Unclean Spirits, Unclean Pigs, Unclean Men

Introduction: The Greatest is Love

Good morning, and welcome to church at First Baptist Church of Aurora. We're so glad that you've joined us. I'm going to start with a reading from 1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant,

— 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 (CSB)

And verse 13:

Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

— 1 Corinthians 13:13 (CSB)

Join us this morning as we celebrate this season.

This second candle of Advent represents love—our anticipation of Christmas. To a lonely people, it is the realization and awareness of love. God loves us—not only loves us more and better than we can ever love ourselves, but he loved us before we ever loved him. This great love was manifested in the incarnation of his Son, Jesus. Because of God's love for us, we can love our neighbors and even ourselves. Because of God's love, there should be no room for darkness. The light of love dispels the darkness forever. Amen.

We know that that's true. Romans 5:8 says that God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's what we believe, and that's what we get to celebrate together this morning.

Encountering Legion

If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it and open it to the Book of Mark. As we approach celebrating Jesus's birth, we're continuing to walk through Jesus's life together. In Mark chapter 5, we get to see an interesting story in which Jesus interacts with a Gentile man who's possessed by thousands of demons. We see that in Mark chapter 5. I'll be reading from verse 1 to verse 20. If this is the first time you've used a Bible, the big numbers are the chapter numbers and the little numbers are the verse numbers. I'll be reading from verse 1 to verse 20 there in the Book of Mark, and it says this:

They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. As soon as he got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met him. He lived in the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him anymore—not even with a chain— because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had torn the chains apart and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before him. And he cried out with a loud voice, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you before God, don’t torment me!” For he had told him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” “What is your name?” he asked him.“My name is Legion,” he answered him, “because we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region. A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.” So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there. The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs. Then they began to beg him to leave their region. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him earnestly that he might remain with him. Jesus did not let him but told him, “Go home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.” So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed.

— Mark 5:1-20 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, we know this morning that as we hear from your word, we need your Spirit to help us. We are helpless without your help. And so we ask, Lord, that as we think about your word, as we think about your Son's authority, as we think about the love that you've shown for us and the work of your Son, that you would help us to delight in you and see your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

We see that God demonstrates his love for us in sending his Son, and when Jesus arrives, things begin to change. Two weeks ago, we got to see Jesus stilling the storm and showing his dominion over the physical world. In this section, we get to see Jesus interacting with a new group of people—Gentiles—and being able to bring them a gift. All of us have experienced love from different people. We all know that people also receive love in different ways. And when Jesus arrives onto the scene, we get to see three different responses to Jesus' good work in the world.

We get to see the demons feel tormented, we get to see Gentile people actually rejecting Jesus, and then we see the example of the demon-possessed man begging to be able to remain with Jesus. In fact, we see three examples of begging, and that will be our points for this morning. So number one, we see the demons begging to stay. Second, we see the Gentiles begging Jesus to leave. And lastly, we see this formerly demon-possessed man begging to remain with Jesus.

The Demons Begging to Stay

We'll start with point number one: begging to stay. Look with me again from chapter 5, verse 1. It says, 'They came to the other side of the sea to the region of the Gerasenes.' After Jesus silences the storm in front of his disciples, they cross the sea into the Gerasenes, which is a Gentile area near the Decapolis, or a Gentile city. That word 'Gentile' just means someone who wasn't an Israelite, in the same way that you may live in a civilization and someone who doesn't live in that civilization maybe a barbarian or foreigner to you. It's the same idea there for the Gentiles.

Up until this point, we've seen Jesus interact mainly with Jewish people. We see him in the region of Galilee interacting with Jews there. He had been challenged by different teachers of the law, even Pharisees that came from the top-tier scholars of Jerusalem. And now he's leaving that area. He crosses a sea to interact with a new group of people, a group of people that aren't part of that nation of Israel.

And as he comes to the shore of this uncharted territory, he's immediately confronted by opposition. You can see that in verse 2. It says, 'As soon as he got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met him.' He lived in the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him anymore, not even with a chain, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains but had torn the chains apart and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

A man comes out that is described as having an unclean spirit. That word for 'unclean' isn't just referring to how dirty he is—that he was caked with muck and grime—as much as he is detached, not just physically or with dirt, but with a spiritual defilement. This man is possessed by evil spirits, and the effect of his spirit-filled life was utter misery. The demons seem to have cast him out into the tombs, separated from the rest of society, living in a cemetery. The spirits drive him there without allowing him to have any control over his body.

Every day, as he lives his life walking amongst these tombs, he's seeing physical reminders of who he is: powerless, as good as dead, walking amongst the dead. And not only is he powerless, so are the people around him. It seems like the community tried to restrain him, to chain him down so that he wouldn't be able to hurt himself and others. But he would get up, almost like a demonic Samson, and just be able to rip off whatever cords were binding him. These physical shackles were no match for the spiritual chain that these demons had on him. Day and night in endless agony, crying out, cutting himself with stones—restless, powerless, and joyless. This possessed man is a graphic picture of sin in a fallen world.

Endless agony. Sometimes we forget how tragic sin is. In a world of constant discouragement, heartbreak, difficulty, and pain, we can start to forget that the world isn't the way it's supposed to be. Or worse, we start to get comfortable with the broken, sinful world around us, and we resign ourselves to that reality—that that's just the way it is. We forget that there's an enemy who is actually seeking to devour us. First Peter 5:8 says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

Demons are still at work today. C.S. Lewis wrote that there are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

When the world gets hard and we feel like we need to buckle down and just recognize that the world is the way it is, we begin to forget, and we let our guard down. We forget that the world is in need of redemption, and we fall into cynical complacency. That complacency leads to compromise. When we read stories like this, we're reminded that there's actually a war going on. It's not just physical wars that happen overseas; there is a spiritual war amongst us right now. There's an enemy who is against us, so that when we fall prey to sin and the deceit of the world, we're not just obtaining a more comfortable life—we're actually conceding to a compromised, tortured life.

When we reject the Lord, when we fall into sin, when we allow demonic oppression to enter into our lives, we are allowing ourselves to enter into a life that will lead to our ruin. Any riches that we obtain in this life are going to expire. Our families will pass away. The pleasures of this world will come to an end. The temptation of this world, the torment, and the attack from the enemy will lead to our destruction, whether it's in this life or in the life to come. This man is a physical example, a living parable, of the consequences of evil in this world. He's trapped in an endless cycle of pain. But then, one day, he looks up and he sees Jesus.

You see that in verse 6. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before him, and he cried out with a loud voice, 'What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you before God, don't torment me!' For he had told him, 'Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!' The man runs to Jesus and bows down before him. He cries out, 'What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?' This is the third time that we see Jesus casting out a demon in the Book of Mark so far, and every single time, the demons know exactly who Jesus is. He is the Son of the Most High God.

God's Sovereignty Over Evil

You know, sometimes we can think of good and evil as equal, opposing forces. There's good in the world, there's bad in the world, and there's a battle over which is going to win. We think that they're kind of equal in strength, like rivals, that there's somehow a real competition going on. You watch movies like Star Wars that talk about balance in the Force between the dark and the light. You see one nation develop a new weapon that takes over, and then enemy nations rush to try to catch up and increase their own cavalry. It's different with Christianity. Satan is not God's equal. There is a clear pecking order. The rulers of this age may try to exert their power over the earth, they may try to ruin this one man's life or over God's creation, but when the Son of the Most High God comes onto the scene, all of them must bow their knee before the King of kings and Lord of lords.

In fact, they can't swear by any other power. They can't negotiate. All they can do is beg. And they beg Jesus, before God, that even their tormenting has to stop. The only appeal that they have to Jesus is to appeal to his Father. In fact, when Jesus comes to shore, you see the exact reverse of what had been happening to this man. The demons are not the ones who are tormenting any longer. They look at Jesus and they realize that Jesus is about to torment them. How is Jesus tormenting the demons? You see that in verse 8. He commands them to come out of this man. Jesus comes and he's able to dictate the exact moment in which their power stops. Their day of tormenting has ended. The King had arrived.

And now the King asks for the demons' name. You can see that in verse 9: 'What is your name?' he asked him. 'My name is Legion,' he answered him, 'because we are many.' And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region. A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. The demons begged him, 'Send us to the pigs so that we may enter them.' So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there.

The demons identify themselves as Legion. To ask for the demons' name is more than just filling out some attendance sheet or trying to figure out who these demons are. Jesus, when he's asking for the demons' name, is exerting his authority over the demonic world. You see examples of this in the Old Testament when Adam is in the garden and he names the animals. What he's doing is he's exerting his authority over creation. God told him to subdue the earth, and he's showing his kingship over creation in his naming of the animals. In Genesis 32, you see Jacob wrestling with God, and one of the things that Jacob insists on is asking for the man's name, but the man won't give it to him. It's a power struggle, because to know someone's name is to exert authority over them.

The demons cannot perform an undercover operation. They can't hide in anonymity, they can't hide their faces and sneak around in the darkness. When Jesus asks them for their name, they have to obey. Every command from the King must be obeyed, even if it means revealing their own identity. So they identify themselves as Legion, which is a term for several thousand soldiers that operate together as a unit. And now, not just one unit or one demon, but a whole battalion of demons are falling to their knees and begging Jesus not to send them out. So instead, they ask for permission to enter a herd of pigs. They do so, and two thousand pigs stampede off a cliff to their death in the sea.

It may go without saying, but there is a clear difference between the value of a human life and the life of an animal like a pig. Human beings are not just other mammals on the earth, all of equal value. In Genesis 2, we see that man uniquely is made in the image of God. God forms man out of the dirt and breathes his own breath of life into him. Jesus would rather inflict death upon thousands of pigs than he would on one human being, because human beings have eternal souls. We are made in the image of God with the ability to think rationally, to obey the Lord, and to image him on the earth. So you could look at this text and know from God's word that your life is more important than bacon.

But the pigs would not have been able to plummet to their deaths if the Lord did not allow them to. The demons had to beg Jesus to enter the pigs, and Jesus, in verse 13, gives them permission to enter them. Thousands of demons are no match for Jesus. There is no contest, there is no real threat. Jesus permits them, and then the demons do the only thing that the demons can do, which is to beg Jesus to change his mind.

Two weeks ago, we saw how Jesus had complete control over the physical domain. The storm rages, and with one word, he's able to silence the storm. Here we see that Jesus doesn't just have control over the physical world, but he has control over the spiritual world as well. He has complete ability to do as he sees fit, which is the reason why it is impossible for a true Christian to ever get possessed by a demon. It is impossible for a true Christian to ever get possessed by a demon.

Many costly errors foster what C.S. Lewis called an unhealthy interest in demonology. They obsess over demons, they wonder whether or not certain activity is demonic. For a while, I've been joking that whenever our sound system has feedback, it's demons! Or they're constantly on edge, worried as to whether or not they themselves are demon-possessed. I just want to make this really clear: if you're a Christian, if you believe in Jesus, you cannot be possessed by a demon. And the reason why we know that is because demons and the Lord are not equal in their ability to possess you. They're not equal in power. They're not even in the same league. Christ is supreme over demons, which means that if you've turned from your sin and placed your trust in Christ—if you've actually placed your faith in him—the Spirit of God dwells within you.

First Corinthians 6:17 says, 'Anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.' And the Lord will not cohabitate with demons. Rather, what he does is he comes into our hearts, and he cleanses us. He sanctifies us, he makes us new, and he dwells within us. If you've placed your trust in Jesus, you don't need a deliverance prayer, you don't need holy water, you don't need an exorcism. You have all that you need in the person of Jesus Christ. It's not something that you have to fear. In fact, Jesus does more than just free us from demons. God is actually in full authority over all demonic activity. There is not a single act of a single demon that does not occur under God's complete control.

Verse 13 says here that the demons had to get permission from Jesus before they were allowed to enter the pigs. They had to beg Jesus because they knew that if Jesus commanded them to do something, they had to comply. We see something similar in the Book of Job. Job is living his life, being blessed by the Lord. Satan goes up to heaven, and God points out Job. Satan appeals to God to let him test Job to see whether or not Job is really faithful. Satan cannot do anything to Job until God permits him to do so. The first time, he doesn't let Satan touch anything regarding Job's own body, and later, he does not permit him to take Job's life. All of that would not be possible unless the Father allowed Satan to torment Job. Job's tragedies would not have happened unless God permitted them to happen. The demon-possessed man would not have suffered under the hand of Legion unless God permitted it to happen. Even our own greatest tragedies cannot happen unless God permits them to happen.

That is a really tough pill to swallow. Does the Bible really teach that God permits evil things to happen? How can a good God allow evil in the world? It's a really difficult question, and it requires a complicated answer. So I'm going to give a little four-point mini-sermon within my sermon to answer that question.

Number one: God is not the author of evil. God is not the author of evil. There's a big difference between being in control of a universe that has sin versus committing the sin itself. One theologian has likened it to Shakespeare writing a play. When you look at the play Macbeth, you see one of his characters, Macbeth, killing another character, Duncan. (Sorry, spoilers if you didn't know!) And he asks the question: who is responsible for Duncan's death—Macbeth or Shakespeare? And the answer is both. Both of them are responsible for Duncan's death. But I don't think anyone would agree that we should then imprison Shakespeare for killing Duncan. There's a difference between being responsible over that story versus being the one who commits the act itself. Instead, most people praise Shakespeare for writing a character like Macbeth to show us the consequences of sin. In other words, God is not the author of sin in that he does not commit sin himself. It is impossible for God to sin, and just because he's in control of the universe doesn't mean that he himself is the one who's then committing that evil.

Number two: God is in complete control of everything that happens in the world. God's in complete control of everything that happens in the world. Lamentations 3:37-38 says: 'Who is there who speaks and it happens unless the Lord has ordained it? Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High?' The author of Lamentations is clear. Jeremiah is saying that both adversity and good come from God. There is not one tragedy on the planet that happens without God permitting it. Sometimes we want to sugarcoat tragedies or try to minimize God's involvement, as though God didn't know about the tragedy, or that he wasn't able to stop evil from leaking through the cracks of his own control. While the thought of God not being in control might seem comforting at first, as though God is somehow relatable in his inability to control things with us, that thought actually leads to a deeper tragedy. If God is not actually in control, then the question becomes: who is? If God's not in control, then there's actually no purpose to our suffering at all. The only consolation that we would have is that God is just as helpless as we are. It's like us being kids hiding under our bed, scared of what the world will do to us, and we look to our left and Jesus is right there with us, just as scared. That's not comforting; it's actually more terrifying. Either God is in control, or we are in big trouble. Thankfully, the Bible tells us that he is.

Point number three: God permits evil for good reasons. God permits evil for good reasons. Now, we don't know the sovereign plan of God. We don't know exactly how God will piece everything together for his glory, but we know that overall he does. Romans 8:28 says that God works together all things for the good of those who love him. We see examples in which God permits evil in the world for good reasons in the Bible. One really clear example of that is in Genesis 50, the very last chapter of the first book of the Bible. In Genesis 50, they tell the story of Joseph. We know the story: Joseph gets sold into slavery in Egypt, he goes and becomes second-in-command, they store up grain and save the world from a famine, and his whole family moves into Egypt. Well, in chapter 49, Joseph's dad, Jacob, dies. In chapter 50, his brothers freak out because they think, 'If Joseph was holding back revenge on us because Dad was still around, we're in big trouble.' And so the brothers actually conjure up a lie, and they go to Joseph and they say, 'Before your dad died, he said to forgive your brothers and let them off the hook.' They conjure up that lie, and Joseph is heartbroken when he hears it because they think that somehow Joseph is going to enact judgment on them. So he calls his brothers in, and this is what he says in chapter 50. He tells them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the salvation of many people.' He says, 'You planned it for evil; God planned it for good.' So here's the question: Who sold Joseph into slavery—God or Joseph's brothers? The answer is both. Both did it, but the brothers did it out of evil, out of revenge, and out of spite. They sinned by selling Joseph into slavery, but God did it for the purpose of good, to bring about the salvation of many people through that famine. That's just one example. We don't know the exact rationale for why God does everything that he does, but we know that even when evil things happen in the world, God is able to permit certain things for good reasons.

And the last point, which is really the most important point when we think about evil in the world today: God cares. God cares. Tragedies are painful. Sometimes the storm rages so hard that we become completely disoriented, lost in the chaos and darkness of sorrow. There are times where we may ask, 'God, where are you? Why are you doing this?' And God doesn't always give us specific answers for every single tragedy in our lives. There's no appendix in my Bible that tells me why my dad lost his life to cancer, or why so many people in the world suffer today, or why he's placed specific trials in our lives. He does, however, promise that he's going to make everything right, and he proved it because he sent his Son, Jesus Christ. We just meditated earlier that the advent of Jesus Christ is proof of his love for us. All of us are entrapped in suffering, pain, and tragedy because we, as humanity, have disobeyed a holy God, and our world has been fractured and broken ever since. But God did not abandon us to suffer forever. Instead, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man. Isaiah 53 says that he was a man of sorrows, and his sorrows weren't because of anything that he did or that he deserved. Jesus suffered in order to save us from our suffering. Because of our sin, Jesus died on the cross and bore the punishment that you and I deserved, and three days later, he rose from the dead, declaring authority not just over sin and death, but over every evil thing in the world. Jesus will make everything right, and he will return. Do not be mistaken: we worship a God who is both capable and caring, and we need to trust his word when he tells us that he will make everything new, that everything sad will become untrue. And as Spurgeon says, 'God is too good to be unkind, and he's too wise to be mistaken. So when you can't trace his hand, we can still trust his heart.' The demons begged Jesus to let them stay, but the King of kings declared that they could not stay in that man a second longer. So evil gets cast out. You would expect that when this miracle happens, people would rejoice at the good news. Instead, they respond with fear.

The Hardness of the Human Heart

You see that in point number two: begging to leave. Begging to leave. Verse 14: 'The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened. They came to see Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed sitting there, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs. Then they began to beg him to leave their region.'

I mean, what a day for the pig farmers, right? You're looking at the pigs, and suddenly you see your livelihood run off a cliff. So they run, and they tell the townspeople what happened. They go, and they see the formerly demon-possessed man sitting there as a normal guy, and they're all terrified. You could imagine the shock on their faces. Some of them had seen this man break chains and cry out in agony, and now he's sitting there clothed, conscious, and asking you how your afternoon was. They're absolutely shocked. And the response to this incredible miracle is to beg Jesus to leave. They ask him to go away.

I mean, their response is jarring. Why are they doing that? Why aren't they amazed? You see Jesus perform miracles in other cities, and they're begging him to stay. He's staying up all night healing other people, teaching from his word. Why are these people asking Jesus to go? Because the issue is not with their eyes, but their hearts. The issue is not with their eyes; it is with their hearts. They can see Jesus' power, they can see his goodness, but they don't love him. The issue isn't with what Jesus has or hasn't done, but the hardness of the hearts of these people.

Some people have asked why God wouldn't just prove that he's God. If God is really real, why wouldn't he just perform a miracle right in front of me right now? Why not descend from the heavens right now, prove to me with irrefutable proof that he's God, and then I'll believe in him? The thing is, I don't think God needs to do more. The issue isn't that he hasn't proven himself. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus rose from the dead. There is plenty of good resource material on the validity of that claim that is worth exploring. But I think even if I had a time machine, teleported you back to Israel in AD 33, and showed you the resurrection in person, that wouldn't actually fix the problem, because the primary reason why people don't believe is not because of their eyes, but because of their hearts. It's not because of what you have or haven't seen; it's because of what you love.

Our hearts don't want him. And here, the Gentiles are confronted, given irrefutable evidence of Jesus' authority, and they still reject him. In fact, they beg him to leave. You could see every single miracle in the Bible. You could have a front-row seat to the creation of the world in Genesis, the splitting of the sea in Exodus, the feeding of the five thousand in the Gospels. You could sit down in your lawn chair on Resurrection Sunday, see Jesus walk out, and still not believe if your heart doesn't want him. If you're not a Christian, what would God have to do for you to believe in him?

Now, I'm not saying that doubts or questions are wrong. It's great to have questions. It's great to explore, it's great to think. There are legitimate doubts or questions that need to be answered. But behind those questions, if those get answered and those get cleared up, what do you really want? What does your heart desire? Whatever that thing is, it will distract you. It will control you. It will possess you in every single way that those demons did this man. Everyone is possessed. The question is: what are you possessed by? Jesus is the only master who truly cares for you, will truly love you, and will truly protect you. And if you're interested in talking more about Jesus, I'm going to be right there at the door, and there's no other conversation I would rather have than the good news of Jesus Christ. After rejecting Jesus, the people in the Decapolis revealed themselves to be just as unclean as the pigs, sprinting straight off the cliff to their deaths. Everyone rejected Jesus. That is, everyone except one.

Proclaiming the Mercy of God

We see that in our last point there: begging to remain. Begging to remain. Verse 18: 'As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him earnestly that he might remain with him. Jesus did not let him but told him, "Go home to your own people and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you."

The man who was demon-possessed understood the treasure that he had just obtained. The treasure wasn't the fact that he was able to just go out and now live his own life. He doesn't thank Jesus eagerly and then proceed to go get a job, get a house, and live a life of luxury. His newfound liberty compelled him to want to be with his Liberator. And notice there that it says that he wanted to remain with Jesus. It wasn't just that the miracle was good, but the Miracle Worker was good. What Jesus did revealed who Jesus was. And the same thing happens to all of us who believe.

One difference between a fake Christian and a true Christian is whether or not you love Jesus versus loving what Jesus gives you. Christianity is full today of teachings on how Jesus can fix your problems, restore Brokenness, give you healing, and provide you comfort. And I love that, it's true. Jesus can absolutely do all of those things. But if you're fixated on what Jesus does for you more than you are on who Jesus is himself, then what's the difference between that and just feeding your own self-obsession? The Christian life does not fixate its eyes inward, but outward. You look out to Jesus. Jesus is not a vending machine of miracles for us to exploit. He is a loving, saving person who desires a real relationship with you. Do you love him?

This Christmas, I'm sure many of you are going to buy gifts for your loved ones. I remember being a kid and receiving sweaters—thank you, I wasn't that interested! But when I got a gift that I really enjoyed, like one time my parents got me a Game Boy Advance SP... oh man! Praise the Lord, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! My parents had saved and gotten me a precious gift. I would take that gift, run to my room, and lock the door. I wouldn't let my parents talk to me. My sinful heart was tunnel-visioned on that gift, and I didn't see the gift-giver. It took me years to understand that when my parents were giving me that gift, they weren't just giving me a toy; they were trying to show me how much they loved me through the gift. A bouquet of flowers isn't great just because flowers are pretty, but because it reveals something about the person who gifts you the bouquet of flowers. The gift reveals the love that the person has for you.

It's the same way with our Father. John 3:16 says that God loved the world so. And that word 'so' isn't a word of exaggeration. It's not saying like, 'God like so loves you.' That word 'so' in John 3:16 means that God loved the world in this way: that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And when you truly understand the gospel, when you really grasp it, the main thing that you look at isn't everlasting life, but the Father's love. How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he should give his only Son to make a wretch his treasure.

This demon-possessed man understood the treasure that he possessed, and it wasn't his sanity; the treasure was his Savior. So he clung and begged Jesus to remain with him. But Jesus would not let him. We see that in verse 19. Let's read it again: 'Jesus did not let him but told him, "Go home to your own people and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you."' So he went out and began to Proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed.

Jesus takes this formerly possessed man and commissions him to be an evangelist. Before, he was possessed by demons, tortured among the dead. And now he sends this man, possessed by a clean spirit, now commissioned to preach the good news of God's mercy amongst the spiritually dead. Mercy. Mercy means forgiveness, or something that you did not deserve. Love that we did not earn, forgiveness that we did not recoup from our own good actions, kindness despite our poverty. And that's the kind of blessing that you and I have all received.

You know, I'm sure all of us right now, this morning, if you're a believer in Jesus, would rather be with Jesus right now. I'm sure in our heart of hearts we echo the prayer that Christians have played for millennia: Maranatha, come Lord Jesus! We echo the words of Paul, that it is better to be with the Lord, and that to die is gain. And I don't know why Jesus hasn't come back yet. I would love if he came right now and this sermon was cut short! I don't know why, but what I do know is that his timing is always right. And he commissions us the same way that Jesus commissions this man: to go and share his mercy. As we leave from this place, as we encourage one another, as we go to our families, our friends, our co-workers, and our neighbors, we get to go and share how much the Father loves us because of how much Jesus has done for us.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your grace. We do pray, Lord, that we would have the heart of this formerly demon-possessed man. We want to remain with you, we want to be with you. But as we wait, Lord, help us to go and share this good news with others, to be able to trust you, to love you over your things. Our hearts are deceitful and fickle and change all the time. We can only do this by the strength of your Spirit. So we ask that you'd be gracious to us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Closing and Church Announcements

Amen. Thank you for coming. A couple of announcements for us before we depart. First: giving. If you'd like to give to this church, you could do so online or in the offering plate in the back. If you're visiting with us this morning, I just want to make really clear: we don't need your money. In fact, God doesn't need any of our money in order to accomplish his will. What he does is he commands us to give—for Christians who are members of this church—so that we could practice generosity, so that we could learn to trust him, and so that we could advance his gospel work to the rest of the world. We want to see more men like the man that we just read about going out, being able to share the gospel, seeing other people turn from their sin, and being able to trust in him. And whenever we give, we have the privilege of being able to participate in that work with him. So let's go ahead and pray together and give thanks to the Lord for that offering.

Lord, we thank you for all the things that you have given us. We pray that you would help us to give with a cheerful heart, because we know that you delight in it. I pray, Lord, that as we give to advancing your mission in the world, we would reflect your heart, as you delight to give us your blessings. So we pray, Lord, that you would help us to reflect that generous spirit that you've shown us, and that you would use these funds for the glory of your name to the ends of the earth. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. A couple of other announcements for us. The Bible study on Mark is not happening this month, so if you show up at 8:40 in the morning, no one will be here! But there is a Church Matters class that's still going on. This morning, I went through 2,000 years of church history in about 50 minutes. Next week, we'll be talking about the Great Commission and how Jesus actually accomplishes the Great Commission, not just through each of us individually, but through us as a church. So if you're interested in joining the church or just learning more about what the church is, you are more than welcome to come to that.

Wednesday night Bible studies are also going to start next year in January, and we will be starting up Sunday evening prayer services again next year as well, starting in January at 5:00 PM. So I just want to flag that for you. We want to be a church that prays and goes to the Lord with our many needs, as well as praising him through prayer and confessing our sins to him. So we want to do that, and you're more than welcome to join us at 5:00 PM on Sundays starting next month.

Now for our benediction, 2 Corinthians 13:14: 'And now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.' Amen. Have a blessed week.