mark 5:1–6 NIV

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.

The other side of the Sea was the Gentile side. This guy was not Jewish, and did not seek Jesus out until Jesus came close to Him.

This was a scary dude. He was an outcast. Banished to dwell among the dead who were not disturbed by his screams and self-harm. The tombs were a cemetery. It was an eerie place. It stunk of death.

It was a microcosm of the entire creation that has been wrecked and contaminated by sin and groans for redemption. (Romans 8:22)

His life has been storm-tossed like the disciples just experienced. Being demon-possessed was life-altering and life threatening. He was tormented and desperate for relief. The screaming was a cry for help. And the self-harm, similar. When ppl cut themselves it’s a cry for help and a hope to release the pain they feel on the inside.

Human effort to restrain him was as effective as the human effort of the discs in the boat to restrain the storm and save their boat along w/ their lives. This man had supernatural strength to break the chains of human restraint.

No human can stand up to the power of darkness and evil. When Satan gets deep into a person’s life He destroys them in the most painful ways possible. Never quick and painless. Always slow and excruciating.

The man ran to Jesus. He still had some control over his actions. The demons would have run away. He was desperate for help and His prayer was for whatever he had heard about Jesus to be true.

Once he got himself to Jesus, the demons took him to his knees before Him. They knew who He is and were desperate for Jesus not to help the man.

This led to the confrontation between Jesus and the demons.

Confrontation

Mark 5:7–13 NIV

He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!” Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

The man was not mentally ill nor insane. The demons were in charge and they were able to process everything accurately.

3 things demonstrate their acuity.

1st, They forced the man to kneel in submission to Jesus. They did not like Him, but they respected Him for his position, power and authority over them.

2nd, They used Jesus’s divine name, “Son of the Most High God.”

In a feeble attempt to try to control Jesus, they used this name. There was a c.1 belief that if you knew a man’s name you controlled him. IOW, “We know you. You better watch out.”

James 2:19 NIV

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

They absolutely knew who Jesus was.

And, 3rd, they begged Him not to torture them. They had been torturing this man for as long as they possessed him. But now, they desperately did not want Jesus to do the same for them.

“In God’s name, don’t do this!” Using God’s name in vain. Worthlessly invoking the name of Jesus’s Father to plead for Him to not do what He was capable of doing. Misusing, misrepresenting what God is all about in pleading their case for what they want.

Lest we be too hard on the demons on this point, we must recognize we occasionally do the same thing pleading w/ God, “In Jesus’s name” to do what we desperately want Him to do, not what He is capable of doing.

They recognized Jesus person, position, power and authority to do whatever He wanted w/ them. They also knew that when Jesus establishes His kingdom on earth they will be tortured in prison for the duration.

Revelation 20:1–3 NIV

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

Jesus already knew, but asked the demon his name. He wanted Him to ID himself. Again, clarifying who has control over whom.

He called himself legion. A legion of Roman soldiers totaled 6,000. Doubtful there were that many demons in the man, but there were more than 1. Maybe again, a feeble attempt to intimidate Jesus. We outnumber you, watch out! Whatever.

You wouldn’t find pigs in a Jewish region. But in this area there were. A herd of 2,000. They begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

I don’t think they were thinking the local area. They didn’t want to be sent out of the earthly area where they would not be able to torment any ppl anymore. They did not want to be thrown into the abyss just yet. So, how about those pigs!

Okay. Go. Maybe they thought they were negotiating w/ Jesus as equals. Don’t send us there, send us here, into those pigs. Why the pigs? Not sure, but it wasn’t the abyss.

And the pigs processed their possession in their own way. Just like the man self-harmed, they committed suicide. They jumped off the cliff, into the sea and drowned.

What happened to the demons next? We don’t know. We don’t know b/c that’s not the point.

The point is, no demon, no legion of demons who outnumber Jesus by a wide margin can stand against Him. With a word, not a weapon, He sent them where He wanted them to go. Just like the storm. W/ a word He calmed the storm.

The discs needed to see this. When they stood against the demonic forces of evil impotent to do anything, these forces were no match for the One who was asleep in the front of their boat who when the storm blew up and is omnipotent.

And, when they faced storms in their life and ministry, natural storms, financial storms, health storms, relational storms; all these storms can be calmed with a word from the One who is more powerful and authoritative than any other force in creation.

Now, you’d think the residents of the community would be thrilled that the man was delivered and Jesus was on the scene to save them. You’d think.

But all this did was create a conflict between the ppl and Jesus. Probably not the wisest reaction to His miraculous power.

Conflict

Mark 5:14–17 NIV

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

Amazing. they were more comfortable w/ the man possessed by demons that they could not control than they were Jesus. They were frightened. If they could not control the demons and this guy did, then He could obviously control them.

Who is this man who controls demons w/ a word? Just like the discs in the boat were frightened by Jesus when they realized He could calm a storm w/ a word.

It would be a little unsettling.

They cared more about the pigs that committed suicide and the money it cost them than they did the life of the man who’d been delivered.

How many ppl do we know who can tolerate religion as long as it does not adversely affect their standard of living.

“I’m okay w/ Jesus as long as He doesn’t ask too much of me.” That comes later. For now, just believe and receive.

But again, if you reject Jesus, then He’ll move on. And that’s what He did.

Before he did, He commissioned the man and called Him to go and do something. It wasn’t what he wanted to do. But it was what Jesus wanted him to do.

Called

Mark 5:18–20 NIV

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

That was it? That was all Jesus came there to do? Apparently.

Did Jesus not know about the storm in the middle of the night? Did He not know He’d be confronted and accosted by a man possessed by thousands of demons? Yes, He did.

He performed these 2 miracles and communicated an important message to the discs, and us, then it was back into the boat and back to the Jewish side.

The man pled w/ Jesus to let him come along. But Jesus’s answer was no. He had something more important for him to do.

The pled w/ Jesus to not be destroyed but be allowed to enter the pigs. The townsppl pled w/ Jesus to leave. He complied in these cases. Why not when the man pled w/ him to allow him to join them?

B/C Jesus came to build the kingdom and He’s using us to do it.

The man’s got to be thinking, I’ll never be sick again if l get to hang out w/ Him. Don’t we all kind of fall into that trap that if we stay close to Jesus nothing bad will happen to us?

But to use him to build the kingdom, he sent him back to his non-Jewish ppl to show them and tell them about his transformed life. All Jesus expects any of us to do is tell ppl about the power of Jesus in our life.

What did this guy know about the difference between transubstantiation and consubstantiation? Was he premillennial, post-millennial, or amillennial? What?

He didn’t need those answers. He just need to tell ppl about what Jesus did for him and He will do it for them, too.

The ppl were amazed. But remember, amazement doesn’t save them. Faith does. Hopefully, they got all the way to life the more time they spent w/ this guy who had scared them to death.

Here’s the deal. If Satan gets in, He will try to destroy you. If you ask Jesus, He will save you. Don’t give Satan any openings or opportunities.

A believer cannot be possessed. A demon cannot occupy the same space as the HS.

Believers can be oppressed and influenced. But, only then, if they invite it. Maybe knowingly, or not, but demons only go where they are invited to go.

How can we avoid the trouble Satan tries to bring into our life?

Keep Out!

How do we avoid allowing Satan a way into our life? How do we keep Him out?

To begin w/, Paul wrote in Eph. 6 about the armor of God that we can choose to put on that provides a defense against it and an offense to use.

Let me summarize. Put on...

The belt of truth. Integrity. Always tell the truth and be consistent. Soldiers would gird their loins, tuck their skirt into their belt before they went into battle b/c they could trip over their skirt if they didn’t.

Lies will trip you up. Inconsistencies will cause you to stumble.

Truth and integrity.

The breastplate of righteousness. Maintain a close relationship w/ Jesus. Relationship building is the same whether you’re doing it w/ your spouse, a friend, or Jesus.

Righteousness is a churchy word that means you are as right w/ Jesus as you can be. No sin. If you do sin, you admit it, apologize for it, adapt to a new way of doing things, and accept Jesus’s punishment for you.

Stay close to Jesus. Communicate. Participate in what He’s doing.

Gospel shoes. Go. Serve. Participate in the work. Get involved. Volunteer. Play a role in helping those around you get closer to Jesus and be saved themselves.

Don’t let your Keds, High top Chucks, Uggs, Nikes, or Guccis or flip flops take you someplace you shouldn’t be. Spend time where you should be.

Shield of Faith. Hold it up. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance in what we do not see. Confident the future will be better. And assured God is at work in good ways we will realize later.

Storms and trials keep our faith strong. Don’t shy away from what’s hard. Grow thru it.

Helmet of salvation. Know you’re saved. Protect your bean, noggin, with assurance that you have a seat at the table.

The sword of truth. Know and apply the word of God. Please, please work at landing your plane every Sunday, every bible study, every quiet time. Find an application to the word you just studied.

Pray. Prayer is a powerful offensive weapon. Pray for others, pray for yourself. Use the weaponry you’ve been given.

James 1, trials strengthen us.

James 1:13 NIV

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

God does not tempt us to sin, to short circuit the process. Satan does that. Stay strong in the trial and do what’s right.

James 4:7 NIV

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

He will run screaming like a little girl. Stand up against Him with the strength the HS gives you.

Mark 9:29 NIV

He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”

When you are confronted w/ evil, don’t try to remove it yourself.

When Jesus, James, Peter, and John were on the mountain for the transfiguration, the other 9 disciples tried to help a boy who’d been possessed by a demon. They could not help him.

When Jesus came down, he did. They asked him why they couldn’t do it. This was his reply. You didn’t pray and ask for help.

Just like when He was asleep in the boat. All they had to do was wake him up and ask for help. Finally, they did. But they did so in a panic.

Before you panic, before Satan has the chance to destroy anything in your life, stop and ask for help.

Remember, too, Jesus said this:

Matthew 16:18 NIV

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

It’s going to happen and no evil force can stop it.

Satan cannot mess up God’s plan. He can only mess up your life. And that, only if you allow it.

Don’t do that. Whenever you need Him, He’s right there to help you if you’ll ask.

Applications

Armor

Is there a piece of the armor you need to secure?

A defensive piece? An offensive piece?

Pick one and secure it.

“No”

Sometimes the answer is no. We can ask. We can ask the right way. We can ask for good things. But, sometimes, the answer will be “no” b/c there is something better for us.

Maybe not something we want that’s better. But maybe it’s something that’s better to build up the kingdom.

Jesus is building the kingdom and He’s using us to do it. It does not mean we get everything we want. It means He gets everything He wants which might mean telling us no from time to time.

If you ask and the answer is no, don’t get discouraged. He’s calling you to something else.

It will be worth it in the end even if it’s not what you want now.

No match

Thousands of demons are no match for 1 Jesus.

They cannot hurt you unless you let them.

Ask for help and Jesus will deliver you.

He may lead you into the teeth of a storm. But He’s right there to calm it and you if you’ll just ask.