In Christ We Are Free

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0:00It's great to be with you all today. In case I didn't introduce myself, my name is Joel, and I serve as pastor, and aren't we glad to not be in the rain right now? My goodness.

0:12It's great to have Luke get baptized today, and he's got some family here. Just please say hi to them this morning. I also want to say I planned on calling you up, Sean, so that you could hold the picture while I did the vows, and I got caught up in the moment and I forgot. Forgive me, brother. Sean's his dad, so sorry about that. Just got so excited about what was going to happen. We're going through the book of Luke in a sermon series, and we're in chapter 8. You might not have noticed this, but the back half of chapter 8 is all about the power of Jesus. One after another, Luke gives us these accounts of forces, seemingly insurmountable forces coming against Jesus, and then we get to see how Jesus responds to those things, if Jesus is a match for those things. There's three of them. Last Sunday, it was a storm on the Sea of Galilee. The force of nature comes against Jesus. This week, he encounters a more sinister force. Now, it's July 16th, and we have just finished our annual celebration of freedom.

1:24The smell of fireworks is still in the air, probably some places in this country. We like to celebrate freedom, but think for a minute about if you can relate to these sentences. I don't understand my own actions. I don't do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. I want to do what is good, but I don't. Instead, I do the wrong that I don't want to do. Anybody here relate to that? Yeah? That's the Apostle Paul writing in the seventh chapter of Romans. I'm guessing everyone here has felt like that at some point in their lives, probably multiple times. I don't understand my own actions. I don't do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate.

2:19You know, that just doesn't sound like freedom to me. It sounds like captivity. What can Jesus do about that? That's what we're going to talk about today. Turn with me to Luke 8, starting in verse 26.

2:41This is a pretty dramatic account and story that you've probably heard. So let's pay attention to the word of God today, knowing that it comes to us from a God who does not lie, who does not make mistakes, and he speaks to us clearly through his word. Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house, but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I beg you, do not torment me.

3:34For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, what is your name? And he said, legion, for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with them. But Jesus sent him away, saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we see here a force that we are powerless

5:27against. So we are crying out to you that you would show us again, or maybe for the first time, show us how powerful you are. Subdue evil in us and around us, so that we can see you clearly and rest in you. Stop fighting with you, but rest in you. Jesus, we love you. We need you. Thank you for your promise to work in and through your word going forth, to wake us up, to help us pay attention and receive from you. We pray this in your name. Amen. Today's sermon is called In Christ We Are Free. If I had to retitle last week's sermon, it would be In Christ We Are Safe. It's not what I called it, but. And next week, there'll be the last one about Jesus's power. You'll have to stay tuned.

6:33In Christ We Are, what will I say? Come back and find out. The power of Jesus overcomes the dominion of sin. That's what this passage is about. Let's talk about the prisoner. Jesus and his disciples, they land on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. This is Gentile country. The Gerasenes, it's mostly a Gentile population, that whole side, the Sea of Galilee, the eastern side. Most scholars think this takes place in a town called Gergasa, which today is called Kersey. And here's a picture of Kersey. Maybe even this was the cliff that the pigs rushed off on down into the Sea of Galilee.

7:14Maybe? We don't know. Now, their boat landed. They had scarcely left the shore when the drama starts. There met him a man from the city who had demons. He was uncontrollable. He was deranged.

7:34Now, let's just acknowledge what we're probably thinking. Modern people like us might read this and think, well, what's really going on here is physiological. This is actually some kind of mental illness or psychosis that people back then just kind of misdiagnosed and labeled as demon possession.

7:57Now, no doubt that his uncontrollable behavior, his derangement, his him acting crazy and harming himself, there's no doubt that those are his symptoms. But the cause here in the scriptures is attributed not to faulty brain chemistry, but to demon possession. Affliction by real, evil spiritual beings. That's what the text says. There are good reasons for believing this, for not just rushing to the big book where you can diagnose something. I forget what that's called. What is that called?

8:38DSM-5? Yeah. There you go. I should have looked that up before I got up here. But before we rush off to that and just thumb through it, let me figure out what's really happening with this man. Let's interact with the fact that the account we have says that it's demon possession. What is a demon? If you don't know, a fall, basically a fallen angel, an angelic being, a spiritual being that long ago turned against God, became God's sworn enemy, and is completely corrupt. Look at this. Jesus handles it like it's a demon oppression. He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Did Jesus get it wrong? Did Jesus misunderstand what was really happening with this guy? I think not. He knew what was really happening. He knew why he was acting the way that he was acting. But also this, the reaction of the pigs. I think something undoubtedly caused them to act crazy, to rush off of that cliff when Jesus cast the spirits out of the man and into the pig. Something caused them to do that. I think one of the reasons why Jesus allows the pigs to do this is to show that there really was a demonic presence in this man, that it wasn't just mental illness. He makes it obvious what the real problem was. We live in a modern world. Long ago, science dethroned theology as the discipline that defines our reality. That happened a long time ago. We're told that the material world is all that there is, and sometimes we believe it. It's matter that matters. If you can't measure it with instruments,

10:24describe it with principles, predict it with formulas, quantify it with data, then it's a myth. It's superstition. It's the relic of a bygone era when people just didn't know very much. Before we go any further, we just have to recognize God's word tells us what we all sense from time to time, that there is more to this world than meets our eyes. There is a spiritual side to all of reality. We can't see it, touch it, taste it, or feel it, but the Bible says that it's there. Just as there are angels who obey and worship God, there are demons, completely opposed to God, waging war against his kingdom and all who belong to it. This man is caught up in that war in a very obvious way, and his life is in complete ruin. Verse 27 says that he went around naked, living among the tombs.

11:28Verse 29 tells us the demon seized him, physically controlled his body. Evidently, he was a threat to himself and to other people because the locals had tried to keep him chained up, locked up, bound with chains and shackles, but he would break free and he would run out into the desert. These demons are wreaking havoc on this man's life. He's acting with no regard for his safety, for his protection, for his dignity. He's isolated from his community, from his family.

12:02The only contact he has with anyone is when people try to chain him up for his own good. He's completely by himself. In Mark's account of this story, the story appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Mark's account of this story, we get probably the saddest sentence of all. Night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. The man is a prisoner. He might be walking around the countryside, not in a literal prison, but he is a prisoner. He's held hostage. He's tormented. He's dominated by something destroying him. Church, this should make us sober-minded about demons and about spiritual evil in this world. But it should also make us sober-minded about ourselves. Now, why would I say that? Because look at what Jesus says in John 8. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Slavery. That's Jesus's words. And here's Paul in Romans 8.

13:28The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. This is just a couple of descriptions. I could have pulled many, many out where the Bible describes our natural state, who we are by ourselves without any intervention from God. All the ways that the demon, that these demons ruined this man's life, they're merely exaggerations of the ways that we ruin our own lives when we are controlled by the sinful nature in us. We isolate ourselves. We act with no regard to our dignity, our safety, our ultimate good. We cry out in pain, but we continue harming ourselves.

14:28We're captive. We're oppressed. We're helpless. This man's plight should be a wake-up call for us for the dominion of sin, the prison that our sinful nature chooses. And it should make us cry out. Doesn't it make you cry out even now? Who can defeat such a force? Who can do this? Who can free us? We don't stand a chance. Who can set us free? Or to use what Paul says, who will deliver me from this body of death?

15:11Well, fortunately, there is a deliverer. And we get to see his power in this passage. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to despair. Just keep reading this passage and you'll see the power of Christ to deliver us. From the very beginning of this encounter, Jesus has the upper hand. The man doesn't put up a fight. He falls down in submission to Jesus. He doesn't even try to fight. Jesus is outnumbered. But it's the demons who are terrified, not Jesus. They are quaking.

15:51What have you to do with me, Jesus, the Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. They recognize Jesus. They know his name. They know his role. They know his authority. They know what he will ultimately do to them. They begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. There's a lot of begging going on. You notice this? Three times, these demons are begging.

16:25They know who has the power. They know it's not a fair fight. They have no power to withstand Jesus. Now, evidently, they want to inhabit some creature. I don't know why. A lot of people have questions about this. Why do they want to go into the pigs? Evidently, they would prefer that to just being out in the open. Jesus isn't going to let them stay in the man, probably go into anyone else. So they say, hey, how about those pigs? That's the best answer I got. Someday you can ask Jesus, why did those demons want to go in those pigs? Jesus uses the power at his disposal.

17:07He says he gave them permission. The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. And there's a couple of reasons why Jesus does this. This is not an act of mercy to these demons, by the way. He's not doing them a solid. It's not judgment day yet, okay? Jesus knows there's a day in the future. He, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, had this plan of redemption. They have this day in the future when evil will be judged, and that day is not right then, okay? That's the main reason why he doesn't immediately judge and punish them. But Jesus also does this to make it clear. I've mentioned this before. The man's problems are real, and he wants to show just how extensive they are, but he also wants to show that his power is greater than people thought too. He shows both of those things by permitting them to do what they've asked, to go into the pigs, how great the man's problem is, and how great his power is. Mark's account says there was about 2,000 pigs in the herd. This means there are at least 2,000 demons in this man. Although if multiple demons can be in one man, could there be multiple demons in one pig, which means who knows how many? Legion is a Roman military term. Some sources say it's 5,600 soldiers. This man, the point is this, this man did not just have one strong captor. He had thousands upon thousands of strong captors in his head, in his body. And yet this is an easy task for Jesus.

18:54He doesn't need a fancy ceremony. He doesn't need to go out and buy some candles. He doesn't need anyone's help. He doesn't recite an incantation. He commanded them to leave. He just tells them what to do, and they couldn't even go anywhere else without his permission. His command and his permission. Sometimes Jesus does things like this, and if it's been a while since you've seen something where it's an obvious demonstration of God's power in your life, just look to the scriptures, and remember, this is your Savior. If you're holding on to Jesus, look at Luke 8. This is your Savior, and this is his power. Because sometimes he does things like this to remind us, no matter what we're facing, a problem at work, or thousands and thousands of demons, he has the power to help you. He has the power to deliver you. Jesus had come saying the kingdom of God is at hand. So of course, when the kingdom of God comes, he's going to say and speak to push back the dominion of darkness that is over us, that is over people in this world. He has to push it back. He will push it back. He alone has the power to overcome evil and to free prisoners like us from the dominion of sin. That's why there's so many exorcisms in the Bible. Healing and exorcisms in proclamation. Healing, exorcisms, proclamation.

20:31The kingdom of God coming in force, in power, to push back the darkness that afflicts you and that afflicts me. Listen, if he's your Savior, the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. The sinful nature that is still in you, it does not have the upper hand. The Spirit in you is stronger. The Spirit in you is stronger. When you feel a tension within you between the Spirit and your old nature, it just means that God's at work in you. When there's a tug of war, the only way to not feel that tension is just to either let go or just fall down.

21:29When you feel that tension, that means that you and the Spirit are doing battle with your sinful nature. Look at the quote on the front of your bulletin. The Spirit has landed to do battle with the flesh, so take heart if your soul feels like a battlefield at times. The sign of whether you were indwelt by the Spirit is not that you have no bad desires, but that you were at war with them. If you feel that war in your heart, praise God. It's the Spirit of God working in you, battling your sinful nature. Now this story ends with a response. Two different responses to what Jesus has just done.

22:25The herdsmen, the eyewitnesses, they run and they tell everyone they can find in the city, in the country, and of course people want to see what's happened, so they come running to the scene. They came to Jesus and they found the man from whom the demons had gone. Oh, it looks like the same man, only he's acting completely different. This can't be the same guy. He's not running around anymore. He's sitting, sitting at the feet of Jesus, peaceful and attentive. He's not naked anymore, thankfully.

22:58He's clothed. He's not crying out. He's not cutting himself. He's not seizing up. He's in his right mind. It's a complete reversal. This community had tried and failed probably countless times to help him or to control him. They had seen him at his absolute worst and they know there must have been some great power that intervened in this man's life. Some power greater than the power that was in him and they are afraid. Then the ones who are the eyewitnesses told them that it was Jesus who did it and now, now they are the ones who are seized. Did you see that? They're the ones who are seized with great fear. And then, maybe the saddest part of the story, they asked Jesus to leave. The liberator, the deliverer, they don't worship him. They don't praise him. They don't even thank him. All the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them. This kind of power in the form of a person, it's not something that they want around. Even in really bad circumstances, sometimes we choose familiar problems over a new authority, especially when following that authority comes with a cost. This had already cost them 2,000 plus pigs. If Jesus sticks around, what else is it going to cost them? Friends, where in your life are you choosing familiar problems over a new authority? Do you want things to be different? Is Jesus standing there in your town and you're asking him to leave because you're afraid? Thankfully, we have an example here of the other type of response.

25:21It's the man, the healed man. He receives this new authority. He's changed and he's not just spiritually vacant, he's spiritually filled. He's sitting at the feet of Jesus. He's become a disciple. He wants to go with Jesus. He begs to go with Jesus, to follow him on the journey. But Jesus tells him no. He has other purposes for this man. He says, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. In this country, we talk about freedom a lot. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

25:57These are the things upon which this country was built. To us, freedom is doing what we want, as long as it doesn't get in the way of somebody else's freedom. But what does God say about freedom? What does the Word of God say about freedom? Look at 1 Peter 2. It tells us, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. In Christ, we're free, but we are not independent. I'm glad we're independent from Great Britain. That's all well and good.

26:39But in Christ, as citizens of God, the kingdom of God, we are free, but we're not independent. This man in the story, he understands that. He gets it. What he really, really, really wants is to go with Jesus. He's begging to go with Jesus, but he obeys. He embraces the calling that Jesus has given him, and he immediately begins proclaiming throughout the whole city. Now, we aren't told anything about what happens after this, but just imagine, this guy was not anonymous. Everybody knew who this guy was, if nothing else by reputation. He was the weirdo living a deranged life with thousands of demons inside him. No one, no one would have looked at him. Naked, living in the cemetery, shrieking, hurting himself, and said, yes, he'll make a fine Christian and an excellent missionary someday. No one, no one would have thought that. But look at him now, because Jesus has intervened. He's now proclaiming how much Jesus had done for him. He's become, perhaps, the first missionary in Gentile territory. This guy. In a few years, messengers will be coming out of Jerusalem in droves, talking about the death and resurrection of Jesus, calling people to respond to it. And this guy is here in the area of the Gerasenes, preparing people to hear that message, preparing people to put their faith in Jesus. They're going to come along in just a few short years, and they're going to be ready. They're going to say, the guy that healed my friend, the guy who's been talking about how much Jesus did for him, that man died and was resurrected? This man, we don't even know

28:39his name, he's preparing all those people for the gospel message that's going to come to them very, very soon. Thousands of demons have tortured his mind and wrecked his life, and now Jesus has set him free and given him a role in the kingdom. Once you recognize the power of Jesus and the sovereign will of God to save, you learn not to dismiss people. Because God can save anyone. He can save anyone, anytime. Doesn't matter what their life looks like. And he can give them a dramatic, head-turning role in his kingdom. Doesn't matter what you've been through. Doesn't matter what your past is. Doesn't matter what kind of bondage you have been subjected to in your life. Doesn't matter what kind of oppression you have endured. It doesn't matter what you have done or said or thought. If Jesus is your savior, you're free now. And you have a role in his kingdom. You have a testimony. You have a story to tell about what Jesus has done for you. Look, friends, it is probably not going to be as technicolor as this guy's testimony. But it's still just as strong as this guy's testimony. We have to see that we could have been this man. It could have been us. All you have to do is begin to play out. You know, if Jesus didn't intervene in my life five years ago, two years ago, 25 years ago, where would I be right now? What would my flesh have led me to do? What kind of bondage would I be in? And before long, you'll see you could have been this man. Jesus saved you from that. And that is your testimony. That's your story. God can change anyone. Look back at your life,

30:43my friends. Consider the deliverance that you have experienced from God. Consider it. Think about it. The dominion that he has liberated you from. How much has Jesus done for you? How much has Jesus done for you? How much has Jesus done for me? That's what this guy testified to. And that's what we can testify to. When we think about that question, our testimony gets clearer and our worship of him gets stronger. When we're honest about what we've been liberated from, our worship of him is greater and we can proclaim the freedom that we have only in Christ. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, hallelujah that you have set free the captives. Jesus, there are very few people whose outward circumstances look like this man. But inwardly, Lord, we all were captive to sin without your intervention. Would you please help us help us to boast in you, Jesus? To boast in the freedom that you have given us? And Lord, if we, if anyone hearing my voice, if anyone here today is still considering the claims of Christ, would you please make yourself clear to them through this passage that you deliver and that they are in bondage and they need you? Lord Jesus, thank you for the freedom that you have for us. Help us never to return to the yoke of slavery, but help us to be servants of you, God. Thank you for changing stories, changing stories like mine, like my friends here, and like this man's. Help us to testify to your grace and to your power. Thank you for having more power than thousands and thousands of demons.

32:51Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen.