Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning.

It is a joy to be with you today.

We are contuing our series in the gospel of Mark this morning.

Last time Ross preached in mark we find Jesus and his disples crossing the sea.

They are in the boat and a increadible storm comes there way

The storm was so frightining at one point the disciples wake Jesus up and ask him whether or not he cares anyting about whether they live or die.

Jesus gets up and speaks to the storm saying in “Peace!

Be still!”

and we are told the wind ceased and there was a great storm.

it’s in that moment he turns to the disdciples and asked them why they were so afraid?

Have you still no faith?

and in verse 41 Mark says they are filled with great fear and say to one another Who then is this?

It’s the question that is asked over and over in mark and it’s a question people sitll struggle with today.

They want to know who Jesus really is?

IN mark 4 with the storm we see Jesus divine power over the naturl over the storm over the physical.

In we begin to see Jesus power over the super natural, over evil, and over the spirtual

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So I will be honest with you.

Weeks been long.

Elizabeth was gone.

And as I preperraed for this talk I was struggling.

I was sititng downtown just looking at the chair across from me wondering what am I even going to write or say on Sunday?

I was struggling.

What I knew was what God would give me to say was important.

We have someone in this passage who is abadaonded, who has be overcome be evil, who is living among the tombs and alone.

But in some ways that’s what I was feeling I was feeling alone, I was feeling discouraged.

I was feeling pretty defeated.

and I was just wondering if I’d have anything meaningful to say today.

I even had someone asked me “Why do you come here”

I didn’t know how deep that would be before I drank my coffee

and it’s at that moment I look up and one of my best friends is walking towards me.

He knew what I was doing and he was like you are crushing it.

and I was like nah I can’t really get started and he moved toward me.

Put his hands on my shoulders and prayed for me.

man it’s what I needed.

So encouraging and it reminded me this is exactly what Jesus does.

He moves into the storms of our heart when we feel defeated and maybe a little hopeless and he moves towards us not away fofrom us

and that’s a good reminder for all of us.

It’s probably something we all share in common in this room.

We all have moments where we are left alone, where people try and fix us, where we feel hopeless and in thsoe moments we need hope, love, mercy, encouragement and Jesus

Let’s allow him to move towards us this morning

Let’s read

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.1 2 And when Jesus2 had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.

3 vHe lived among the tombs.

And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had the strength to subdue him.

5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and wfell down before him.

7 And xcrying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, ySon of zthe Most High God? aI adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

He replied, “My name is bLegion, for we are many.”

10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”

13 So he gave them permission.

And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country.

And people came to see what it was that had happened.

15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed3 man, the one who had had cthe legion, sitting there, dclothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.

17 And ethey began to beg Jesus4 to depart from their region.

18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.

19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and ftell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

20 And he went away and began to proclaim in gthe Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Right away we see that Jesus encourter with the demon possesed man took place the morning following his calming of the great storm on the sea of gallee

This is most likely Jesus first step into gentile territory

and as Jesus moves away from the confrontation with the storm in nature he confronts the storm evil produces in the world

He moves from the wild sea to a wild man

and really the guys we meet is heart wrenching.

I think it’s easy to read stories like this in scritpure and not be moved.

to Distance ourselves from a person like this

To think that doesn’t really sound like anyone I know and it’s almost like we move through them too quickly

but it’s important to slow down and remeber this is a person.

A person who is created in the imagie of God and a person who has gone through so much torment

we are told by mark He is living in among the tombs

In other words he has made his home the place where death reings.

and then we are told no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain

He has often been bound with shackles and chains but he tore them apart and broke these chains into pieces

THis man was so overcome by evil and so repulisve to the pepole who lived in this region there soltuion was to just chian him up and leave him for dead yet they couldn’t even stop him.

Their solution was to train and contain this evil.

Most likely we are told that people wouldn’t even go near where he lived anymore that they would completly avoid this area.

that they would take longer routes to just not have to deal with this man.

Ultmently the people in this region ar adding to his suffering.

They have no solutions for this man.

and we are told by mark not only are the people who lived in this region trying to bring harm to this man, he is trying to bring harm to himself.

we are told thtat he would crying out or SCREAM unrecongizable sounds and he would cut himself with stones.

In an attempt to drive out the evil spirts

So here mark gives us a devasting picture.

A man who is completly broken, poor, naked, wounded hurting, hopeless, most likely having infections also overcome by demons, left for dead by the pepole who could no longer just put shackles and chians on him, living in a place of death

and maybe in his lucid moments he realized how repulisve, how unloved, how unwelcomed he really was.

Maybe we've been there.

Maybe there have been those moments where people are tryint to use natural methods for a supernaturl problem in our lives.

Maybe we feel outcast, alone, living in a real place of death not sure what to do next.

but this passage can bring us great hope because

it’s this place Jesus goes to.

and we are told when he gets there

THe demon possessed man sees Jesus from a distance and he ran and feel on his knewes in front of him.

Imagine the scene if you are one of the disicples this is bizarree.

YOu’ve just survived the worst storm of your life you get to the other side of teh sea of Galliee and a naked man comes screaming at you

The man begs Jesus not to torment him.

But Jesus speaks and tells the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

and then he asked the demon what the demons name was.