Love and Obey • Luke 8:22-39

1:09:23 Teaching begins

Notes

Jesus gives a glimpse of who He is, and people are scared of Him. Even His disciples are terrified that He is God. That’s normal. God inspires awe and terror in people.

There’s one guy today in this section that isn’t scared of Jesus. He loves Jesus, wants to be with Him. Before he met Jesus he experienced absolute wickedness. When Jesus freed him he experienced absolute goodness.

So when Jesus tells him to tell others what great things God has done for him he is totally into it. Because he knows God is Jesus, and Jesus is good.

When you realise God is good, you’re not afraid of Him. You obey Him.

I’m reading in Luke 8 from verse 22.

1. Jesus quits for the day and almost gets killed, vv. 22-25.

A. The time is “one of those days.”

1. Crowds and multitudes are coming to Jesus out of cities and villages to hear Jesus and be healed by Him.

2. It’s so busy that Jesus isn’t taking time to eat. His own family just tried to stage an intervention to give Him a chance to be normal. They’re saying, “He’s out of His mind.” Jesus says, “No, I’m not.” He keeps on with His work with zeal for God’s house that will consume Him.

B. But He is really tired. He’s exhausted. He’s giving and giving and giving, and the crowds will take everything He has to give. And at a certain point Jesus is done with His day.

C. So He gets away from everything in a boat. The disciples make it go, there’s four fishermen in the group so everything is shipshape. Jesus falls asleep in the back of the boat on a pillow. Jesus is a real human being, and real human beings get tired. Jesus is out in a deep and prolonged sleep.

2. Even at His weakest, and He’s unconscious, Jesus is still God.

A. Suddenly a storm comes up.

1. The Sea of Galilee lies in the deep trough of the Jordan Valley. The surface is 212 meters below sea level. The temperatures can be as high as 40° in the shade.

2. Mountains surround the Sea of Galilee, and the air around them is much cooler.

3. The difference in temperature between the surface of the sea and the cool mountain air creates rushing winds sweeping down from the uplands, resulting in sudden violent storms. That’s what’s happening here.

B. There are four fishermen handling the boat and they’re terrified they’re going to die. Water is swamping the boat. They have minutes to live.

C. Jesus is so out that He doesn’t know what’s going on. The first He knows is when they grab Him and shake Him and say, “We’re going to die! We’re going to die!” How would you like to wake up like that?

D. He is still God, so He rebukes the wind and the sea, “Hey! Knock it off!” Everything immediately stops. No more wind, no more storm.

E. He turns to His disciples and asks, “Where is your faith?”

1. Everything Jesus does is right, so this is a legitimate question.

2. Where’s your trust? What are you thinking? What’s the matter with you guys? What’s upsetting your composure?

F. The answer to that question is in the disciples’ question: “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”

1. Who is He indeed? Jesus is revealing Himself as God. The disciples are experiencing an epiphany. That’s when God reveals Himself.

2. If you had asked the disciples what kind of guy is Jesus they would have said, “We’ve seen Him give sight to the blind, heal leprosy, and raise a guy from the dead.”

3. They’ve never seen anything like this. He just told the wind to shut up and it did.

4. They are terrified with awe. Jesus is scarier than the storm they were in a minute ago. When God shows Himself the natural response is fear.

5. Your faith is supposed to be in God. Jesus is God. When He saves you and you didn’t believe Him, you apologise, you confess your sin. You repent and continue to put your faith in Him.

3. Another spiritual power also shows itself, vv. 26-37.

A. When Jesus and the disciples get out of the boat, this naked, dirty, scary guy comes up screaming.

B. We know that Satan and demons are wicked and evil. How evil? Is this something to be concerned about? Or is this fairy-tale stuff?

1. One angel has power to kill 185,000 soldiers in a single night. One demon is powerful enough that this guy could not resist it. Mary Magdalene had seven  demons in her, seven times impossible. This guy has somewhere around 6,000 demons in him, that’s how many soldiers are in a Roman legion. Is that a fair fight? It is wicked and unjust. “Bully” doesn’t come close to expressing how wickedly they are treating this guy.

2. They degrade and shame him. They make him go naked and dirty.

3. They make him live apart from people in unclean tombs, with the dead.

4. They made him dangerous to others. To save themselves people tried to control him with chains and guards. The demons gave the guy superhuman strength to break those chains, terrify, hurt, and kill others.

5. They make him live in the wilderness or desert, that can’t support life. No food, no water, not much, anyway. It’s existence on the edge of death.

6. They are sadistic. They torment this guy because it gives them pleasure. They pick on him because they can. All he can do is cut himself and scream out in the tombs. It’s a living death.

7. These demons rebel against God. Jesus commands them to come out of the man and they come back with, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High?” It’s a Hebrew idiom, what to me and to you? It means what do we have in common? What are You doing poking Your nose where it doesn’t belong? Well, Jesus is the Son of the Most High; everything that happens everywhere is His business.

8. These demons only think about themselves. There’s 6,000 of you beating up one human being, and you beg Jesus don’t hurt us? Don’t send us to the bottomless pit? That would be torture? That is excessive focus on self, to where no one else has any meaning. It’s ugly enough in humans. We call that narcissistic personality disorder. This is so far beyond that, coupled with superhuman power.

9. They do not keep their rightful place. God created them to serve Him and know Him but they reject relationship with God. They will live in a human being far below them, and torment him without mercy. But rather than go to the pit, they say, how about You send us into the swine? Let’s go even lower than what God made us for! They degrade themselves utterly in their wickedness.

C. When people act like this they imitate the devil. They are conformed to him. He is the ruler of this present world, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, says Paul in Ephesians 2:2.

D. How did this guy come to this state? It doesn’t say. But you can seek power and benefits from sources other than God, that are not God, that are not good. The devil is right there to give good things. But he enslaves and traps so that a person is not stronger, he’s dominated by the devil. The blessings are temporary, but the domination and abuse is permanent. The devil does not let go without a fight, and no human being can stand up to him. The only one who can save from the devil is God.

4. Jesus again reveals Himself as God, and again, people are afraid of Him.

A. He commands them relentlessly, come out of him. He has compassion to help a guy who is being attacked and tortured beyond human help. This guy is hopeless. Jesus says, absolutely not. Come out of him. You must obey Me.

B. He gives permission for them to go into the swine. All 2,000 of those swine kill themselves rather than live with these wicked spirits.

C. The people there respond with fear.

1. You’d think that they would say, wow, this Man has delivered a poor man from demon possession. He’s doing so much better, all calm, dressed, he’s free! Jesus is compassionate, He is able. What a guy!

2. They say, “He’s just killed a lot of swine. What else is at risk with Him around? What’s He going to do with us?” They’re afraid and ask Him to leave. Don’t hurt us, please, just go.

D. Jesus doesn’t push Himself on them. He doesn’t debate them or try to change their minds. He is meek and gentle. He gets in the boat and leaves.

5. But Jesus does send the guy on a mission in His place, vv. 38-39.

A. The guy wants to come with Jesus! Man, I want to be with You all the time! You’re my Lord and Saviour!

B. Jesus says, “No. I have a purpose for you. I want you to return to your house (it’s still there!), and tell people what great things God has done for you.”

C. You notice that the man proclaims what great things Jesus has done for him. This guy has figured out: Jesus is God, God is good, Jesus is good. Oh, He is the best! People marvel at a guy who knows and is filled with the goodness of God.

6. So what?

A. This ex-demoniac shows us a principle: if you love Jesus, do what He says.

B. You love Jesus because He loved you first. He saved you from your sins ruling over you. The devil was master over you. Have you felt that torment of being controlled by sin? When Jesus comes into you He frees you of the control of sin and of the devil. He will not allow the devil to be where He is, there in your heart. Has Jesus freed you? Have you experienced Jesus loving you?

C. He has a bigger purpose for your life than merely saving you. He lives in you to reach others without terrifying them, just like He did when He was here.

1. He came down from heaven to be a man like us, to reveal God’s goodness and bless us. He was deliberately harmless and non-threatening.

2. He preached that the kingdom of God was at hand and everyone should repent. Now is the day of salvation, now is the acceptable time to receive mercy from God, to receive redemption from your sins. Judgment is coming but the Son of Man didn’t come to judge the world but that the world should be saved through Him.

3. God saves you and puts His goodness in you so He can come close to people without inspiring terror. You pose no threat; you’re harmless. You’re so full of Him and His goodness that you provoke people to jealousy and say, “Why does he have all that good stuff? Why don’t I have that?” Usually it’s wrong to covet, but this is exactly what God is working on. You are so blessed by God that people are provoked to want that for themselves. It’s the goodness of God that leads to repentance

D. If you understand this, your job, if you can call it that, is to receive and enjoy Jesus Christ as much as you possibly can. The more you lay hold of God, the more obvious His goodness is in you. His Spirit dwelling in you imparts His love, His peace, His joy, His patience, His goodness, His mercy. Are you full of Jesus? Can people smell the aroma of Christ on you? Can anyone tell that Jesus lives in you?

E. It’s possible to accept Jesus’ good things but not accept Him.

1. That is what the great multitudes did. They didn’t love Jesus. They were still in their sins. Just like Richard Dawkins. He thinks Christianity is pure nonsense, but he would rather live under Christianity than Islam. He thinks it’s a good thing that Christianity is a bulwark against Islam, but it’s complete nonsense.

2. The ex-demoniac wouldn’t understand that kind of attitude. You mean Jesus did all those good things for you, and you don’t love Him? Do you know Him?

E. You talk to people just like this guy did. He told them what great things Jesus did for him.

1.. The Apostle Paul tried debating with the unbelieving Jews and they didn’t appreciate it. It’s not the debating of God that leads to repentance. It’s not the answers of God that lead to repentance.

2. Paul talked about what he learned to do in Romans 11:13-15 But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.

F. What good things has Jesus done for you? Do you love Him? Be full of Him and tell others.

Let’s pray.