[SPEAKER_00]: Well, good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, Redeemer Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: How you guys doing this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good to be with you all.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Brendan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I serve as one of the pastors here at Redeemer over our Institute and Connections Ministry as well as assisting pastor Alex with the young adults.
[SPEAKER_00]: And before the service started, Jan Wetstein said, when you go out there, just let it rip.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll be here for like an hour and a half.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully you guys are comfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm just kidding.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's such a pleasure to be with you guys this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very thankful that John was taking us through that series through Romans 12 in spiritual gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: This morning, we're kind of doing a bit of a one-off.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be in Mark chapter five, Mark chapter five, and the title for this message is Declare Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Declare Jesus, which is in line with our mission here at Redeemer Church, which is to declare Jesus and develop Jesus followers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so hopefully you guys brought your Bibles with you this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't, I would just encourage you as a pastor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bring your Bible with you when you come a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bring your Bible with you because here at Redeemer Church, we love God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we want to dig deep into it every Sunday, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So bring your Bible if you haven't.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you do have your God's Word with you this morning, open up to Mark chapter five.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason why this message is about declaring Jesus is because what I hope for us to get from this morning is that we show people who Jesus is by declaring His power and mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We show people who Jesus is by declaring His power and mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder, have you ever heard of a crazy testimony of someone's salvation that just seemed so impossible?
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, just so improbable that the only explanation would be the powerful grace and mercy of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, those are just always sweet, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like we just get it every month at baptism.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just an amazing thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: A few weeks ago in our 20s ministry, we had an end of the year event where we highlighted all the ways that God has moved in our ministry this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we did so by giving recognition type of awards,
[SPEAKER_00]: And we had one that was called the Saul to Paul award.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys know Paul's testimony in the book of Acts, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Went from persecutor and murderer of Christians to now defending the faith he once sought to destroy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this award, we're a point-out one who is most likely to have a wild testimony of how God saved them and showed mercy to them over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that award made me think of my close friend, Jameson, who visited here a couple weeks ago, while on a cross country road trip, some of the 20s have heard this story before, but he was a very...
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting, man, to put it lightly.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the best man at M.I.s wedding, and he's an upstanding citizen, a computer engineer, who's married with two kids, and one on the way, and he's a devout follower of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, even as we reminisce recently, when he visited on just crazy times from our childhood, Jamison's testimony beats mine out of the water, just 100%, like it's not even close.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reason being,
[SPEAKER_00]: Reason being, before he was saved by Christ about nine or 10 years ago, he was a well-known troublemaker in our church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He started selling drugs in middle school.
[SPEAKER_00]: Weed, cocaine, meth, started in seventh grade.
[SPEAKER_00]: All sorts of stuff, and he was in our church and had this reputation of being a bad kid, but only a few of us kids actually knew the extent of it, not even his parents really knew until years later.
[SPEAKER_00]: And his drug dealing and using it carried all the way through his high school years to where everyone thought he was the guy too far gone, basically.
[SPEAKER_00]: No hope for him, essentially.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, man, God had glorious different plans in mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is amazing, guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen to this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometime after high school, he describes to me as he was feeling pretty down about his life situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for no human reason that he could explain, since he had zero desire before this, he randomly just one day, literally, for just he can't even think of any cognitive reason of his own.
[SPEAKER_00]: He randomly just woke up one day and fell in the urge to pick up his Bible and start reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stop to know where.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't give Jesus a second thought before that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just started reading the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I remember, I think he randomly flipped to the book of Micah and the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he like read through the whole Bible in like a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just didn't stop reading and by the end of it, the Lord saved him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord changed this heart and He converted to Christ by the end of His reading of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, I've shown this twice before, but it's just amazing because he has someone I look at as nothing less than a miracle of God's grace, because he was headed in the complete opposite direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: And guys, his life literally just changed overnight.
[SPEAKER_00]: He stopped doing drugs and selling them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He started attending church every single week.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was memorized in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was evangelizing everybody that he met.
[SPEAKER_00]: And him and I became unlikely friends because I tried to avoid him because of his influence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And him and I became unlikely friends while serving as leaders and our church youth group back in 2018.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember that the Lord saved him and just radically changed his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody knew the reputation that he had at church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so then when he had this radical change overnight, I remember he immediately started to want to serve and all the pastors were like, let's give this some time a little bit, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, it was like when Paul gets saved and Barnabas has to like vouch for him to all the apostles in Jerusalem and Antioch.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, wait, well, let me just persecuting us like two weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like that with Jamison, and it's just amazing how the Lord changed his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now hardly two weeks go by sense where we haven't talked or hung out in some ways, one of our best friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an amazing thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so guys, as we bring it to this passage this morning, my hope is that we are challenged to demonstrate to people what the beauty of Christianity is all about, which is showing people who Jesus is by declaring His power and His mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's really what Christianity's testifying to, is the power and mercy and grace of God through Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And friends, you may not have some wild and out testimony like my friend Jamison, but proof that God still works miracles today is that there's Christians in this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because as John rightfully pointed out, the greatest miracle that can ever happen to you is that of salvation, being brought from spiritual death to spiritual resurrection life in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: and every any and every instance of a sin or brought to salvation is cause for a joy scene because it is nothing less than a miracle, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an amazing thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just think about in your own mind the ways that God has been so merciful to you over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so guys, as we jump in, our first point that we're going to be looking at is, we declare Jesus' power.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we're declaring Jesus, the first thing we're doing is we're declaring Jesus' power.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to be looking at verses one through 13 here if you want to fall along with me as I read in Mark chapter five.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Mark records this.
[SPEAKER_00]: They, meaning Jesus and his disciples, they came to the other side of the seed to the country of the garrisons.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Jesus stepped out of the boat, immediately they're met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, verse four.
[SPEAKER_00]: For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched to the chains apart, and he broke the shackles and pieces.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one had the strength to subdue him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Night and day among the tombs, and on the mountains, he was always cutting himself, or crying out and cutting himself with stones.
[SPEAKER_00]: 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, some of the most high God?
[SPEAKER_00]: I adore you by God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not torment me for he was saying, he meaning Jesus, he was saying to him, come out of the man you unclean spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus asked him, what is your name?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he replied, my name is Legion for we are many.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him, they mean in the demons saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he gave them permission and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and they heard numbering about 2,000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: So guys, hopefully you can see parallels with the story that I shared about my friend
[SPEAKER_00]: because of just the darkness, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what a powerful testimony.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, once again, my hope is that you also actually see yourself in this story as time goes on, in a certain way that we'll get into, but hopefully you also see yourself a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when we look at this passage, there's some important context to understand in this section of Mark's account of the gospel account.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been through the Christian story class in the Institute, you know, we love making sure we understand the Bible in context, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to understand it in context.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a problem if we miss the force for the trees.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we don't understand the whole, we can sometimes do bad things with the parts, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to know the context.
[SPEAKER_00]: That said, this passage in March, chapter 5, a displaying Jesus' early ministry, which was filled with the miraculous.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a way of drawing people in and getting the ministry off the ground, since Jesus' miracles were means to authenticate his message in his identity as the messenger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And specifically this passage, it's in a larger section of Mark spanning from Mark chapter four, verses 35, to Mark chapter five, verse 43, where Jesus is divine authority as the Son of God is demonstrated in different ways to those around him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so thinking about this way, his authority over nature, it's displayed in chapter four, verses 34 and 41 where he calls a storm.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's displayed, it's demonstrated in our section
[SPEAKER_00]: His authority over disease is demonstrated in Chapter 5, verses 21 through 34, when he heals a woman with a chronic discharge of blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And lastly, his authority over death itself is demonstrated when he raises Jyrus' daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is an asexion where Jesus is displaying the different ways that his power is demonstrated.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these instances of his power extremely meaningful as we'll come to see, but jumping into a verse is one through two, look at this with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We read this.
[SPEAKER_00]: They came to the other side of the sea, the country, the garrisons.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Jesus stepped out of the boat immediately, they're met him a man out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, Jesus and His disciples, they come to the other side of the Sea of Galilee after Jesus calms the storm to a town in the Gentile region of the Garazines, which is part of a sort of conglomeration of ten non-Jewish cities called the Decapilus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this sets the scene in a powerful way because now where are they?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in a Gentile, unclean region for the Jews, according to Old Testament ceremonial law.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is an interesting setup for how this story pans out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there are met immediately by a man who has an unclean spirit, meaning a demonic spirit and rebellion against God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's also living among the tombs, which is unclean as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this situation is as unclean from a ceremonial perspective as it gets, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They went to a Gentile region, already unclean.
[SPEAKER_00]: They come to a man who's possessed by demonic spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an additional instances of being unclean.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's among the tombs.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's among the dead, further uncleanliness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is meant to display.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is as dark as it gets.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very, it's very telling, especially as this passage goes on.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in the most unclean of situations from a Jewish standpoint.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not something where they would expect.
[SPEAKER_00]: that God would show up in any meaningful way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because God, in their mind, He was exclusively only the God of the Jews.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're little instances of Gentiles popping up here in there, but it's us versus them, essentially, what the Jews thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's no way God's going to show up in this situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now what we read of this man's condition?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, is it nothing short of heartbreaking?
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, terror inducing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Versus three onward says that he'd lived among the tombs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could you imagine that?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in such a dark situation that you've made your quote unquote home in a cemetery.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lived among the tombs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And no one could bind him anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not even with a chain.
[SPEAKER_00]: For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles and pieces.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, picture that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And says, no one had the strength to subdu him.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one had the strength to subdu him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And imagine that man, this part just always gets me about this darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Night and day among the tombs on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just picture that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This man is in such a sad state of affairs, such a sad moment of darkness that the demons that have possessed him are so hell bent on his self-destruction that all he does is he just goes along the mountains and the tombs crying out screaming, cutting himself with stones.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is as dark as it gets, friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the information that Mark got, he probably got it from Peter, who probably got it from the towns, people who showed up later.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's sad, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: This man he's possessed by demons, he lives among the stones, his family and his friends, they tried to bind him and help him, but the spiritual forces possessing him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They somehow seem to affect his physiology and increases strength, so he can't be restrained.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, guys, the word for wrenched here, it indicates that he broke the chains apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how strong he was in this moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's outcast and then he roams among the dead all his days experiencing darkness unimaginable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, just imagine that for a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's oppressed by dark forces who are hell bent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like imagine being in a situation, opposed by dark forces that are hell bent on your destruction.
[SPEAKER_00]: I salated from those that care about you and experiencing deep emotional, mental, spiritual, physical pain as you are surrounded by death.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: A sad condition.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just live in a world filled with darkness, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I world that celebrates even sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: This passage shows us that dark forces they exist, and they don't love you, and they don't care about your well-being.
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite whatever new age podcasts you came across, they don't care about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are hell-bent on your destruction.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the reasons that we know pagan and false religions are not from God is that they are destructive and committed to harming those made in the image of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The devil and his demons hate humans and people falling the word of God and they seek to destroy both.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we also see a shift in the power because then someone comes on to the scene.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not just anyone, God, the sun, in the flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a contrast in this scene where the light of the world himself shows up.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, the Son of the flesh, He shows up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's the response to the demon within the man?
[SPEAKER_00]: He dramatically runs to Jesus, falls down at His feet, and shallots either out of fear or even trying to frighten Jesus as best He can or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, Jesus couldn't be less deterred, not afraid of this man in the slightest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stallward, just a lighthouse in the midst of a hurricane.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the demon actually seeks to challenge Jesus in four ways in verse seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: From the outset, he essentially tells Jesus to mind your own business.
[SPEAKER_00]: What if you to do with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Get out of here.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my territory, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: What if you to do with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Additionally, he demonstrates supernatural knowledge of Jesus' identity by calling him Son of the Most High God.
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point in this ministry, this wasn't something Jesus was wanting to have other people
[SPEAKER_00]: But his demon, he possessed the supernatural and says, I know who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Additionally, he actually copies a well-known exorcism phrase by saying, I adore you, or I command you in a defensive posture.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like he's trying to turn the tables on Jesus a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Additionally, lastly, he petitions Jesus to delay the punishment coming to him at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would he resist Jesus so strongly?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the demons, they knew conceptually what first John 3 April claims that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew they were on borrowed time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're saying, I jury you Son of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not punish me before the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know there's a set time, but it's not yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice further the misery of this man, and that Jesus asks the demon's name, and he replies the Legion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, Jesus didn't ask because he was ignorant, but rather most likely to further reveal the misery of this man's state to those around him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Naming that he was possessed by arguably a host of demons that numbered in the thousands somehow, since at that time the Roman religion numbered more than 6,000 foot soldiers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could you imagine, I mean, just what a wild situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one of the reasons, guys, this passage is so epic, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because of the sheer power that Jesus exercises, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This was a man who no one could bind or subdue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, here was Jesus subduing the darkness in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Mark just gives us a perfect setup when he says, no one could subdue him until there was someone that could.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: No one could still do him tell Jesus comes and seduces the darkness and he binds him to his will.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's as hilarious.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice the weak pitiful request of the demons as they beg Jesus to delay punishment.
[SPEAKER_00]: They beg him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't punish us yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: They beg him to not force them to leave the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew the gig was up and that Jesus was coming to save this man and they wanted to get as best of a deal out of it as they could muster.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were powerless at the complete and utter authority of God in the flesh, standing before them, their own judge and prosecutor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, guys, think about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Should we, should this not be a comfort to us?
[SPEAKER_00]: When a world that is fascinated with spiritual darkness loves to highlight the sinful, the pravity of the demonic world,
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This demonic world that our world loves to celebrate and put on display.
[SPEAKER_00]: It must reckon with the fact that the Son of God has already broken their power.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit by which Jesus as the God man cast out the demons resides in us to protect us, to strengthen us, to guard us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, the same spirit that was in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, we don't serve, and this is really, really important.
[SPEAKER_00]: No matter what the world tries to tell you when it's celebration of spiritual darkness, we don't serve some placid, a limpristin man who became a god like Mormonism teaches, or a weak and powerless man who stayed dead after the crucifixion like Islam teaches, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know who Christians worship?
[SPEAKER_00]: They worship the one as Revelation 19 records, one whose eyes are like a flame of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on his head, there's many diademes and as a name written, the no one knows but himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's clothed and erode dipped in the blood of his enemies, and a name by which is called the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: From his mouth comes a sharp sword which strikes down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he will tread the wine press of the fear of the wrath of God Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh has a name written king of kings and Lord of lords.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's who we worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't worship some guy who doesn't know what he's doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's who we worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's before whom the demons tremble and
[SPEAKER_00]: But additionally, I don't just want to turn this a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this passage also gives us an example of what James too says that even the demons believe in shudder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you've wondered what that means when you've read that passage in the book of James.
[SPEAKER_00]: And short, the demons believe and recognize Jesus as Lord of all things and create or God, but they don't worship and trust in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't worship and personally trust in Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, you want to know the difference between the demonic faith and an evangelical faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: A demonic faith professes Jesus as God, but a true faith professes Jesus as Savior of my soul and Lord of my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: Demons don't desire Jesus to save them and yet they still bow the knee, friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you recognized Jesus is God but not embraced him as the cure for your sinful condition?
[SPEAKER_00]: He is keen and you'll bow someday regardless, but the call of the gospel is that you would repent of your sin and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the gospel call is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why care about that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why think about that way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because, you know who else, Christians worship?
[SPEAKER_00]: The same powerful warrior keen is also the gentle and lowly high priest.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's who Christians worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Hebrews 4 reminds us, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Hebrews says, let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we see going on with this man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, you wanna know why Jesus had compassion on this man, and man who is unclean in every way, because just like this man, Jesus would one day on a cross be oppressed by dark forces who were held in on his destruction.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because just like this man, Jesus on a cross would be isolated from those that care about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because just like this man, Jesus would experience deep, emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical anguish, as he's surrounded by death.
[SPEAKER_00]: But unlike this man, Jesus is suffering.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was undeserved and he didn't have any internal darkness of sin in his soul, friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's turn this on ourselves a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do we keep falling into the temptation to think that Jesus doesn't understand the pain we're going through?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't we constantly fall into this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is so high holding lifted up, seated at the right hand of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you sure about that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That darkness in you is too much for him, that the filth, the guilt, the shame, that it would only cause Jesus to recoil and discuss and set instead of drive him near.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no way he would show mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, Jesus desires to heal your brokenness, restore your dignity, and cleanse your record.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not only able, He is willing, as one field-ogen put it, it's an interesting that we're so used to a fallen world that sickness, disease, and pain, they send death.
[SPEAKER_00]: They seem natural.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, it's really an actuality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' healings are not supernatural miracles in a natural world.
[SPEAKER_00]: In one sense, there's the only true, and the truly natural thing in a world that's unnaturally demonized and wounded.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because sin, death, and decay was actually an intruder in the original creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is restoring that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So do you feel demonized by darkness?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let Jesus free you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel wounded by your suffering or or even suffering that's been put upon you from those around you?
[SPEAKER_00]: If that's you, let Jesus heal you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those ancestors, do you feel oppressed by the guilt and power of sin and this sort of hold that it has on your heart or your conscience?
[SPEAKER_00]: If that's you this morning, let Jesus forgive you.
[SPEAKER_00]: or will you just stay away?
[SPEAKER_00]: No Lord, I'm too dark, I'm too dirty, I'm too guilty, no, no, let Jesus heal you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He desires to forgive, he desires to heal, he desires to restore.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's, I mean, how sad would it be if he was willing, but not able?
[SPEAKER_00]: How sad would it be if he was able, but not willing?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, in Christ, we have one who is both willing and able to forgive and receive sinners.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on that note, friends, that brings us to our second point, which is that, when we declare Jesus, we declare Jesus's mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We declare His mercy, not just His power, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That goes back to that willing and able thing I just said, not just His power, but His mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is in verses 14 through 20 if you want to fall along, in verse 14, Mark records.
[SPEAKER_00]: and told it in the city and in the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: And people came to see what it was that had happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed man.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one who had had the legion sitting there clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those who had seen it describe to them what had happened to the demon possessed man and to the pigs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.
[SPEAKER_00]: As he was sitting and as he was sitting in the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he meaning Jesus 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.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he went away and began to proclaim in the decouple as how much Jesus had done for him when everyone marveled.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, author, and theologian A.W.
[SPEAKER_00]: toes are famously once said, what comes to our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the most important thing about us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's spot on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me pose this to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, when you first think of God, and how he is toward you a sinner, is mercy the first thing you think of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are an unrepentant sinner who truly desires nothing from God, you want nothing to do with them then yes, it would be correct and wise for you to think of God's holiness as justice and his purity, up against your impurity, rebellion and guilt.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you do desire even a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: to be at peace with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you're already at peace with God since you were a Christian, the Lord has saved you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think of the way the apostle Paul calls him as we read earlier in St. Corinthians 1, 2, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort?
[SPEAKER_00]: When you sinned, do you think of Romans chapter 2 verse 4 where Paul says, plainly, God's kindness is what leads us to repentance?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that what pops in your brain when you first think of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, this passage calls us to believe with philogen, Matthew Henry says, and that all the compassions of all the tender fathers in the world compared with the tender mercies of our God would be like a candle to the sun or a drop to the ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, as we know from Hebrews 1, Jesus is the exact imprint and representation of God's nature, and who He is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is why mercy overflows from Him to this man and it's passage of Mark 5.
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, as we go through this last section, I would ask you, do not dishonor God by failing to think of his mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not dishonor him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not dishonour him by failing to think of his grace, his mercy, and his compassion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when we see what's happened in verses 14 and 15, notice how the people they respond and what did they behold?
[SPEAKER_00]: They came to Jesus and they see this demon possessed man.
[SPEAKER_00]: The ones who had had the Legion, he's sitting there, closed in his right mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's their response?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not worship their afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man's violence, he's disappeared, has disappeared, his body is closed, his mind is set right.
[SPEAKER_00]: All by the gracious power of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: But once again, notice the response of the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They see what's happened to the man and the pegs drowning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And once again, instead of falling on their knees and worship, they beg Jesus to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: They beg Him to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's probable that they desire to Jesus leave because for a few different reasons, one, they probably lost a lot of profit from the pigs drowning in the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: And number two, they didn't know who Jesus was.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as far as they're concerned, he's just a powerful magician or something, and they'll know what he's gonna do next.
[SPEAKER_00]: Better to play it safe and get him out of here, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Brothers and sisters, what is your response to Jesus this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you rather not have anything to do with Jesus than to experience mercy and grace?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you know, this all powerful man, he won't allow you to have ownership of your life anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's not forget, Jesus, he's free and loving in his dispense of mercy and grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he won't accept somebody else sitting on the throne of your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you instinctively know that and so I don't want to receive the mercy and grace of God because I love myself and I love my sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you rather not have anything to do with Jesus than experience his mercy and grace?
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, I mean, think about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, he doesn't allow his perfect righteousness to mix with your filthy self-righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a really important thing to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: You either have all of Christ or you have none of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's really interesting, the crowd, like many crowds in Jesus' ministry, they make it clear that they want nothing to do with him and so they bake him to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it isn't interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know they can't force him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what do they do?
[SPEAKER_00]: They do the exact same thing that the demons do.
[SPEAKER_00]: They bake him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They bake him in request.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus' obliged, he obliges.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: And verse 18, we read how as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons, he begged him that he might be with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is such a rich verse, guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, let's notice a few things.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, notice how God's sovereign grace sought this man out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus comes to this shore with a divine appointment to heal this man wandering him on the tombs in an unclean Gentile region.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he's done, Jesus just gets back in the boat and leaves, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: To the disciples, the whole situation probably just seems random and chaotic, but what they don't know is what Jesus knows, which is actually no, we're going across the other side of the sea because I have an appointment to heal a demon possessed man.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just an amazing, you see this happened all the time, Jesus ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you think about Jesus with the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: That wasn't some random instance.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that was by divine appointment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus to meet with this woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an amazing thing, because once again, in a Jewish mine, this is a Gentile.
[SPEAKER_00]: They wouldn't have naturally thought that this Gentile could expect mercy from the God of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, guys, think of the providence of God who before the foundations of the world, he sought to include this man in the redemptive work of the Messiah of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus said in Luke 1910, he came to seek and save the lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: Additionally, we can see how the man is not simply probably desiring to be with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's actually probably desiring to be with one of his disciples or apostles, believe or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: He, a man previously possessed by demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: He desires to be with Jesus, which is the same language in Mark 314 where Jesus himself appoints the 12 apostles where he says, so that they might be with him and might send them out to preach and have authority cast out demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 20, we read, as Mark records, or actually, let's go back to verse 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we get in verse 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the man went away and began to proclaim in the decapitalist, how much Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two things that's interesting on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it like every instance where Jesus heals somebody, almost every entrance, where Jesus heals somebody in the gospel accounts?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you guys remember what Jesus is often telling them?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, don't tell anybody about this yet, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Keep it to yourself, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Go to Moses, follow the law, keep it to yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does the opposite with this guy, go and tell everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's because they're in a Gentile region.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't even know the God of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody needs to know this, but this is a really interesting connection as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice in verse 19, Jesus tells them how much the Lord has done for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in verse 20, Mark says, how much Jesus had done for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see that connection about the divinity of Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: How much God has done for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: How much Jesus has done for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus has gone, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an amazing thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses and sisters, as we close, I have two questions for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two questions, OK?
[SPEAKER_00]: First, very simple, but more profound than you might think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you desire to be with Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you desire to be with Christ, to be in His presence, where there's fullness of joy, peace for your soul,
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, we experience a piece of this heavenly bliss now when we open God's Word, come to Him in prayer and worship together like we're doing now on the Lord's day.
[SPEAKER_00]: But do you desire to be with Him in the eternal bliss to come?
[SPEAKER_00]: How often do you find yourself meditating on your new creation and relationship with Jesus Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, guys, part of the reason that this passage hits me so deeply is because I resonate deeply with this man, deeply.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I've never been possessed by demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was once guilty of sins penalty and slave to sins power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus free me from such an oppressive state.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he saved me from the eternal judgment that far outweighs this man's spiritual darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And both from the moment of being saved to this very day, I often feel a deep longing to go be with my precious Savior and just bask in his presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've often joked with people where if he turned he was just Jesus and I sit by late just talking, that's all I need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I literally, I don't need anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I could just be with the one who gave it all for me, when he shouldn't have
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends, I'm convinced at this point that the only reason I'm a pastor is because Jesus desires for me the same thing he did for this man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go home and tell your friends how much the Lord has done for you and how much he's had mercy on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we don't desire our heavenly home with Christ, let me ask you, could it be because we're too earthly minded?
[SPEAKER_00]: Too consumed with worldly comfort, surothy distractions, temporary anxieties, guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would argue that the call of Scripture in the New Testament is to actually be exceedingly heavily minded so that you can be earthly good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, when people ask you about Jesus, do you tell them of his mercies?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you tell them what periods in Thomas Goodwin Highlights of Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: If your heart is hard, his mercies are tender.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your heart is dead, he has mercy to revive it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are sick, he has mercy to heal you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are sinful, he has mercy to sanctify and cleanse you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as in sisters, when you declare Jesus, by all means, the clare is holiness, his right to judge and his wrath towards unrepentance sin, but don't forget that when you declare Jesus, you are also declaring the one who is gentle and lowly in heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when you were declaring Jesus, you were declaring the one who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love in faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will not always chied, nor will he keep his anger forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor pay us according to our iniquities.
[SPEAKER_00]: As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great as his steadfast love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Redeemer Church, if you desire to give people Jesus Christ, then I urge you this morning, as we close.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please, remember that we show people who Jesus is by declaring His power and His mercy, His power and His mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray together.