Luke 8:26-39 - Pastor Jon Meenk

Well, good morning. Would you remain standing? We're going to continue our study through the gospel of Luke. And we are in Luke eight, starting in verse 26. If you can turn there for me, and I'll read through 39.

Then they sailed to the country of the garrisones, which is opposite gal. 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.

For he had commanded the unclean spirits 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 garrisones 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 him. 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for gathering us today. Lord Jesus, your bride, that you gather today, that we would be encouraged as we read your word this morning. And as we study your word this morning.

And as we sing songs that declare truth this morning. And as we come to the table this morning, Lord, I ask today that we would find rest and that we would be reminded of the great news that we can't save ourselves. And Lord Jesus, our eyes would be turned to you, Lord. Help me in my speaking. Help all of us in our hearing.

We pray for your glory. In Jesus'name. Amen. You guys can have a seat standing for a little while.

All right, settle in. It's nice, cozy weather. We're in church together. Let's have some fun. This is a crazy passage.

A few caveats before we jump into this. If you guys remember my sermon on why we sing. I told you how sensitive my kids are to like spooky things. And so maybe this caveat, first one is just for my kids, but I feel compelled to say it. Young ones that are in here this morning, as you just heard me read and as you hear me preach through this passage this morning, we're talking about a man who's crazy and who has demons, many, many demons in him.

And I just know as a kid, that would kind of freak me out. So, little ones, don't be freaked out, because if you checked out right after you heard demons, or like my son does, where he closes his ears, you miss the rest of the story, that Jesus conquers this. It's not a match at all. These are not a battle of two equals in any sense of the word, okay? Jesus wins, and that's who loves you, okay?

So don't be scared. That's my first caveat. My second one is for people that are like my wife, who have an unhealthy love of animals, and there's nothing I have for you this morning. These pigs die.

They die a gruesome, awful death. So if that hurts your heart, you got to buckle up.

As we've been working through the gospel of Luke, we've been seeing Jesus move in power, move in authority. And then just last week, we heard Pastor John preach on. They're on the sea of Galilee, and the storm comes, and they're afraid, right? And then we're left with this hanging question at the very end of the passage that we ended with last week, where the disciples say, who then is this? That he commands even winds and water, and they obey him.

So there's this big question laying out there, right? And this can be lost on us. I think I say this probably every time I preach, but I like to dive into these things and read them slower and not just read past stuff that we've read a thousand times, right? We know who Jesus is. But still, at this time, these guys are asking, who is this?

Who is this guy? Right? And it's this big hanging question. What's so cool about this passage is we're going to hear this question answered today and it's going to come from the least expected person in the least expected place. It's just so beautiful.

The poetry of scripture. And speaking of the poetry of scripture, my wife and I really like movies. We like documentaries, but we really like movies that are, it either begins or ends with based on a true story. So it just makes it that much cooler that like, oh, this really happened. But those are always, always embellished, right?

To make them more entertaining, to make them more to follow, like a storyline. It's not like exactly how it happened. And so as we read this story today, and maybe this was happening in your mind as I was even just reading it, Dave Dawson, our filmmaker, over here, as I was reading through this, or maybe this is already happening in your mind where you just kind of lean towards, not that this isn't a historical account, but this is like a fairy tale. And I want to remind us all, and this is stating the obvious, I know, but I just want to remind us all as I read through this and we see the poetry that's in scripture and we see how it points to this and points to that and tells us so much more than even the story, remember that this is an historical account written by Luke, that this really happened, that this is true. And this is just the beauty that we get when the author of the story is also the author of Life itself that God gets to use through the power of his spirit, inspiring these words written on paper and also has written history, that he's the great author that gets to tile this together.

And it's so beautiful seeing this poetry. So enough intro. Let's get into it. Verse 26 says, then they sailed to the country of the garrisones, which is opposite Galilee. We can read right past that, but this is really important.

Jesus has had interactions at this point with gentiles. But Luke makes sure to highlight by saying opposite of Galilee. That this is Jesus'first trip into predominantly gentile territory. He's gone opposite galilee. Right.

And if you're not convinced with that piece of evidence, now watch the descriptions that come after this. First thing he encounters as he steps onto this land is a man possessed by demons, right? Unclean. And where is this man living? In tombs among the dead.

Unclean. And what are we going to find also roaming around on the hillside near them? Pigs. Unclean, unclean, unclean. Jesus is stepping into the taboo right here.

Jesus is stepping into a place where the ritualistic, righteous dare not go. Jesus stepping into darkness. And we're going to see what he does. And immediately he finds this dehumanized man, right? This man that's possessed by demons and he's naked and he's wild and he's living among the tombs.

And later we're going to find out that the townspeople, the people in the city would even try to control him by chaining him up. And he would break the chains and just go wild and run around again some more.

As I was studying for this passage, I was just reading these description of this man. And we had eaten dinner at my house and everybody had finished and everybody kind of had gotten up and was doing their things for the night. And I just was still sitting at the table having this verse in my head, knowing this, I was going to preach a sermon coming up and just thinking about it and trying to wrap my head around this guy and his existence and what it was like. This wild guy, naked, possessed by demons, running around. And I kid you not, I hear, like yelling and then coming running down the hallway is my youngest boy breaker, totally naked, screaming and running circles around the dinner table that I'm studying at.

So it's like, oh, man, he's not like that guy. He's not demon possessed. He's a good dude. Yeah, I think he finds a herd of pigs somewhere. But my son, he's no example of this guy, right?

As you think about it, and if you sit like I did and contemplate it, think of this guy's existence. Just torment, pain, shame. It's absolutely unimaginable. And I wonder how much he's present and how much he's aware of because this dialog that Jesus has with him, right? You hear the demon answering, what is your name?

Legion. And I just had this thought that this guy probably, in whatever capacity he's aware of the situation, is probably begging when they would chain him up. He's probably begging for the chains to hold. He's probably begging that they would get him under control because of just this absolute torment hell on earth that he's going through. And it's hopeless.

And he's utterly hopeless because it's nothing that he has the power in himself to conquer, and it's actually nothing. There's more than just human intervention that he needs to conquer it. And so he's truly hopeless that he can't conquer this thing and just the power of other people around him can't conquer it.

And so as we read through this next section, let me help us out in that. As you read through it, you may notice that it kind of jumps around. Luke actually doesn't, as he writes this, he doesn't record it in chronological order. And that's not to change the story, but that's a storytelling trick skill of highlighting certain parts that he wants us to see, right? So he strategically moved things around to highlight certain things and to bring to the front some other things.

So he waits to give us the backstory of the demon possessed man. And he even waits to give us the dialog between Jesus and this demon possessed man. And he brings to the very front that when Jesus steps on land, that they have this statement of answering the question of who then is this that we remember is hanging there by the disciples? And Luke puts in the very front from this least expected guy in this least expected place, this question that the disciples who have seen miracle after miracle don't get from the mouth of demons. This guy says the first line that we see in Luke's account, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God.

Everybody's scratching their heads. Everybody's wondering, who is this guy? Who is this guy? And they go opposite Galilee. He steps on land of unclean, unclean, unclean.

And the least likely guy in that whole country who is possessed by demons comes up to him and answers that question and names who he is. Isn't that awesome? So crazy. Luke then goes on to describe Jesus's interaction with this man. And Jesus displays his authority over this man by asking his name, getting him to tell his name, which is legion, which then means there's more than one demon.

There's actually a lot of demons in this man. And so Jesus tells this army of demons that he tells them to leave this man. And they ask, like, they know that Jesus has the power to cast them to the abyss right then and there. And so they beg, Jesus, let us go into these pigs. And Jesus grants them permission to enter the pigs.

And because of their hatred of God, because of their hatred of God's creation, they go into these pigs. And the pigs run down the hillside. They run into the lake, and they sink, sink, sink down to the bottom of the lake. They drown and die.

Now, Luke records the herdsmen who are obviously taking care of these pigs are nearby. So they witness this whole thing that happens right in front of them. So they run and they tell everybody in the city, they tell everybody in the country, and everybody comes to see for themselves what's happened. And what they come upon is so beautiful. Remember the torment, if we can lean into, the torment that this guy saw, if we can lean into.

And remember living among the tombs, wild, just looking for relief. They come back and they see this man, and he was a man who had demons, and now he's a man whom demons have left. He was a man naked, and now he is a man clothed. He was a wild man shouting at Jesus, and now he's a man sitting at Jesus'feet. He was a man out of control, and now he's a man in his right mind.

It says he was a man living among the tombs, living among the dead, and soon is going to be told to go back and live in your home. He was a man completely dehumanized, and now he is a man completely restored the power of Christ, interacting with this man and the authority of Christ. What he could not do on his own and what no human in his town could do for him, Christ has done for this man. And it's a complete and final and total reversal of this man's situation. And if.

I think if we stopped right there, we would just assume, I'm almost positive that everyone in here would just assume that the townspeople would be thrilled. And even if they weren't thrilled for this man, I'm sure they could not stand this man. But even selfishly, you would think they'd be thrilled, like, we're finally rid of this guy who's a maniac, running through our town, wreaking havoc, no clothes on, like, he's a headache. This guy's a handful. And, you know, there's a case to be made that the townspeople were frustrated because of the amount of money that was lost in these pigs dying.

But Luke doesn't make any mention of that here. But what he does make very clear is they asked Jesus to leave because they were seized with great fear. And we've heard, even just going through Luke, we've heard other crowds and other people be full of fear, and we got to dive into that a little bit more. This isn't the kind of fear of reverence, the fear of awe and wonder, of the fear of encountering something that's greater than I, the fear of recognizing the authority. This is just a fear, absolute terror.

This guy is something other, and I don't get it. And please leave us. Please get out of here. Even though Jesus has just relieved them of this nightmare of this man, they asked Jesus to leave. We want nothing to do with you.

And this actually reminds me of the passage that Pastor David preached not too long ago about sowing our seed indiscriminately.

I think it's fair to say that if you and I were to have the mission of going to the country of the garrisones and we were to witness to the people, and we were to put down, make a list on a piece of paper in order of who's the most likely to receive the good news of Jesus and who's the least likely. I bet this guy is at the bottom of all of our lists.

And who rejects Jesus? The entire town, the entire city. And who accepts Jesus and knows who Jesus is? The least likely guy in the least likely place. A guy whose name we don't even know.

You have friends. We have no idea what's been stirring in the hearts of people, what seeds have been planted by other believers who have gone before us, how that seed has been watered by other brothers and sisters who have had conversations we don't know. And so it's not our place to hold seed in, to keep it thinking. I can just tell by looking at that guy that he's bad soil. It's not our place.

Sow that seed indiscriminately. Where you are in your workplace, where you are in your neighborhood, where you are with sports teams, where you are with what you do and where you go in life. Take that seed and cast it out. God is in the business of turning everything on its head. God is in the business of taking the least likely person and using that person to confound the wise, to confound the powerful, to confound the influencers.

So reach out and sow that seed indiscriminately.

Luke then goes on, and he changes the order again here on purpose to highlight some stuff for us. It says that Jesus gets in the boat as the townspeople asked Jesus to leave, and he gets in the boat and he leaves. And what Luke has done here is he's cleared the scene. So he goes on and says, hey, the townspeople want Jesus to leave. Jesus gets in the boat and he leaves.

And now it's like blackout. And now let's focus on one conversation, one last conversation. So the only two characters left in our scene is Jesus and this man. And as we look at this dialog between Jesus and this man, I think we can agree that his request is a good request. His request is an honorable and noble request.

Right. And it makes a lot of sense. Jesus, I want to go with you.

I want to follow you. And Jesus tells him, no.

You know, that had to be a hard no to receive from that guy, because you think about it. He has to go back and live in that town.

It actually sounds way more fun. This guy set me free. I'm going to get on this boat with this guy and the guys that he came with, and I'm just going to put my past in my past and just get out here and start new. And Jesus is saying, no, you're going to be my beachhead here.

And you guys, imagine the embarrassment of that. Like, I really can't.

I mean, seriously, you are wild and crazy running around naked in your town. Like, I live here in Newbury park. Holy cow. Like, yeah, the news that that was, man, that's got to be so crazy hard. But you know what?

It also, we can learn from it, as we can learn from everything in scripture. So often we're told to bring our request requests before the Lord, right?

But we never know. We never know what the Lord is really, really doing. The story that he's weaving together, and especially in the moment, in the moment of life when we're just trying to figure out that moment, this guy's whole world has just changed for the better, but still, it's his whole world has just changed. And figuring out what the Lord is doing in that moment is so beyond us. And I even think sometimes, even when we put time between us in those moments, it's still even hard to see what the Lord is doing.

Maybe we get glimpse of it, like, oh, I can now see, like, now, five years removed, I can see the good that the Lord was weaving together, right? But in the moment, it's so hard to see. But this takes us back to. It's what Pastor Noyes'point was last week, is that Jesus is trustworthy, and we just have to understand that God is writing history, and then he holds us in his hand and that we can trust him. And though the road in front of us may look terrifying and humiliating and scary and everything else that you can think of, the Lord has put us on that path so we can walk in it in confidence, not because we're the best thing ever, but because he is and we can trust him.

Jesus commissions this man, go back and live in this town. Go back and live in your home and go tell everyone what God has done for you. And here. If you didn't believe the statement of the demon possessed man answering that question here, Luke bookends that answer with Jesus himself saying, tell everyone what God has done for you. Giving us further proof.

Jesus declaring that, this isn't me, this is God moving. I am the son of God. God among us. If there's any question on who was calming the wind and the waves in that boat, it has been answered by the demon possessed man and by Jesus himself, God incarnate, Jesus on earth. So as Jesus moves towards this man and steps into his darkness and steps into his life, God has moved towards this man and stepped into his darkness and stepped into his life.

And so, as I've been preaching through this, I hope you guys are making these connections all on your own. As we've been going through this, like this man, you and I have no power in and of ourselves to conquer this thing that enslaves us. We are utterly hopeless in our sin. And even outside of us, there is no amount of human coaching, no amount of human wisdom, no amount of human discipline that can ever free us from the thing that enslaved us. It is only through the power of Christ that we who are once slaves and hopeless can be restored completely.

It's only through Jesus that we who were once dead and living among the dead are now raised to life. It's only through Jesus we who were once naked, exposed, have now been clothed in righteousness. It's only through Jesus that we who are once outcasts, living in the wilderness have been adopted by the king. It's only through Jesus that we who are once restless, out of our minds, running from idol to idol to idol, looking for relief. It's only in Jesus that we find rest and we can sit at his feet like this man.

Jesus has done this all for you, Christian. A complete restoration, a complete reversal. Not by your power, not by the wisdom of anyone else, but by God stepping into your life, stepping into our world and doing what we could never do for ourselves.

I wonder if this guy, probably not right away, but I wonder if, as years went on, if this guy had a sense of humor, if he just began to own like, this is me, this is what I'm doing. I know what Jesus did for me, and I'm just going to own it. The entire town knows his story. I'm sure he's getting weird looks all the time. I'm sure that as he's walking down the street, people are crossing the street before they get to him.

I'm sure people are still angry with him and that they're hurling insults at him.

I wonder if he ever say he's in the market because I'm sure people are bringing up his past, right? People are reminding him of the crazy man who is out of his mind, people putting in front of his face his humiliation, his life possessed by demons, living among the tombs, humiliating stuff. And I just wonder if he ever, in the marketplace, buying bread one day from some lady, just goes like. And pretends that he's, like, the demon's back. It would be a killer icebreaker to start witnessing to somebody.

I hope he had a sense of humor. I hope he enjoyed it.

But in all seriousness, I think of that, and I think how we can learn from that as well. Right? We constantly, by the accuser, have our sins and our past and our chains, our enslavement, our hopelessness in our face.

You may by tomorrow morning, already be struggling with remembering and doubting the restoration that you've received. And the hope that we have is the same hope that this guy had. And I hope he thought this, that as people would hurl this in front of him when he would get down on himself and fester on his own shortcomings and fester on his own failures, that he remember those little piggies running down the hillside, going into the lake, sinking to the bottom and drowning. And he would remember that the thing that enslaved him is buried at the bottom of that sea.

And Christian, Micah 719 tells us he will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Brothers and sisters, my friends, Christ has stepped into our dark world, and he's stepped into your dark life, and he's displayed his power in who he is as the son of God. And in doing so, he has set you free. He has set the captives free.

And one day, like this man, one day we will be with Jesus face to face. But until then, like this man, Jesus commissions us and he says, go into your town and declare everything that God has done for you. And so your commission today, Christian, my commission today is to take the good news that you have received as we come to the table here shortly. The good news that you have received, that you are welcome at the table. Not because your own works this last week, not because you lived a perfect life this last week, because I know you didn't.

I didn't. But because Christ did. And he lived that perfect life for me and for you, and he died for me and for you, that he would give us his life, and he would give us not only take away our sins and our awful deeds, but he would give us his good deeds. Your sins aren't just wiped away. And now you're a blank slate.

And hopefully you fill that blank slate with good things. That's not how it works. Jesus has destroyed your sins and buried them in the ocean and taken his good works and filled your ledger with what he's done. God sees you, and he sees perfect. And he sees all the works of Christ in you.

Christian, take that good news and go to your workplaces, your sports teams, your schools and your neighborhoods and declare everything that God has done for you. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven seal this word upon our hearts. Lord, empower us to let it actually affect our lives.

Through the power of your spirit, we pray for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.