Three Displays of Power:

Evil has the power to DESTROY. (Mk 5:1-7)

The Abyss (read):

Ephesians 6:12 -

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Jesus has the power to DELIVER. (Mk 5:8-15)

Jesus has the power to DIVIDE. (Mk 5:16-20)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:05
Open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 5.
00:07-00:27
While you're turning there, last week, if you were here, we talked about the account where Jesus and the disciples were crossing the sea, and remember the storm came up, the hurricane came up, and where was Jesus?
00:30-00:32
And what were the disciples doing?
00:33-00:35
Freaking, right, freaking out.
00:36-00:38
That was the exact word that I was thinking.
00:40-00:41
That scares me a little bit, Jay.
00:45-00:46
Last week we talked about fear.
00:49-00:57
Picking up on that theme, I want to talk about fear as we go into Mark chapter 5, because this is still the theme, okay?
00:58-01:00
This is another passage about fear.
01:03-01:09
You're like, "Pastor Jeff, do you have any fears besides sharks?" And I do.
01:11-01:15
I have a huge fear for this church.
01:17-01:21
And it's a fear that you should have for yourself.
01:23-01:30
You know, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 5 talks about a form of godliness but denying its power.
01:32-01:50
And as a pastor, one of the greatest fears that I carry is that we would be a church can conduct business without seeing God's power at work.
01:53-02:07
I mean we can be friendly, we can have a structure, and we can have programs, and we can have talented musicians, and we can have good teachers, and we can do all of these things without actually seeing God's power.
02:10-02:12
But please don't take this as a panic button.
02:13-02:14
We have seen God's power.
02:16-02:17
We've seen God's power in provision.
02:18-02:23
I could tell you stories again and again when we didn't have it, but God provided it.
02:25-02:36
I could tell you stories of people who have come to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in this church and through this ministry, and marriages saved, and God at work in the hearts of people.
02:38-02:43
Over and over and over in the young life of this church, we have seen God's power at work.
02:44-02:55
So understand when I say I have this fear, my fear is to slip into autopilot and to try to carry out the work in our own power.
02:56-03:09
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God, and it is about the one who has all power, And it is about the one who displays his power.
03:11-03:16
And that last phrase might be where we deviate in this room.
03:17-03:24
If I said, "Do you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ is God's power?" Most of us would say, "Yeah." Probably all of us.
03:24-03:54
"Do you believe that God has all power?" "Yeah." power, there are going to be some people in this room that say, "Yes, He does." And there are going to be some people in this room that say, "I'm not so sure about that." The truth is that the Lord never changes.
03:56-04:20
that God is just as powerful today as He was when He spoke the world into existence, as He was when He led the Israelites out of Egypt, as He was when He walked on this earth as a man, and as He will be when He returns.
04:23-04:25
God is a God of power.
04:27-04:34
And God is about displaying His power mightily among His people.
04:34-04:36
So you're like, "Okay, you're talking about power.
04:37-04:45
Okay, what do you mean by power?" I'm so glad that you asked because in Mark chapter 5, do you have your sermon outline?
04:46-04:49
Mark chapter 5 is really about three displays of power.
04:50-04:55
The first one is this, write this down, number one, evil has the power to destroy.
04:56-05:05
Okay before we talk about God's power, we have to acknowledge that there is another power at work in this world.
05:05-05:10
There is another power very active right now in this world, and it is the power of evil.
05:13-05:15
And evil has the power to destroy.
05:16-05:17
Look at verse 1.
05:18-05:20
Remember the context?
05:21-05:24
Jesus said, "We're going to the other side." Storm.
05:25-05:25
Jesus sleeping.
05:26-05:27
Disciples freaking out.
05:27-05:28
Jesus calms the storm.
05:29-05:32
He says to the disciples, "Why are you so afraid?
05:33-05:37
Have you still no faith?" Disciples terrified of Jesus.
05:38-06:05
1 and chapter 5 says, "They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes." Now this would have been a path going from the northwest of the Sea of Galilee, traveling east about a six-mile journey, around the curve, landing in Gentile country.
06:08-06:14
Now, if you can imagine the disciples, put yourself in the place of the disciples here for a second.
06:16-06:19
You were just in a canoe during a hurricane.
06:20-06:25
Okay, it was a little bigger than a canoe, it probably seated about 15 or 20 people, but it wasn't the Carnival cruise ship, okay?
06:26-06:31
So you're in this little boat with Jesus, through a hurricane, and you land on the other side.
06:31-06:32
What's the first thing you do?
06:33-06:34
Like kiss the ground, right?
06:35-06:36
Anybody else with me?
06:37-06:42
Like, "Ha, ha, ha." Yeah, still a little shaky from the hurricane thing.
06:43-06:45
The next thing I'm thinking is coffee.
06:45-06:45
How about you?
06:47-06:50
Well, look at verse 2.
06:51-07:16
It says, "And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit." Jesus steps out of the boat, and as soon as He steps out of the boat, the welcome committee shows up.
07:18-07:23
The Gerasenes apparently had an assimilation ministry that this was how they greeted people.
07:26-07:27
No, not exactly.
07:29-07:32
The Bible says that He had an unclean spirit or a demon.
07:32-07:34
I want to talk about demons for a second.
07:36-07:42
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, he said, "We can have two wrong extremes when it comes to the demonic.
07:44-07:47
We can be obsessed with them or we can deny them." Right?
07:47-07:48
Those are the extremes.
07:49-07:53
There are some people that are like, "Ah, demons, I don't believe that." You better.
07:56-07:57
God's Word talks about it even today.
07:57-07:58
We'll get to that in a second.
07:59-08:02
But then there are some people that are looking for a demon behind everything.
08:03-08:21
You know, little Jimmy's got the sniffles, and it's like, "He's got the cold demon." And you know, your boss yells at you at work, "My boss has a demon!" And like everybody and everything, you know, "My car won't start," you know, "My carburetor has a demon!" And both of those extremes are wrong.
08:23-08:24
Are demons active today?
08:26-08:26
Yes, they are.
08:28-08:38
And I'll be honest with you as a pastor, it is often hard to discern what is mental illness and what is demonic.
08:41-08:52
I have met several people in my ministry that I have really wondered if they had a demon.
08:53-08:53
True.
08:56-09:22
making light. We had this guy that used to, he was one of those guys, I guarantee you right this minute he's walking around downtown Butler, but he would often stop into the office and just want to talk. And he told me about this secret song of the tribes of Israel that he discovered in the Bible, and he sang it for me. And then he told me about these documents that he needed mailed to the president.
09:26-09:36
I've had a lot of long and very interesting conversations with this man, and I've often wondered is he mentally ill, or does he have a demon?
09:38-09:40
It's hard to discern.
09:42-09:43
What is a demon?
09:43-09:45
Well, demons are actually angels.
09:46-09:57
Specifically, the Bible tells us that a third of the angels rebelled against God, led by Satan, and God cast them out of heaven.
09:57-09:59
That's in Revelation 12, 4.
10:00-10:02
They are agents of the enemy.
10:02-10:13
Okay, so God has His angels, and Satan has his demons, but God is still sovereign over satanic and demonic activity.
10:13-10:15
And I'm going to say that again because that is so important.
10:16-10:21
God is still sovereign over demonic and satanic activity.
10:23-10:26
Demons ultimately do God's purpose.
10:28-10:33
We talked about this last month, remember, in our series on depression when we spent some time in the book of Job.
10:35-10:41
Satan's desire was to afflict and destroy and have Job abandon his faith.
10:42-10:51
And that was the very thing that God used in Job's life to draw him closer to God.
10:53-10:55
I don't always understand how that works.
10:55-10:57
It doesn't matter if I understand how it works.
10:57-10:58
God never told me to understand Him.
10:59-11:00
God has called me to trust Him.
11:02-11:19
So when the Bible says that God even uses demons to accomplish His purposes, all I can say is, "God uses demons to accomplish His purposes." I know of several instances, even in Scripture, where the Bible talks about that. He does.
11:22-11:42
Well, with the storm, Jesus showed His power over the natural, but what we're about to see here in this passage is Jesus showed His power over the supernatural. You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I was here before when we talked about Jesus casting out demons." Yeah, that was nothing like compared to what's coming up in this passage here.
11:44-11:49
This account in Mark chapter 5, it's also in Luke chapter 8, it's in Matthew chapter 8.
11:52-12:01
There was nothing else in the ministry of Jesus like this, and there's not going to be anything else like this until after the tribulation.
12:04-12:10
The Bible says Jesus stepped out of the boat and immediately there met Him, excuse me, out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.
12:11-12:15
Verse 3 says He lived among the tombs.
12:16-12:17
What's that all about?
12:17-12:21
Well, when we think of the tombs, we think of a modern day graveyard.
12:23-12:26
But these tombs would have been little caves that were carved into the hill.
12:27-12:32
Actually, you can travel to this area today and still see these tombs.
12:33-12:38
They're cut into the hill, these little caves, and this man lived there.
12:40-12:47
When you compare this account with Matthew's account and with Luke's account, they give some more details.
12:50-12:54
Matthew tells us that people were afraid to travel through that area because of this man.
12:55-12:59
Anybody else like, "Yeah, that's not the neighborhood I would go to," that would totally be me.
13:00-13:02
Luke also tells us that the man was naked.
13:04-13:05
Could you imagine how terrifying that was?
13:06-13:08
Like don't go near the cemetery.
13:08-13:09
Why?
13:10-13:12
Because the naked maniac lives there.
13:13-13:15
People were scared to death of this man.
13:18-13:22
They're like, "Well, surely somebody would have tried to do something about him." Not true.
13:23-13:37
Look at verse 3, "And no one could bind him anymore, 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 in pieces.
13:37-13:41
No one had the strength to subdue him.
13:44-13:52
We live in a day where if somebody is mentally ill or seems to be mentally ill, we have medication for that.
13:52-13:54
We have mind-numbing drugs.
13:54-13:59
But understand, it wasn't too long ago in history before the mind-numbing drugs.
13:59-14:03
What did we do with people who were apparently mentally ill?
14:04-14:06
Straight jacket and padded room, right?
14:06-14:07
That's just throughout history.
14:07-14:08
That's always been the way.
14:08-14:10
We don't know what to do with this guy.
14:10-14:13
He's obviously harmful to himself, and he's obviously a danger to others.
14:14-14:19
So we'll just tie him up and put him in a room where hopefully no one gets hurt.
14:20-14:22
Mark is telling us, "Yeah, they tried that.
14:23-14:24
They tried to bind this guy.
14:25-14:35
They tried to put the straitjacket on the guy, but this guy was such a monster that every time they bound him, he just ripped out of him like Superman.
14:37-14:52
Look at verse 5, it says, "Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones." OK, scale of 1 to 10, how scary was this guy?
14:53-14:57
One being kitten, ten being scared to death of this guy.
14:59-15:00
Ten?
15:01-15:01
All in favor of ten?
15:02-15:03
Yeah, that's me.
15:03-15:04
Could you imagine this?
15:04-15:13
Okay, so there's this naked guy that lives in the tombs, and day and night, if you got close enough to listen, you could hear the guy screaming out.
15:16-15:19
If you could get close enough to get a look at him, what was he doing?
15:19-15:29
He was taking stones and cutting himself, just ripping his flesh from his own body as he sits among the tombs naked.
15:31-15:32
This is absolutely terrifying.
15:34-15:45
And then you have Jesus who says to His disciples, "We have to go to the other side." And this guy was why.
15:47-15:59
Look at verse 6, it says, "And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before Him." Like, well, how did he recognize Jesus?
16:00-16:02
I don't believe the man recognized Jesus at all.
16:02-16:06
I believe the demons recognized Jesus because the Word was out.
16:09-16:11
I don't know how demons communicate.
16:11-16:17
I don't know if they were sending each other emails or text messages, AOL, instant messenger.
16:17-16:20
I don't know how they were communicating, probably not AOL.
16:20-16:31
I don't know how they were communicating with each other, but word was out that God was walking around on the earth casting out demons.
16:32-16:46
So these demons recognized Jesus, like, "Wow, it seems like there was a lot of demonic activity in Jesus' day." Yeah, it does seem that way because Jesus drew them out, you see.
16:47-16:55
That's why you see so much demonic activity, because when these demons saw Jesus, they were terrified.
16:57-16:58
Terrified!
17:00-17:06
Look at verse 7, it says, "And crying out with a loud voice." We talked about this previously, didn't we?
17:07-17:12
Every time a demon encounters Jesus, the Bible always says they cried out with a loud voice.
17:12-17:13
What does that mean?
17:13-17:16
We actually had Jay Naur demonstrate this last time, do you remember?
17:19-17:21
They were crying out in absolute terror.
17:23-17:23
Okay?
17:23-17:30
Like, you know the sound that you would make if you stepped into the shower and saw like a big hairy spider?
17:31-17:32
You know the sound you would make?
17:34-17:35
Imagine that times a billion.
17:37-17:41
These demons were scared to death to be in the presence of Jesus Christ.
17:43-18:00
Look at what the demon said through the man, again crying out, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" What's that all about?
18:04-18:16
Well, in Matthew's account, he records a little bit more of the conversation, and Matthew Matthew includes this phrase in Matthew chapter 8, the phrase "before the time." Like Jesus, what are you doing here before the time?
18:16-18:17
What does that mean?
18:17-18:23
These demons knew that someday God was going to judge them for their rebellion.
18:27-18:31
And these demons knew that according to God's calendar, this wasn't the time.
18:32-18:50
So they're like, "Jesus, what are you doing here now?" That's what they were saying when they cried out, "What have you to do with me, Jesus?" Or to put it in a modern context, imagine you're at work and your boss leaves, and you're staying after hours to work.
18:52-18:54
But instead of working, you're just kind of goofing off.
18:55-19:04
And maybe you're goofing off and misusing some of the materials of the company, and then your boss walks back in.
19:05-19:06
And what do you say?
19:07-19:10
What are you doing here?" And he's like, "I work here.
19:10-19:17
What are you doing here?" With that concept of, "What are you doing here?" That's what these demons were saying to Jesus.
19:17-19:19
"What are you doing here?
19:22-19:31
What are you going to do with us?" And then they say, "I adjure you by God." This is just like flat-out begging.
19:32-20:23
his face, begging, "Do not torment me." Luke chapter 8 says that they were begging not to be sent to the abyss. Luke chapter 8 verse 31, they begged, "Please don't send us to the abyss." You're like, "Well, what is the abyss?" Did you know that there's actually a prison for demons. Did you know that? All through the Bible actually we see this. 1 Peter 3 verses 19-20, 2 Peter 2 verse 4, Jude verses 6-7, 4 times in the book of Revelation, Revelation 9-1, Revelation 11-7, Revelation 17-8, Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 and 3.
20:24-20:37
The Bible talks about this prison for demons, that there are certain demons that are so vile, even going back to the days of Genesis chapter 6, that God imprisoned these demons.
20:40-20:47
And these demons were crying out, "Please, don't send us there.
20:49-20:51
We know about the prison.
20:52-21:04
We know that you have this place of eternal chains, the Bible calls it, this place for demons where you lock us up.
21:05-21:08
Please don't send us there.
21:13-21:41
And you and I come and we say, "Well, why not send them to the pit?" back to what I said earlier. Apparently Jesus has a reason for not doing it now. Do you think Jesus had the power to send them to the pit right then and there? Absolutely He did. But He didn't. He must have had a reason. And I would also add, there is going to come a day, that He's going to deal with them once and for all.
21:45-21:46
Do not torment me.
21:47-21:49
So yes, demonic power is real.
21:50-21:56
Yes, Satan and his agents are still in the business of destruction in church.
21:58-22:08
Yes, if we are going to see God at work, we have to wrestle forces of evil and the power of Jesus.
22:13-22:15
Ephesians 6.12, I have it on your outline, but look at that with me.
22:16-22:44
Ephesians 6.12, the Apostle Paul tells the church in Ephesus this reminder, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places." So if you think as a church that our greatest conflict is going to be from some person of influence, you're wrong.
22:45-22:47
The Bible tells us our conflict is spiritual.
22:49-22:52
There's a real spiritual war happening right now.
22:54-22:56
Evil has the power to destroy.
22:59-23:03
Secondly, good news, Jesus has the power to deliver.
23:06-23:08
Jesus has the power to deliver.
23:08-23:09
Look at verse 8.
23:11-23:41
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.
23:42-23:45
There's some significance in that name "legion." What is a legion?
23:45-23:47
Well, it was a group of soldiers, actually.
23:48-23:53
A legion could consist of up to 6,000 Roman soldiers.
23:54-24:02
And apparently, you'll see why here in a minute, apparently this man had up to 2,000 demons inside of him.
24:06-24:29
commentators say, "Well, they were just trying to intimidate Jesus here." Like, "What's your name?" Like, "We're Legion. There's like 2,000 of us." Like, "What is that to Jesus?" You think Jesus was scared? As scared as you would be of 2,000 ants, okay?
24:30-25:11
They're like, "Believe me, they weren't trying to intimidate Jesus. You know what doing?" Jesus said, "What's your name?" And they were saying, "Sir, Legion, Sir." That's what they were doing, scared to death. "Our name is Legion, for we are many." And then, interestingly, they said, "Don't send us out of the country," verse 10. They begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Why did they want to stay there? I don't know.
25:13-25:27
Apparently that was their territory and they wanted to stay in their territory. And they begged Jesus, "Let us just stay here. Don't send us out of the country." This is where story gets absolutely crazy.
25:29-25:30
Everybody with me so far?
25:31-25:52
Verse 11 says, "Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him saying, 'Send us to the pigs, let us enter them.'" Isn't that like the weirdest request?
25:53-26:06
Jesus is like, "Get out of the man," and they're like, "We don't want to leave the country, and please don't torment us." "Put us in the pigs." If that wasn't mind-blowing enough, look at verse 13.
26:06-26:12
It says, "So he gave them permission." Jesus said, "You want in the pigs?
26:15-26:16
Okay." He gave them permission.
26:17-26:27
The unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about 2,000, They rushed down this deep bank into the sea and were drowned into the sea.
26:29-26:37
The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country and people came to see what it was that had happened.
26:39-26:41
So I don't know what you did the last week.
26:42-26:43
Do you want to know what I did?
26:44-26:52
I asked myself repeatedly, "What is up with the pigs?" And here's the best answer that I could come up with.
26:53-26:53
You ready for this?
26:54-26:54
Write this down.
26:55-26:56
Anybody need a pencil?
26:56-27:01
Here's the best answer for what happened to the pigs, or what's up with the pigs rather.
27:01-27:01
We know what happened.
27:01-27:02
What's up with the pigs?
27:02-27:03
Here's the answer.
27:04-27:05
I don't know.
27:06-27:09
Further, I don't know if anyone other than Jesus knows.
27:13-27:14
This raises a lot of questions.
27:15-27:16
Can animals be possessed?
27:19-27:20
Apparently the answer is yes.
27:21-27:23
Does anybody here have a cat?
27:25-27:27
It's not going to be a hard sell for you.
27:29-27:31
But apparently animals can be possessed.
27:33-27:37
Demons can somehow dominate their brains and their behaviors.
27:38-27:45
Interestingly in the text we don't see anybody complaining about the pigs, nor do we see here in a second anybody rejoicing over the man.
27:45-27:47
You know I was thinking about this this week.
27:48-27:53
If this like happened today, what would be in the news?
27:55-28:02
If this account happened today, and you got on CNN.com to read about it, what would it say?
28:02-28:03
Do we have that picture of the pig?
28:05-28:08
If this happened today, here's exactly what would happen.
28:09-28:26
you turn on your TV, watching the Olympics, it would go to commercial break, and this picture would come on your TV screen, and Sarah McLachlan would start singing.
28:28-28:29
All right, everybody, look at the picture.
28:32-28:45
This would come on the screen and you would hear, "In the arms of the angel, far away from here, from the..." Stop right there.
28:49-28:51
People would be livid.
28:53-28:55
PETA would be all over this.
28:59-29:08
There's poor pigs." It's a crazy request that they ask to go in the pigs.
29:10-29:11
Here's something we do know for sure.
29:11-29:12
Why did Jesus permit it?
29:13-29:14
Well, there's actually three reasons.
29:15-29:16
This is for sure.
29:17-29:18
This is for sure.
29:18-29:19
Why did Jesus permit it?
29:19-29:26
Reason number one, it proves demons' MO, modus operandi.
29:27-29:29
It proves demons MO, which is what?
29:30-29:30
Chaos.
29:32-29:42
Demons have a way of removing the normal instincts and restraints as they did for the man, so they did for the pigs.
29:44-29:49
Pigs don't typically run down as a herd and commit mass suicide.
29:52-29:58
That shows you the destructive thought patterns, the destructive work of demons.
29:59-30:03
There's a couple other reasons Jesus permitted this.
30:05-30:08
Second reason is it proves that they left the man, right?
30:09-30:10
It proves that.
30:12-30:16
Jesus is like, "Come out, you unclean spirit," and like nothing apparently visibly happens.
30:16-32:00
You might have had a bunch of people standing around going, "Did anything happen?" very graphic way to show that something supernatural just happened. And that leads to the third reason that Jesus did this. It displayed His power. It displayed His power. He gave them permission, proving His sovereignty, proving that demons do nothing without His permission. And church, I would say to you still today, Jesus has the power to deliver. There's somebody sitting here today who doesn't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and you feel like I've done too many things wrong, and I've screwed so much up, and you don't understand the mess that I've made of my life. Jesus' power is greater than your sin. Don't undermine the God of the universe who sacrificed his own Son to pay for your who resurrected Him from the dead so that we might have eternal life. Somehow we look at the work of God and then we look at the works of our own life and we put them on the scale and say my sin is greater than God's grace. Never. You have you have no idea how much God loves you. He demonstrated it on the cross, but even with that demonstration, His love is greater than anything that we could ever fathom. His love for you and His power over your sin is greater than you'll ever know.
32:03-32:24
There are some people here facing what we often call "besetting sins" or "habitual sins." There are people here that are wrestling with addiction. Maybe there is somebody here They're addicted to some chemical thing, whether it's prescription medication or alcohol or whatever.
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Maybe there's somebody here addicted to pornography.
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Really all addiction is is a worship disorder.
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Instead of worshiping God, you've decided to worship something else.
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The problem is it's so binding.
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It's so enslaving.
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having a hard time breaking the habit.
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Maybe you're besetting sin as anger, or gossip, or impatience, or fear.
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Sadly, what do we do when we face these things?
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What we've learned to do is this.
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We go to seminars, and we read books, and we try secular psychological techniques, and You know, what does Dr. Phil say about this?
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The answer is what we need, what we really need is power.
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That's what you need.
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You need power.
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And according to the Bible, there are two things that are called the power of God.
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Jesus, obviously, He is God.
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But outside of God Himself, outside of Jesus Christ Himself, the only thing that the Bible refers to as the power of God is what, do you know? It's the gospel. That's what you need. I am not ashamed of the gospel, Romans 1:16, for it is what? It is the power of God.
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You don't need a seminar. You don't need to take a class. You don't need a self-help conference to wrestle with sin.
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What you need is the power that God has already provided through His Holy Spirit and through His Word.
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Jesus has the power to deliver.
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And finally for today, Jesus not only has the power to deliver, but Jesus has the power to divide.
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Jesus has the power to divide.
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Verse 15 it says, "And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind." Remember this guy?
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He was the guy like 15 minutes ago, was cutting himself and screaming and naked and running around and terrorizing an entire neighborhood.
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And now what's he doing?
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He's dressed, sitting there with Jesus, and look at the end of verse 15, it says, "And they were afraid.
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And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs." If you were there and saw that, like how many times would you repeat that story?
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Like dude, you're not going to believe what I saw.
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Like remember a crazy guy?
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Remember a screaming, cutting guy that lived in the cemetery?
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Okay so like this Jewish guy shows up with like some of his Jewish friends and the guy like runs up to him and then all of a sudden all the pigs like run into the water and like drown themselves.
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Dude, I'll never forget it.
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That was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life.
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So Jesus performs such an awesome and obvious miracle and it's like, "Hey, how would you like to move into our neighborhood, Jesus?" Sadly, no.
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Look at verse 17, "And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region." They begged him to leave.
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Interestingly, the demons earlier had begged to stay.
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These people were so scared of Jesus that they begged Him to leave.
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And according to verse 18, He did.
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It says that as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with the demons begged Him that he might be with Him.
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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." He went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
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Jesus has a way of staying, Jesus has a way of not staying where he's not welcome.
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These residents went from fearing the demoniac to fearing Jesus.
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And isn't it true that people would rather be scared of Satan than of God?
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Why is that?
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Because Satan doesn't infringe upon your sinful behavior.
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Satan doesn't call you to surrender to righteousness.
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Satan doesn't call you to die to yourself, to live for others.
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So people would rather be scared of Satan than of God.
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They beg Jesus to leave.
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A lot of begging in this passage.
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And the man begs Jesus to go with him.
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But instead, he became the first preacher that Jesus sent out.
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You know that?
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This is the first guy in the Bible that Jesus sent out to preach.
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No training, no seminary, no Bible college, and no excuses.
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Just a word about evangelism.
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You know, so often when we talk about evangelism, one of the common responses we hear is, "Well, you know, I'd like to be able to share the Bible with people, but I don't know very much." What did this guy know?
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He knew that Jesus was awesome and he had power to deliver, and that was pretty much it.
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This guy had like one sermon.
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Like, "Jesus is awesome and he delivered me.
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Jesus is awesome and he delivered me." And you should get to know Jesus.
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Like this guy had like very little material.
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He didn't need it.
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Neither do you.
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Yes, you should grow in the study and understanding of the Word of God.
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Absolutely.
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That's why we have men's Bible study and ladies' Bible study in small groups and we get into God's Word here.
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We want to grow in the knowledge of God's Word, but don't let the lack of that hinder you from sharing the gospel with people.
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Here's how easy evangelism was.
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Notice what Jesus said in verse 19.
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He says, "Go home to your friends." Jesus didn't say, "Now that you're a follower of Jesus, you're going to be a missionary in deepest, darkest Africa.
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Hey, if he calls you to that, do it." He doesn't call everybody to that.
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The first place you need to be an evangelist is where?
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Home.
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Like, "Well, who should I share the gospel with?" Your friends.
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Go to your workplace.
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Go to your family.
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Go to your friends and what should I tell them?
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Tell them how much the Lord has done for you.
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Do you have a story like that?
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Do you have a story like that?
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I was walking in sin and somebody shared the gospel with me and I received Jesus Christ by faith and he has radically changed me.
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You know what, I'm not yet the person that I wanna be, but I thank God I'm not the person that I was.
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He's changing me, he's changed me and he is continuing to change me.
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You get a story like that.
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Share that.
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That's all this guy was called to.
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He says, "Tell them how much the Lord has done for you "and how he had mercy on you." You got that?
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The guy's like, "Yeah, I got that.
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"I just experienced." All right, go do it.
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No training, no excuses.
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Go home, go to the people that you know and tell them how awesome Jesus Christ is.
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But you have to see here in this passage, when Jesus shows up powerfully, when Jesus shows up powerfully, he instantly divides people.
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When Jesus shows up powerfully, there are going to be a group of people who are very uncomfortable with that.
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And you're going to have another group of people who become missionaries.
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But you have to see that those are the only two options.
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Either you're not really interested in Jesus and would rather ignore Him, rather Him not intrude upon your life.
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I've got my own little happy thing going here, and Jesus is going to certainly step on my toes if I get really serious about Him.
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Like, "Jesus, can you please leave?" Like these guys.
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So, there's those people, and there's missionaries.
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Those are the only two options.
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There is no middle ground.
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Sadly, in American culture, we've created a middle ground that Jesus actually rebukes in the Bible, it's called being lukewarm.
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That's Jesus' rebuke to the church in Laodicea.
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He says, "You're not hot.
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You're not on fire for me, and you're not cold.
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You're not like against me.
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You're just lukewarm." And if there's a word that can describe many churches and much of mainstream religion in In the United States of America, it's lukewarm.
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It's "Jesus is my Sunday hobby." Like you, a Christian, yep, go to church every Sunday, hour and a half, we're there.
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What about like Monday through Saturday?
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Well, those are kind of my days.
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That's a culture that you don't see anywhere in Scripture.
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That Jesus is your hobby, Jesus is your Sunday morning routine.
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The Bible says that Jesus is your very life.
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So you're either, "Jesus, please leave me alone," or you're a missionary.
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If you don't see yourself as a missionary, then you haven't experienced the transforming power of Jesus.
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Because the people who have experienced the transforming power of Jesus Christ aren't able to stop talking about it.
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If you're a Christian, you're a missionary.
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So if you have experienced it, get out there.
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people of God's mercy and power in Jesus. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about power. It has to be about power because there's evil power at work, powerful evil forces at work. The good news is Jesus has the power to deliver. Do you know Him?
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Have you experienced it?
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Go tell people about it.
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Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 5:1-20

Do you believe demonic possession happens today? Why or why not? How could you tell if someone does have a demon?
Why do you think the demons wanted permission to enter the pigs? What do you think happened to the demons after the pigs died?
Why did the locals beg Jesus to leave? What does that tell you about them?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another: How do you need Jesus to show up powerfully in your life?

Demons: Agents of the Enemy

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Audio Transcript