Well if you would, open up your copy of God's Word. Tonight we will be in Mark chapter 5 and reading verses 1 through 20. It's found on page 840 of the Pew Bible in front of you. And as you turn there, let us pray for our time together. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give us ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts to receive your word tonight. We pray that by your spirit that we would be built up to be mature disciples of you. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus, amen. All right, so Mark chapter five, verses one through 20, starting off in verse one. They, that is the disciples in Jesus, came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, what is your name? He replied, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. and they begged him saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them. So he gave them permission and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from the region. As he was getting in the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him, but said to him, go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone marveled. This is the reading of God's word. Well, the reformer Martin Luther, when he died, there was a sheet of paper found near him with the last two sentences that he ever wrote. And those last two sentences were, we are beggars, this is true. We are beggars, this is true. Our passage tonight affirms that truth, as we see three different instances of people begging Jesus. Now interestingly, simply by begging Jesus does not imply that one is a Christian. As we'll see in the passage, of crucial importance is what you are begging Jesus for, what you are asking Jesus for. So tonight, as we walk through the three different sections of beggars, I want us to see what we can learn about the nature of man, the nature of Satan and his demons, and then the nature of Jesus and his kingdom. So we'll break it up three ways. We'll do the first, the begging of the unclean spirits in verses 1 through 13. Secondly, we'll look at the begging of the crowd in verses 14 to 17. And then lastly, the begging of the healed man in verses 18 to 20. But before we get into those points tonight, I kind of have an aside comment that I wanted to make that links, if you were here last month, we went over the end of Mark 4, where Jesus calms the wind and the waves when his disciples are out on the boat. So I wanted to just make a comment that bridges these two passages together. So if you were here last time, we saw that the disciples were put through a storm for primarily two reasons. The first reason was so that Jesus might reveal more of himself to them. That by stilling the wind and the waves, he is showing them that he has authority over creation, and that he is the divine son of God, because only God has authority over the physical creation. So he's revealing more of himself to them in the storm, but also in the storm, he is testing their faith. He's giving them an opportunity to trust him, to use their faith in the midst of a storm. So those are the two reasons we looked at last month. But here in our passage, in the very first verse, we realize there's a third reason why Jesus brought his disciples through the storm. And interestingly, the third reason has little to do with the actual disciples themselves. It has little directly to do with them. The third reason that Jesus brought them through the storm is so that he might bring the gospel to the land, to the country of the Gerasenes. In fact, you might even say that's the primary reason. The whole reason they got in the boat was to go to the other side originally. And so that third reason can be really instructive for us in our seasons of suffering, in the storms that we face in life. It's good and right and true when you are in a storm to ask Lord, what are you doing in me? What are you trying to teach me about yourself? What are you trying to mold in me? Maybe how are you trying to grow my faith? But as with every area in life, oftentimes in suffering, we get stuck in our own heads. We think that it's all about us. It's a wild concept to think that sometimes in your suffering, God is not bringing you through a storm primarily for you. Sometimes in your suffering, God is bringing you through a storm so that he might work in others through you, so that he might use you to lift up his name in the lives of others. So he might bring you through suffering so that you can give comfort to someone later on down the road who's going through something similar to what you experienced. He might put you through suffering similar to this passage so that he can bring the gospel to a people and to a region. He might put you through suffering so that others can see your faithful perseverance and be convicted and corrected and comforted by the way that you endure the storms in life. So I just wanted to say that because I think that that personally gives me great comfort and purpose when I'm in suffering, to know that it's not just all about me. But God uses us in a multitude of ways beyond how we can ever imagine to lift up his name in the lives of others. And so we can see that here in the disciples on the boat. It's not just about them. Jesus is bringing the gospel to another land. And so that's why they're going through the storm. So I just wanted to make that comment. It doesn't really relate to where we're going to go tonight with three beggars, but connected with last time. So jumping back into the theme. Three instances of beggars here. Verse one, look with me at verse one. We just mentioned it. So Jesus and his disciples have now crossed the Sea of Galilee. They're now on the east side of the sea in the country of the Gerasenes. So they're in Gentile territory here. Here, Jesus, very early on in his ministry, is showing the pervasiveness of the kingdom of God. It's not just for Israel, it is for the nations. In fact, it's for more than the nations, it's for all of creation. So Jesus here is going to a Gentile country to show that his kingdom is for the nations as well. And immediately, Mark often uses immediately, immediately, as soon as Jesus steps off the boat, we are met with our first beggar, a man with an unclean spirit. Now this story is also told in Matthew's gospel and in Luke's gospel, but Mark, which is the shortest gospel, actually has the longest telling of this story. Mark includes the most detail in his telling of this passage to really build up just how lost this man was, to really build up just how bad his situation is and his circumstance is. This man is unclean in every aspect of life. He is in an unclean country, Gentile territory. He has an unclean spirit within him. He lives among the tombs, which is an unclean place. And he's living near a herd of pigs, which according to Jewish law are unclean animals. So Mark is really trying to show us just how unclean this man is, just how dark and desperate is his circumstance. And he's not only unclean, he's uncontrollable. They cannot bind this guy, can't shackle him, have to put him out of the city among the tombs because there's nothing they can do to subdue him. This is like a first century Samson in some senses. They don't know what to do with this guy. They can't bind him. And night and day, all the time, he's in the tombs crying out and cutting himself on the stones. He's a harm to others, but he's also a harm to himself. And nothing seems to work with this man. The people are at a loss. They don't know what to do. Well, if there's one thing we know about Jesus, he's pretty good at solving problems that other people don't know how to solve or can't solve. And so he comes here, the man runs to Jesus in verse six, from afar, and then verse seven, with a loud voice, cries out, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Something I am trying to instill in the youth at our church is a love for the Word of God, but also a curiosity about the Word of God. Our God is majestic, all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, all-good, all-loving. And he has revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus. and in this word of which every page is about Jesus. This is an unbelievable book. It's a fascinating book because our God is a fascinating God. And yet so many times when we read it, so many times maybe when we even hear preaching, we just kind of skim over it. And we miss out on so much if we do that. And so I try to instill in them a curiosity to sit with the word of God, to ask questions, to desire to know God more, to be curious about what is here. So something that you may not have noticed that is wild in this scene. Picture this for a moment. So just before this, remember the disciples are on the boat. Jesus calms wind in the waves with two words, unbelievable miracle. The disciples, who know Jesus best, respond to this miracle with fear and with confusion. They ask, who then is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him? They don't fully know who Jesus is, even though they've spent time with him and seen him teach and seen him work miracles. Now look back at this scene. You have got this crazy man, this uncontrollable, unclean man living among the tombs in Gentile territory. Immediately when he sees Jesus, he flees to him. And what does he say? What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? This unclean, demon-possessed, uncontrollable man knows something about Jesus that his disciples don't even know. That this is the divine Son of God that has gotten off the boat and has come to his land. That's an unbelievable dichotomy if you look at both passages put together. Now from that observation, it can be tempting to try to pull out a dramatic point, kind of something like the least of these can see Jesus more clearly than everyone else. There is a principle in scripture that you can often see the poor and the needy are more likely to come to Jesus than, say, the rich. But actually what's going on here, and Matthew makes this most clear in his gospel, that it's less of the man that recognizes this as Jesus, the Son of God, it's more so the demons, the unclean spirits within him that recognize this as Jesus, the Son of God. And that makes sense if you go through the Gospels, the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God. First person that identifies Jesus as the Son of God in the Gospels is the Father at Jesus' baptism. Next, it's Satan at the temptation in the wilderness, tempting him, if you are the Son of God. And then after that, it's the demons. The disciples are the last ones to actually know who Jesus truly is. And so here in this passage, we see the demons recognize that this is more than just a prophet, that this is the Son of God that has come to them. Another observation you might have noticed. I've always been so confused when reading this passage, kind of more so when it comes to verses 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Did you notice the subjects? They kind of switch back and forth between the singular sometimes and the plural. I used to think that the singular means the man is talking and the plural is the demons, the unclean spirits talking. But actually, it's the spirits, the demons speaking in both. Sometimes it is the demons referred to as a singular entity, and then sometimes it's referring to them in the plural. So if you'll look at verse 9. What is your name? My name, singular, is Legion, for we are many. You see both of them in there. Or verse 10, and he begged him not to send them out. Verse 12, and they begged. So it's kind of confusing this back and forth, but both are referring to the demons, the man named Legion, for we are many. So that's kind of what's going on in that aspect. The request, what does this demon-possessed man request? What does he beg of Jesus? Not to send them out of the country, but rather to be sent into the pigs feeding on the hillside. Now something we'll see in each instance of begging. Jesus responds in really interesting ways. In every situation, he responds in a way that we might not naturally expect him to respond. You wouldn't think that the Son of the Most High God would grant the request, no matter how earnest, of demons. You wouldn't actually think that Jesus would do that. But that's exactly what he does. He gives the spirits permission to go into the pigs feeding on the hillside, and they immediately go to their death down into the sea. 2,000 pigs drowned in the sea in a matter of moments. What's going on here? What is Jesus up to in this miracle? Few things. So first off, Jesus, when he is performing this miracle, is displaying that the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is here. In Matthew 12, Jesus says, if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. So the kingdom of God is here. That is what Jesus is displaying by casting out these demons. And this uncontrollable man, this unclean man, the unclean spirits are no match for this king and his kingdom. His kingdom is not only pervasive, it is also powerful. The kingdom of God comes in power. So we see Jesus's kingdom not only goes over the physical realm as we saw in the last passage but here we can see that Jesus has authority over the spiritual realm too. The pervasiveness of the kingdom and its power. And this kingdom entails the restoration of all things. The restoration of all things. And in this kingdom, there is freedom and there is peace. We see that clear as day in this healed man. He is restored fully. And we'll get to that a little bit more in the next section. Secondly, Jesus is showing that the kingdom of God necessarily entails the destruction of the kingdom of Satan. the removal of the kingdom of Satan, which is entailing the removal of unclean things, which symbolize sin and death. So the unclean spirits living in an unclean land go into unclean animals, and they are all removed from this land. Now a question that you might be asking, if the kingdom of God entails a defeat, a destruction of the kingdom of Satan, why doesn't Jesus just destroy the spirits right here? Why does he allow them to go into the pigs? Because the time has not yet come for the total destruction of Satan and his demons. that time will be at the cross when Satan is finally defeated. Hebrews 2 clarifies for us really clearly. Here's what it says. Through death, he, Jesus, might destroy the one who has power over death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. So Jesus doesn't destroy the demons right here because the time has not yet come for that. It will come on the cross. But what he is doing here, this is a sign showing that it will come. So he is giving a sign and a symbol of what will happen to the kingdom of Satan and to all of the demons that are a part of that. One last point. So a lot of people have read this story and used it to try to charge Jesus with some sort of wrongdoing. They've said, this is animal cruelty. They've said, this is destroying the economic prosperity of the herdsmen. This is destroying the food supply of the herdsmen. What do we do when we're faced with those sorts of questions? And there are. I mean, there's a decent amount of literature out there that is trying to explain what's going on here and defend those questions. First off, it's helpful if someone is that skeptical about Jesus, A lot of times, the best thing to do is not immediately answer their questions, but to kind of dig and understand why they are so skeptical about Jesus. Because the Bible presents a Jesus that is fully trustworthy, that is loving, and that is good, and that is all truth. And so that's a great place to start, to understand why they might be so skeptical of what Jesus is doing here. How about just a couple talking points that I did find helpful to try to kind of unpack why people might be asking that. First off, those charges that people have almost always seem to miss, it's not Jesus that drives the pigs into the sea. It's the demons. It's the unclean spirits. And that is what demons do. They seek to destroy and to distort God's creation. They were doing that with the man, and then we see they immediately do that with the pigs. So the demons are the ones most directly responsible for the destruction of these pigs. Secondly, those charges tend to often disregard the authority of God over creation. They also tend to disregard the healing of this man. If 2,000 pigs is worth the life of one man, What does that tell us about the value that God places on human life? God created everything. He loves all of his creation. But mankind, he created in his image. And we have a particular value. We are precious in his sight in a way that the rest of creation is not. And so you can ask, would you rather Jesus had left this man demon-possessed in the pigs there. Or would you rather 2,000 pigs for the life of one man? And so right here, Jesus is also showing the value that God places on human life, how precious humans are in his sight. So summarizing that whole first instance of begging, Jesus here is demonstrating the power of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of Satan by healing this man and driving out the demons. And he is showing that his kingdom entails the restoration of all things. Moving on to the second beggar in verses 14 to 17. So understandably, if you are a herdsman and you have lost 2,000 of your pigs in the last 10 seconds, you're gonna tell some people about it. So they go in the city and the country and tell everybody what has just happened. This is a genius move by Jesus. This is a genius move. Is there a quicker way to spread the news that you're in town? In one act, one quick act, the entire city and the entire country know that he's here. And what do they do? They come. Everyone comes to hear what has happened. And when they get there, what do they see? They see the uncontrollable, unclean man sitting down. Luke in his telling of the story says, sitting at the feet of Jesus and he is clothed and he is in his right mind. He is fully restored. It's one thing for Jesus to show his power over impersonal things like the wind and the waves. It's another for him to do it over a life, over a person. He fully restores this man. And the crowd here reacts in the same way that his disciples reacted on the boat. They're horrified. What's scarier than an unclean man that they can't control? Someone that can control what's possessing that unclean man in a matter of seconds. That person is scarier. That person has more control. And so they're afraid. The kingdom of God is pervasive, it is powerful, and it provokes fear in some. If they thought that the unclean man was too much to handle, what are they gonna do with Jesus? The unclean man, they don't kick him out of the country, they just put him out of the city, by the tombs. They're so afraid of Jesus. They beg him, leave our country. They don't want him around. They are so afraid of him. Again, Jesus' response to the beggar, surprising. You would think that maybe he would say, I'm the son of God and I've come to bring salvation to this country, so no thank you. I'm not gonna listen to your request. It's for your good that I'm here. But none of the gospels even write that he had a response. He just seems to go right back to the boat. So he listens to their request, which is surprising. Why would Jesus do that? And I'll answer that why in our third section. The third beggar in verses 18 to 20 is the healed man. So the kingdom of God provokes fear in some, but it provokes praise and worship in others. This healed man sits at the feet of Jesus. And as Jesus gets in the boat to leave, he begs him that he might be with him. In verse 18, he wants to be a disciple of Jesus. He wants to follow Jesus. And if there were one request in this whole passage that you would think Jesus would answer positively, it'd be this one, right? This is what Jesus does. He calls people to himself. He calls people to follow him. And yet, surprisingly, he says no. He denies this man's request to come with him in the boat. So what is he doing? Think about it. So if Jesus can't be in the land, is that gonna stop Jesus from spreading the message about him in the land? No. So what Jesus does is he sends this man, this restored man, as living, breathing proof that the kingdom of God is here and that Jesus is here. He tells the man, go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. He sends him home a changed and a healed man. And the unclean man obeys, he goes home. More so than that, he goes to all of the Decapolis, 10 cities, a group of 10 cities, and begins proclaiming how much Jesus had done for him. The Greek word that's translated as proclaim can also be translated preach. The formerly demon-possessed man is preaching to all of the people in the Decapolis of who Jesus is. Unclean, uncontrollable, naked man who lived by the tombs is now preaching about this Jesus. And understandably, all the people can do is marvel. All they can do is marvel at what this man is saying. The kingdom of God is pervasive, it is powerful, and it is worth proclaiming. It is worth proclaiming. Again, I am in awe at Jesus's ministry strategy here in the country of the garrisons. This is the most efficient and effective strategy I've ever seen. He does no teaching. He's maybe here for a day. And through one man in one act, the entire city and country in Decapolis has heard of who this Jesus is and what he has done. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable what he is doing here. And so how might we be able to apply this passage to our life? First, the restoration of this man is meant to be a picture of what happens when every single person, you and I, believe in Jesus Christ by faith. When we come to the end of ourselves, come to the end of our sinful and unclean selves and beg Jesus to have mercy on us, beg Jesus to save us. In verse seven, the demons cry out, please do not torment me. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus did not come to torment his enemies, sinners. He didn't come to torment sinners. Rather, he came to show them mercy. He came to forgive them. He came to cleanse them. He came to restore them. And he accomplished this restoration by becoming like the unclean man. Jesus allowed others to bind him and to take him out of the city and to put him on a cross, which is the place for only sinful and unclean people. The perfect, sinless Son of God went to the place of the unclean. so that he might give life to sinners, so that he might forgive sinners, people like you and like me. And when we believe in this gospel, we receive the restoration and the peace and the freedom that was brought to this demon-possessed man. We receive that in our hearts of hearts. And so what are you going to beg Jesus for? Are you gonna beg him to leave, to leave you alone and to get out of your way? Or are you gonna beg to be with him? Are you gonna beg that he might have mercy upon you, a sinner? And if you praise the name of Jesus in here, are you also proclaiming the name of Jesus in here? in proclaiming with your words, but also your works. Because yes, the gospel is a message that we need to share, but Peter also talks about winning others without a word, by the purity of your conduct. This man's witness would be pretty bad if he went and was preaching still as an unclean, demon-possessed man. Right? The power in his preaching, yes, is in the message, but it's also in the fact that he's restored, that Jesus has done a mighty work in him, that there is something tangibly different about him that makes people marvel and question, how did that happen to you? And so who might we be called to witness to? I love this quote from Tim Keller. He's got a quote that says, there are some deeds only we can do, some hands only we can hold, and some hurts that only we can heal. It's wild, but this man was actually in a better position to preach the gospel to the land of the Gerasenes than Jesus himself, because they didn't want anything to do with Jesus. All of us, depending on your experiences in life, your passions in life, the places in life in which God has put you, you have the opportunity to witness to people that we don't. There are particular ears that will listen to you in a way that they won't listen to me. There are particular hands that only you can hold. Particular lives that only you can touch. And so who is God calling you to witness to in your words and in your deeds? Who is God calling you to show that you have been restored and redeemed by Jesus Christ? And they can experience the same thing by believing in him. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, for the sake of proclaiming his name. For the sake of proclaiming about the one that has taken us from darkness and into his marvelous light. May we not fall into the trap thinking that once we get saved, we can just chill here until we get to heaven. May we not cower in a Christian bubble, being so afraid of the world that we're not witnessing to it. May we see the example of this man and be emboldened and encouraged to go witness to the places and the people that God has put in front of us, trusting that Jesus, who gave us this mission, will work through us and in us, even if he gives us storms, so that he might make his name known to a people. And as we proclaim this kingdom, I pray that you would see it come in power. that we would see its pervasiveness spread in our city, in our country, in our world until he takes us home or until Jesus returns. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this amazing story. Father, I pray that we would just marvel at your kingdom and at your son Father, that if anyone in here does not know the restoration that comes with believing in Jesus, that they would know it tonight, that they would receive by faith your salvation, that they would beg you to have mercy upon them. And Father, for the rest of us, for the Christians here, would you give us Such comfort in our hearts, such love in our hearts, Lord, that we just wanna share it. Would we so marvel at who you are and what you've done in our lives that we wanna bring it to the people around us? Would you give us opportunities this week to be witnesses to the resurrection of your son, to tell people about you and to show people you through our transformed and changed life? We pray that you would make your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. All these things we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.