Original subtitles

call your attention to the Gospel of

Mark chapter 5 mark chapter 5 and I'd

like for us to read starting with verse

1 down through verse 20 mark 5 1 through

20 and while you're getting there and

your physical Bible or your device

wherever your Bible is let me just tell

you what a joy it is to be here cry out

16 and already to be in the throne room

of God worshiping together tonight it's

been a joy mark chapter 5 let's begin

reading with verse 1 and since this is

the very word of God breathed out by the

Holy Spirit and comes to with list with

the exact same authority as if our Lord

Jesus himself were standing here

speaking these words to us would you

please stand out of reverence for the

word of our God the Holy Spirit says

through mark they came to the other side

of the sea to the country of the

Gerasenes and when Jesus had stepped out

of the boat immediately there met him

out of the tombs a man with an unclean

spirit he lived among the tombs and no

one could bind him any more not even

with a chain for he had often been bound

with shackles and chains but he wrenched

the chains apart and he broke the

shackles and pieces no one had the

strength to subdue him night and day

among the tombs and on the mountains he

was always crying out and bruising

himself with stones and when he saw

Jesus from afar he ran and fell down

before him and crying out with a loud

voice he said what have you to do with

me Jesus son of the Most High God I beg

you by God do not torment me for he was

saying to him come out of the man you

unclean spirit and Jesus asked him what

is your name he replied my name is

legion for we are many and he begged him

earnestly not to send them out of the

country now a great herd of pigs was

feeding there on this hillside and they

begged him saying send us to the pigs

let us enter them 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

see and were drowned in the sea the

herdsmen fled and told it in the city

and in the country and people came to

see what it was that had happened and

they came to Jesus and saw the

demon-possessed man the one who had had

the Legion sitting there clothed in his

right mind and they were afraid and

those who had seen it describe to them

what had happened to the demon-possessed

man into the pigs and they began to beg

Jesus to depart from the region as he

was getting into the boat the man who

had been possessed with demons begged

him that he might be with him and he did

not permit him but said to him go home

to your friends and tell them how much

the Lord has done for you and how he has

had mercy on you and he went away and

began to proclaim in the Decapolis how

much Jesus had done for him and everyone

marveled let's pray Holy Father if we

had any idea of the glory surrounding us

right now I think we would fall forward

on our faces Lord as we gather here in

worship as we gather here under your

word we're not just gathered together

with a group of fellow contras your

conference goers well we're here in the

name of Jesus Christ so we are standing

here in the presence of the heavenly

Mount Zion and surrounding us right now

are innumerable angels and a great cloud

of witnesses a number that no man can

number and Lord we wish to agree with

all of them that Jesus Christ is Lord

and so would you silence any spirit in

this place that would exalt itself above

or beside the name of Jesus Christ and

would you strip away from our hearts

anything that is not Christ shaped and

would you by your word and by your

spirit conform us into the image of

Jesus that he might be the first

born among many brothers and sisters we

asked this in his name and in his name

only amen you may be seated

I came under deep conviction of sin one

time really early in my ministry in one

of my first ministry positions over a

church bulletin and it was because this

church that I was serving was a really

really programmed Church and they had

the same programs that they had had for

a long time so every Sunday morning we

would have Sunday morning worship at 11

o'clock and we would have Sunday evening

worship at 7 o'clock and every Sunday

morning in the morning we would have

Sunday school right before the morning

worship service for everybody from the

babies all the way up to the senior

adults and then on Sunday nights we

would have kind of like a Sunday school

at night that would happen right before

the evening worship service that we call

discipleship training and the programs

have been around so long in that church

that everybody kind of knew them all by

their acronyms and so on the bulletin we

would just have SS for Sunday school

9:45 worship 11 DT for discipleship

training six o'clock evening worship 7

p.m. and everybody knew what this meant

that bulletin had probably been the same

cover of the bulletin for who knows how

many years and we all just knew that

that's what it was until one day there

was this woman who had moved in from

some other place and she came up and she

was really excited when she saw DT

because she assumed it was detox for

people who were drying out after being

drunk and so she wanted to kind of know

about that ministry and so she came up

and said I'm really interested in the

fact that you have DT every Sunday night

and I said yeah she said how many people

come to DT I said about 150

she's a that's fantastic she said now do

the people who come for DT

do they stay for worship after and I

said well yeah it's kind of the core of

our church Saul our deacons and our

women's ministry leaders and it's the

backbone of the church and I could tell

she was really confused and it took us

several minutes to try to figure out

what we were each doing with these

abbreviations and suddenly I started

getting under some deep conviction for

two reasons one of them was that we had

been in such a cocoon there in that

church that we just assumed that we were

just talking to ourselves that we would

just know what all these little

abbreviations meant and everybody could

figure that out because we were just

talking to us but the other reason and

the more important reason is because I

had been so embarrassed when I realized

that she thought that I had said that

the core of our church was in detox and

I wanted to assure her that that wasn't

the case but the problem was that the

core of our church was in detox we were

all in detox from something some people

from substance abuse some people from

idolatry some people from sexual

hedonism some people from a thousand

different kinds of brokenness all of us

were in a process of detox and what I

wanted to do was to assure this woman no

no you're not coming to a church where

you have to worry about the people who

are here in detox we might do that to

minister to people on the outside but

the people in this church are people who

have everything together and therefore

we're the people who are able to

minister to you and the minister to your

children you don't need to go away from

us you can come to us my

action was that if we admitted to

brokenness and woundedness even just in

a misunderstanding over a bulletin that

somehow we would lose our opportunity to

minister and I was on the exact opposite

side of Jesus Scripture here is sent out

to the people to tell them who Jesus is

what Jesus is like and instead of

showing us Jesus meeting with some

influential figure Jesus meeting with

some powerful figure instead mark goes

out of his way to so show us Jesus

talking to someone who is as far gone as

he can possibly be a demon-possessed man

who is cutting himself in a graveyard

and says to us if you want to follow

Jesus you will follow him there you and

I are living in a place right now where

there are a lot of people consumed with

fear and with panic and there may be

some of you here tonight who are

consumed with fear and with panic

some of you are fearful and you're

panicking when you look at the culture

around you and you wonder what's going

to happen what's going to happen to our

country what's going to happen to our

neighborhood what's going to happen for

my children and their children and their

children and you're you're fearful and

you're anxious and you're on edge some

of you are fearful and you're anxious

when you look at your situation and you

don't know what you're going to do in

terms of your job or you don't know what

you're going to do in terms of maybe a

marriage that's falling apart or you you

don't know what you're going to do maybe

with a prodigal child or you don't know

what you're going to do with a situation

where you've prayed and you've prayed

and you've prayed until you're right at

the edge of despair and

ready to give up and you're fearful and

you're almost at the place of panicking

the reason that we become fearful is we

have forgotten who we are

this scripture reminds us I want you to

notice first of all the problem here

this man the scripture says is among the

tombs he's in the graveyard now could be

some people have speculated that maybe

this man had lost someone and in his in

his grief he is someone who found

himself drawn to the tomb and drawn to

the place where that person was buried

but it's more likely that instead this

is someone who is so terrorized by these

unclean spirits that he is finding his

life in a place of death he is going to

the place where death is to the

graveyard which means that he is cut off

from the rest of the people people don't

like to go into graveyards unless they

have a reason to go in virtually any

culture much less in a culture where

being with the dead and being with dead

bodies is something that would make you

unclean this is a man who in this place

of death is cut off and isolated from

someone else and and not only that this

man here in this graveyard and in these

tombs is someone who is under a deep

spiritual warfare as a matter of fact he

has lost this spiritual warfare

scripture says that he is inhabited by

unclean spirits too many here too number

now that would have further isolated him

from the people around him I mean you

think about even in our culture right

now even in the most secular place in

America if you go in and say yeah this

house that you're considering buying

yeah there was somebody that was

murdered here one time people say it's

haunted people say they hear moaning at

night people say they hear chains that

are moving along the floor but I

wouldn't worry about that even the most

rationalistic secularist ik

scientifically minded people will be

kind of creeped out by that they'll want

to go on and look at another house much

less people who are connected and

understand and they know what it is to

see unclean spirits they know about a

spiritual world that is dark that is

evil he is someone who is there in

bondage to these spirits he is in the

graves and notice what is happening he

is someone with great power and with

great strength and that power and

strength is hurting him the change they

put on him he is able to pull apart but

the freedom that he has isn't a freedom

that is bringing him joy it isn't a

freedom that is bringing him fulfillment

it is a freedom that is leading to

moaning to a crying out not like the

crying out we're talking about here but

a crying out of desolation and of

despair he's cutting himself here

he is harming himself here his power is

being turned against him now what I want

you to understand and see is that this

man's situation is extreme but this

man's situation is not any different

from the situation of the world outside

of Jesus Christ the scripture says that

all of us outside of Christ are

following a way that leads to death all

of us outside of Christ are under a

reign and a rule of death all of

us outside of Christ are those who are

living in a world that is being governed

Ephesians chapter 2 says by the Prince

of the power of the air that as John

says is lying under the sway of the

wicked one we are living in a demon

haunted world and all of us apart from

Christ are those who are under the

deception of that dark spirit world and

all of us apart from Christ are under

the accusation of that dark spirit world

and all of us left to ourselves will

want to find power and will want to find

strength and will want to find freedom

and in all of that we will only end up

harming and hurting ourselves this man

is here in a state of complete

desolation and notice he assumes that

Jesus is the problem despite all of

these burdens when Jesus shows up now

there is a crisis the man falls on his

face

the spirits within him start to cry out

because they recognize that Jesus is

going to disrupt things Jesus is going

to turn things around Jesus is going to

wreck their lives they understand and

know what is actually going on when

you're thinking about the people around

you the people that you have a burden

for the people who disagree strongly

with you the people that you are that

you are praying for right now do you

consider the fact that this is not just

a matter of winning a few arguments this

is about something that is so deep that

when Jesus encounters law

nests lostness sees that as a problem as

a threat the light comes into the

darkness and the darkness hates the

light and loves the darkness that is the

judgment but notice Jesus here there is

no fear

Jesus is not fearful of the graveyard

Jesus is not fearful of the strength of

the man Jesus is not fearful of the

unclean spirits

Jesus is not fearful of being

contaminated by somebody who is unclean

and Jesus is not fearful of being seen

with this man who is as far gone as one

could possibly go one of the problems

facing our churches right now is that we

are not only fearful of the outside

world and panicking about the outside

world but we are also afraid to be seen

with sinners the scripture calls us to

be separated from sin but never to be

separated from sinners Jesus goes

chooses to go into the graveyard where

this man is he he goes intentionally to

be with him and he does it with a

confidence

Jesus is not fearful that he will be

overcome by the unclean spirits

Jesus is not fearful that he will be

overcome by the man Jesus is not fearful

that his reputation will be overcome by

being seen with that man Jesus has

confidence in the Spirit of God he has

confidence in the mission that his

father has given to him he has

confidence in the gospel and one of the

reasons that you and I

are so often so fearful and panicked

about the situation in our lives or

about the situation in the outside world

is because we lack that confidence Jesus

understands the problem here but notice

also the solution Jesus comes and does

not offer a feat of strength Jesus

doesn't have a competition with the

demon-possessed man to see who is able

to pull chains apart instead what does

Jesus do he does not come in with raw

power he comes in with his voice and the

word that he says is what is your name

one of the reasons I think that the

outside world often thinks that

Christians are angry that Christians are

always outraged that Christians have

their fists balled up at the outside

world one of the reasons I think the

outside world thinks that is because

they read Facebook and I have to tell

you if all I knew about Christianity is

some of the things that I see posted on

Facebook I wouldn't want to be a

Christian either Jesus though doesn't

come in to win an argument Jesus doesn't

come in in order to demonstrate his

power Jesus comes in with his presence

with his personal encounter and he says

what is your name he gets to the most

personal reality about that man your

name is at the very core and the center

of who you are that's why when they

misspelled your name on the Starbucks

cup you probably don't get offended but

you notice you notice because that's

you that's personal to you Jesus says to

this man exactly what God says to Adam

in the garden where are you what is your

name and he does so why because even

this man is not too far gone for the

power of Jesus Christ one of the

problems that we have within the church

is that sometimes we will do kind of

like people in my wing of Christianity

who aren't Pentecostals will sometimes

do when we're praying for each other for

health if somebody has something kind of

minor I've got an infected ingrown

toenail then we'll say Lord heal that

infected ingrown toenail when somebody

has something really major advanced

pancreatic cancer we'll pray Lord

comfort their family let your will be

done and as a friend of mine said when

he got cancer I want all of you praying

like a Pentecostal God can heal all of

that sometimes we do the same thing when

it comes to spiritual realities

sometimes we somehow believe that the

power of the gospel is enough for people

who are moving along with kind of

respectable levels of sin but the gospel

is not enough to reach people who are

completely at the point of brokenness

and at the point of despair and that's

one of the reasons why some of you even

in this room right now may be in bondage

all of the time because you are

constantly confronting the accusations

of the devil even though you're in

Christ you constantly have a conscience

that is saying to you yeah but remember

the way that you treated that person

remember that

sexual relationship that took place

remember that marriage that broke up

remember that child that was aborted

remember those secrets remember those

things that nobody else knows about and

hold those things in your heart when in

reality Jesus has already encountered

you Jesus is not surprised by your

secrets

Jesus is not surprised by your history

Jesus is not surprised by your struggles

Jesus is not surprised by your

temptations and Jesus is ruling and

governing history so he decided that you

would be sitting there hearing the

proclamation of the gospel you didn't

get in there accidentally

he had you there in order to say if you

confess your sins he is faithful and

just to forgive you of your sins and to

cleanse you of all unrighteousness

Jesus has encountered you and he has

said to you what is your name there is a

power in that and there is a power that

expels and drives away fear but notice

what happens when Jesus says what is

your name the man's response is I don't

have a name there are so many of us that

we are legion this man's situation this

this man's lostness this man's despair

had led him to the place where he had

lost himself he didn't even know who he

was this is a man who is on the one hand

isolated away from everybody else and on

the other hand he is crowded out with

all of these unclean voices in his head

and here we are in a culture where even

people are not inhabited in this way by

the unclean people are more connected

than ever before

and yet lonely and yet isolated and yet

alone the man says I don't have a name

I am legion the man doesn't know who he

is anymore because he is just a

collection of unclean spirits you do not

have to be a demonized man in a

graveyard to be that lost all you have

to do is to just see yourself in terms

of all of your roles all of the things

that you do all of your jobs or all of

your children or all of your

relationships or all of your ministries

or all your responsibilities and to be

lost in such a place that you don't even

know what it is like you are numb to the

reality of hearing the voice of Jesus

calling you personally by name where are

you where are you where are you this is

what has happened to this man and this

is what has happened to endless people

all around us right now and what many of

them are asking is is the gospel for

someone like me a friend of mine who had

been a lesbian feminist atheist activist

who started to weigh the claims of the

gospel she started reading through the

Gospels and she started to she started

to be drawn toward Jesus she said one of

the first things she did was to go and

sit at a coffee shop across the street

from a church and just watch the people

getting out of their cars or their vans

or their trucks walking into that church

and saying could I ever be one of those

people there are many

people who are asking that question

right now and if all that we present to

the outside world is we're more moral

than you are we're more well-behaved

than you are we have families that are

more stable than yours are we have lives

that are more put together than yours

are we're happier than you are we're

more blessed than you are and we manage

our image to show that we have

everything all together there's no

brokenness

there's no woundedness there's no sin

there's no detox we're shiny happy

people for Jesus then we will give the

picture to the outside world that the

gospel has not come for sinners but for

the righteous Jesus doesn't do this

Jesus walks right in here to this place

of this lonely man and he brings him out

of loneliness into community I send you

back to your people Jesus brings him out

of this crowdedness into a personal

relationship one-on-one with him and

Jesus comes and frees him from his own

power when the man says we are legion or

rather when the Spirit say we are legion

that is an assertion of power that's how

the Roman Empire protected itself with

legions with soldiers that's the reason

why Jesus said it get his arrest said

don't you know that I could call my

father and he would send 12 legions of

angels the spirits within this man are

puffing themselves up and saying we are

many we are mighty we are powerful

exactly what we so often want to do as a

church pay attention to us

because we've got the power to boycott

pay attention to us because we're a big

voting bloc pay attention to us because

we're the people who will shape the

future of the culture we are legion we

are many we are powerful on your own

terms of power but Jesus sees that and

says that is death Jesus doesn't even

flinch

until the spirits in this man are crying

out and begging please don't send us out

into the abyss send us instead into

those pigs and you know what startles me

about Jesus here is that Jesus says okay

that's not how I want Jesus to act with

demons if I'm directing Jesus I want

Jesus to say oh you don't go to the

abyss well the abyss is exactly where

you're going to go and I'm going to make

sure that everybody sees you as you're

fleeing out into the outer nothingness

Jesus says okay go to the pigs why

because Jesus is able here to have a

confidence because he doesn't believe

that this Legion of demons is ultimately

going to be able to derail him one of

the reasons why we can be as a church so

angry and so outraged and so mean to

people who disagree with us to people

who reject us to people who call us

names is because if we're honest we're

afraid we're afraid that somehow they

are right that we are being left behind

we're afraid that somehow they are right

that the power of the Holy Spirit is not

enough we're afraid that somehow we have

to have something else to approve

ourselves to be right to prove our

selves to be blessed to prove ourselves

to be loved by God if we want to see

that and we want to find that Jesus

doesn't do that Jesus speaks instead

with a voice that is able to say to

these spirits leave and go and he is

able then to say to that man where are

you

go home go to your people go back to

your community Jesus has a quiet

confidence that we see over and over

again in the scripture Jesus is never

freaking out when everybody else is when

the boat is about to capsize everyone

else is starting to panic

Jesus is asleep when the crowds are

starting to leave all the disciples are

starting to panic

Jesus is calm when Jesus is being

arrested and led before Pilate and

everybody else is running as fast as

they can go with Simon Peter cussing in

front of the fire Jesus is standing

there as calmly as he can be saying My

Kingdom is not of this world and when

everybody else is calm

Jesus is anguished when they walk into

the temple and they see that the people

have made a marketplace of it and

they've taken over the court of the

Gentiles Jesus becomes so angered that

he drives them out and the disciples are

probably standing around and saying

you're not new here you've been coming

here since you were 12 years old why now

are you upset about this when Jesus

encounters a fig tree that doesn't have

figs because it's not the time for figs

he curses it and denounces it and the

disciples are probably saying to

themselves he probably needs a vacation

or something

when the disciples are asleep in the

olive court in the Garden of Gethsemane

Jesus is sweating blood Jesus is calm

when they're panicking and Jesus is

anguished when they're asleep

why because jesus knows about what is

actually going on in the world around us

better than we do

jesus knows that the things we are the

least worried about are the things we

ought to be the most worried about and

the things that we are the most worried

about are the things that we ought to be

the least worried about and in this he

speaks a word of gospel solution and

notice the reaction when Jesus frees

this man from these spirits when Jesus

returns this man to his right mind it

says that the people there are

frightened the people want him to leave

the people assume that Jesus is the

problem why because what they wanted to

do with this man is to chain him what

they wanted to do was to keep him away

from hurting anybody else and just to

control his behavior sisters that is

Bible Belt cultural Christianity let's

get people to behave the right way let's

get people to say the right words let's

get people to know how to act let's get

people to do all of these things the way

a good Christian should accept apart

from the actual power of knowing Jesus

Christ and him crucified that does not

address the problem and when the people

actually see the gospel they are

frightened by it they start to retreat

from it and as a matter of fact they are

infuriated by it

because some of these people are angrier

that they have lost pigs then they are

rejoicing that they have gained this

brother they are more concerned about

their possessions about their security

than they are about the advancing of the

kingdom of God and before we get too

hard on them how often do we do the

exact same thing it is hard and

difficult if you are going to love a

hurting and dying world it's one thing

to love orphans in the abstract until

you bring that child with fetal alcohol

syndrome into your home who's never been

in a situation like that before it's

it's one thing to love hurting women in

the abstract it's another thing to bring

that unwed mother into your home it's

one thing to love the lost people that

you're talking with in the line at the

coffee shop it's another thing to say it

doesn't matter how messy my house is

right now it doesn't matter how

disorganized my kitchen is right now

these people in my community need me

right now

we all left to ourselves try to

prioritize those things the reaction

here is one that sees Jesus as a problem

that sees the gospel as a problem

because we assume that what really

matters is our lives the way that we

have planned them if we're freed from

fear by the gospel then we are going to

be the people who are willing to have

our lives wrecked and rebuilt by Jesus I

was so embarrassed about that woman

thinking we had drunks all through the

church

but I hadn't been there very long when

we had a lady who started coming to the

church who had this combination of

Alzheimer's disease and Tourette's

syndrome some kind and she would be in

the service and she would just yell out

her thoughts on whatever was being said

so you learned if you were teaching not

to ask a rhetorical question

and she would yell out the vilest string

of profanities you've ever heard in your

life

and the first time she started doing

this I'm teaching and my immediate

thought is I can't believe this is

happening we're going to have people

visiting here today they're going to

have children with us we're gonna have

people or kids gonna be here his first

word is going to be blankety-blank blank

because of what's happened in my church

and I'm embarrassed by that until a

group of elderly ladies came up after

and they said oh brother Russell we

could tell you might have been

embarrassed when Miss Betty was doing

what she was doing

and I said well I kind of was and they

said she's our sister she's sick and one

of them said brother Russell when Miss

Betty says blankety blank blank you

blankety-blank her that's just her way

of saying amen

what they were saying is this church

does not exist for you and your image

and what they were saying was this

church does not exist for its reputation

this church exists to be on mission with

Jesus to seek and to save that which was

lost and so we will bear the burdens of

our sister if we are going to be the

people who will engage the world around

us without fear we must give up our

attempts to be strong and powerful and

all together and we must be the people

who bear witness to the outside world

we're not more moral than you we're not

more behaved than you we're not more put

together than you the only difference

between us and you is that somewhere

outside the gates of Jerusalem

we were crucified with Christ and

somewhere outside the gates of Jerusalem

there is an empty hole in the ground

where we walked out with Christ and so

joined with him

God says exactly of us what he says of

Jesus Christ this is my beloved child in

whom I am well pleased there is

therefore now no condemnation for those

who are in Christ and until the day when

we are freed from all of this by setting

sin and until the day when we are freed

from all of these doubts and all of

these fears we will walk not seeing

where we're going by faith because we

follow a voice that first said to us

what is your name and we confess and

bear witness that we're with him and

we're in detox thank you

you