Session #8

Luke 8:26-39

"Man Of The Tombs" • 11.17.09 • Jesus Christ: The Man Of God, Session #8

Intro

- The day began with an order from Jesus to cross the sea of Galilee. Seemed simple enough. The disciples, being saavy sailors figured this would be one of those easy days.

- It was just their luck though, when a storm found them right in the middle of their journey. Adding insult to the episode, Jesus almost slept right through it!

- He would have had the disciples not cried out for Him to do something, which He did when with a word, He calmed the storm. The sea turned to glass and the disciples resumed course.

- Imagine, it's late in the evening. They are soaking wet. They come to shore, each speaking of how thankful they are that this day is over.

- Peter talks about wanting to sell the boat, just so Jesus won't ask them to take it across the sea again! Andrew is ringing out his wet clothes, while Judas looks for all the coins that fell out of the offering bag!

- Jesus gets off the boat and out of the shadows comes a screaming, naked man! I can just see the guys faces drop, as their dramatic day, just got an unwanted dramatic boost!

- For them, they are through. They have had it. They are tapped out! It's time to rest and be done. R & R is not the usual for those who are walking with Jesus.

- We think that God just wants to use us when we are fresh and willing, not when we are spent and not wanting to cooperate. However, It's at these times that God makes appointments for us.

- What they see is what we see: Troubled people needing a touch from a living Savior.

- Who else will go and minister? Who else is there that will even be sensitive to the need?

- The disciples are right where Jesus wants them, on time for a date with destiny.

- This story provides us with a great deal of detail that will help us to face the always consuming, but ever rewarding job of being Christ's ambassadors on Earth.

- I pray that this story might compel us to see our world a little differently. The passage breaks up for us like this:

I. The Man's Condition (v.26-29)

II. The Lord's Command (v.30-33)

III. The City's Compassion (v.34-37)

IV. The Godly Commission (v.38,39)

Text

I. The Man's Condition (v.26-29)

• Luke 8:26-29 : "Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, 'What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!' For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness." : The trip had taken them down to the southernmost portion of the sea of Galilee. Gadara was mostly known as a Gentile region.

- Luke tells us that this man approached, the moment Jesus stepped off of the boat onto land.

- He had a "demon problem" for a long time. This was no new issue.

- There are many references in the gospels to Jesus' ministry being authenticated by His mastery over demonic possession. Beside this, there are only two others that are documented for us.

- The demonic host sought to bring shame upon and the man. He was naked. He was exposed to every pain, to all of the elements.

- He lived near or around the catacombs, which to the Jewish mind, would be a cursed position. The man was more like an animal.

- The demons speak and they always recognize Jesus. They have perfect theology, but they are forever lost. In fact, they identify Jesus better than some evangelicals do today!

- The demonic presence in the man spoke truthfully about Christ's character and it's future torment. Until that time however, the demon simply wanted to torment the man further.

- The demon often seized him, the word meaning that he was no longer control of his movements or actions. The demon used his body in the same way that we might use a car!

- There was no match for the demon's strength, as chains and shackles were useless. He simply broke them and sent this man out into the wilderness, into isolation.

- Now, we are not told how this man came to be in this condition. What we need to understand from this portion of the text, is that this torment was long term.

- He lived in a perpetual state of shame, pain and isolation because of the demon.

II. The Lord's Command (v.30-33)

• Luke 8:30-33 : "Jesus asked him, saying, 'What is your name?' And he said, 'Legion,' because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned." : Jesus asks for some identification. "Legion." A hundred demons resided here within this man.

- The demons knew their place. They immediately begged Jesus not to send them to their eventual fate, the abyss, literally the bottomless unmeasurable pit.

- The abyss is the place of torment created for the demonic horde, that many without Christ will one day share. These demons needed to go somewhere and the nearby pigs were the best place.

- Jesus permitted them to go. What power and might Jesus had. At one word, with one action, He releases this man from his long torment, and sends the demons out.

- Unfortunately, there will be no bacon in the Gadara, as the demons drown the pigs.

III. The City's Compassion (v.34-37)

• Luke 8:34-35 : "When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid." : It's early in the morning and people are just waking up to the news of what had happened.

- The first thing that they see is that the man that they had known was now entirely different from the day before. Something had radically changed.

- There are three things that they noticed. First, he was sitting at the feet of Jesus. I love this. Prior to this, he had been a wanderer, alone and isolated by the choice of the demon.

- Here, he is at peace, sitting at the place where a student or a devotee would place themselves. It's a picture of submission, no longer to a demon, but to Jesus.

- When a person is delivered from sin, a life proverbially set on fire by hell itself, he is not delivered to nothingness. He is delivered from a life, to a life, for a life!

- The nature of the gospel is to deliver such men and women from a Kingdom and bring them into THE Kingdom!

- Turn with me to Isaiah 49. Isaiah is prophesying about the nature of the Messiah's mission.

• Isaiah 49:24,25 : "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, Or the captives of the righteous be delivered? But thus says the Lord: 'Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who contends with you, And I will save your children."

- Notice the language. Captivity, forceful removal from free life. God says, "I'll mess with the one that messes with you and I'll make a mess of them!"

- Turn with me to Acts 26. Paul is recounting his testimony to King Agrippa.

• Acts 26:17,18 : "I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.'"

- Here the Messiah, Jesus delivered this man from the influence of Satan's Kingdom and brought him to sit under His own Kingdom.

- When we participate in Kingdom work, we are doing the same!

- Note secondly, that the man is clothed. This was refreshing for everyone! The man to this point was known for his nakedness.

- Scripturally, from even the first chapters of the Bible, being "unclothed" or "clothed" is always a reminder of righteousness. Adam and Eve attempted to clothe themselves and God later clothed them. Turn back with me to Isaiah 61. Look at this amazing verse.

• Isaiah 61:10 : "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

- This man, more than clothed physically, was now clothed spiritually, with the rightousness of

Christ! He had seen his deliverance performed by the deliverer Himself!

- Finally, the man was in his right mind. Literally, he was self-controlled. He was not raving

and maniacal. He made sense. He was right in his thinking.

- Jesus came into this man's life and He reversed the curse. He undid in a day, with a word,

what the enemy had been trying to do for a long time.

- Everything about this man was different and right. But then notice the last phrase of verse

35: And they were afraid? What? Weren't they afraid before?

- The guy in verse 35 is certainly less scary than the guy from verse 26 and 29!

- The people were afraid. What Jesus had done brought fear. This is strange!

• Luke 8:36,37 : "They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned." : So, let's get this straight: A man with a long testimony of demonic possession is healed and changed. A person who could affect that, you would think, would be welcomed and treated like a hero!

- Not so! These people were absolutely afraid of what else Jesus could do. More than anything, it seems that they were afraid for the loss of any more of their economy.

- After all, these were swine herders. Their entire crop, their whole herd was destroyed. What else would they lose if Jesus stayed near them.

- It's amazing to me that this is still the case today. A man or woman is delivered from their confused, isolated and depressing lifestyle. All of sudden, instead of applause, they are hated.

- "Oh, you're no fun anymore! We used to go out..."

- Jesus is not going to stay where He is not wanted.

IV. The Godly Commission (v.38,39)

• Luke 8:38,39 : "Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, 'Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.' And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him." : The man from whom the demons had departed. That is his distinction. That is wonderful.

- He was this man. He was the man who had been tormented by demons.

- Each of us is a "was!" What is your "was?" You might say, "I was a drunk." You might say, "I was an adulterer." A pervert. A fornicator. A prideful man.

- We can go on all day, but whatever you were, when you came to Christ, that part of you is

history. Biblically, we may have inclinations toward certain sins but because of Christ, that is no longer what identifies us.

- Turn with me to I Corinthians 6. Paul is communicating this truth powerfully.

• I Corinthians 6:9-11 : "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."

- Turning over just a few pages to II Corinthians 5 and we have these great verses:

• II Corinthians 5:16,17 : "Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

- Here this man is a new creation. And not surprisingly, the man wants to come with Jesus.

- He wants to leave this place that has rejected Christ. He wants to remain by Jesus' side.

- But Jesus refuses him. Whoa! Hold on!? Jesus sends this great illustration of His power away? The marketer in each of us says, "No! Bring him on the stage and let's play some music!"

- Jesus says, "Go back to your family and talk about what God has done for you!"

- What's more important than following Jesus? Partnering with Him by advertising what He has done for you!

- But, could he have not gathered more information, sat under some teaching, spent some time healing, gotten a little apostolic authority?

- Jesus says, you have enough, you know enough, you are enough to change your family forever! Your mission ground will be spent among the people who never thought you could be different. The ones who stopped believing years ago that you would ever change!

- That will take you more time that you have just to communicate that to them!

- Sure enough, this man did that and a whole lot more! He told his family and went throughout his entire city speaking about what Jesus had done.

Conclusion

- The meaning of this passage is simple: No matter how long a person has been lost, with a simple touch from Jesus, in a moment of time, he/she/they can be changed forever and made instruments for His glory.

- Jesus is the answer. There is no one who is too lost, too depraved, too stubborn, too far gone, that His hand cannot reach! Is that your Jesus? How should that affect your day today?