Easter Service | New Beginnings | London Church (Sunday Worship Service)

[Music] [Music] streams of mercy never cease [Music] [Music] praise the lord [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] dangerous [Music] oh to grace [Music] thy goodness [Music] me [Music] [Music] is oh [Music] i [Music] to my heart [Music] oh to my heart [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] my [Music] you stand beside me give me a song in dinner jesus i need you every [Music] you [Music] carried it into [Music] your praise forever jesus i need you every morning i need you here your praise forever [Music] remember love remember mercy cries before me cries behind me your loving kindness has never failed me cries before me cries behind me remember love remember mercy christ before me cries behind me your loving kindness has never failed me christ before me christ behind me remember love remember mercy christ before me cries behind me your lovingkindness has never failed me cries before me cries behind me [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] remember mercy cries before me christ behind me your lovingkindness has never filled me christ before me cries behind me good morning welcome a very warm welcome to our uk and ireland online celebration service wherever you are joining us from this morning we want to extend a warm welcome to all of you we're going to kick off with some worship songs so let's stand let's praise maybe let's dance and worship god together and we'll see you back here in a few minutes see you in a bit [Music] is is [Music] here of christ [Music] and righteousness [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] is he is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] or [Music] here [Music] you there is a god [Music] there was a long long time ago [Music] there is a god [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is a god [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hello [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] [Music] oh [Music] say [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Music] she's [Music] happy resurrection day welcome to our celebration service of all the days we choose to celebrate is there really any more significant any more important any more relevant than this one but why well let's take a look at first corinthians chapter 15 we're going to pick it up from verse 21 and the bible reads so you see just as death came into the world through a man now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man just as everyone dies because we all belong to adam everyone who belongs to christ will be given a new life but there is an order to this resurrection christ was raised as the first of the harvest then all who belong to christ will be raised when he comes back so why is it relevant why is it significant why is it so important because if he resurrected so can we isn't this amazing today we celebrate jesus having victory over death through the power of god for me this is a reason to celebrate a reason to thank and praise god through this he has made a way for me to have a close relationship with him to be made new but also to have so much hope regardless of the circumstances around us or the unknown of the future i get to have joy and hope because of who god is because of what he has done and continue and will continue to do you know we want to extend a warm welcome to all of you again this morning especially if you're visiting with us we really hope you enjoy the service with us we also want to welcome chris reed from stockholm sweden chris is going to be preaching to us today on new beginnings and so we're really looking forward to what chris is going to teach us what god is going to teach us through chris through the word and well before we go any further we're going to be led in prayer but once again a very warm welcome let's buy our heads in prayer dear father in heaven thank you lord for this morning that we can come together to praise and worship your almighty name lord god you are worthy of all praise your hands created the heavens and earth by your voice the stormy seas obey you and can be stilled and silent by your command you know us so well father nothing is hidden from you you know the very number of hairs on our heads you hold us and have engraved us on the palms of your hands you love us with an everlasting love and kindness father i thank you for being our good shepherd our rock and our redeemer i praise you because you are the king of kings the maker and creator our perfect father and our first love i thank you father for the church that we can be together in this time through this virtual platform that we can be spiritually united in the body of christ i pray for our hearts that we can continue to learn from you and put our trust in you god that we can continue to grow deeper in our relationship and devotion to you father lord i thank you so much for jesus your beloved son as he is the high priest that's able to empathize and sympathize with us in our weaknesses i am so grateful that we serve a resurrected king our lord and our savior and in light of this easter sunday that we can celebrate because he has risen lord i pray for the service today help our hearts be open and humble to your word i pray that we can be inspired today and see your words be lifted off the pages of our bibles and let it make an impact on our lives be with the speakers today and the rest of the service i pray that we can worship you wholeheartedly praise you with all our hearts and that we can praise and glorify your name because your name is above all names we are so blessed father to be in your amazing kingdom and i will give this service to you in jesus name amen please bow your head with me as i pray our father in heaven today we are joined in remembrance of your son we remember the compassion he had for us while we were poor in spirit and needy how he came to bring us hope and a new beginning i pray for peace that transcends all understanding for those listening today made possible only through his death and resurrection i pray for the newly baptized and spiritually mature that you may increase our wisdom and faith keep us in agreement and in line with your will i pray for our family of churches across the world those less materially fortunate than us who are in positions of need um who we can help by just sharing compassionately out of our little or much that we have help me help us to pay attention to the message just as your disciples sat by your feet we too sit here eager keep us from distractions and open our hearts and ears to listen just as martha did for this will not be taken from us thank you for being our comforter the god that fights on our behalf our help and deliverer we love you and it is in your name that we pray amen [Music] my story [Music] to worship [Music] jesus [Music] you [Music] oh love you how i love you [Music] [Music] [Music] oh jesus [Music] peace [Music] [Music] love you [Music] hey i love you good morning all and happy easter i hope you're all having a great easter weekend at this point in the service we will be remembering jesus life death and resurrection by taking the bread and the wine and jess and i have the privilege of sharing our thoughts on on this today know we'll be reading from first peter 1 verse 3 to 9 which i'll read now praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ in his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade this inheritance is kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by god's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time in all this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith or greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise glory and honor when jesus christ is revealed though you have not seen him you love him and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an expressible and glorious joy for you have res you are receiving the end result of your faith the salvation of your souls what an amazing few verses we see from the scripture that god has given us mercy a new birth and a living hope a living hope that is everlasting and has the power to produce changes in our lives a hope that would not be possible without the resurrection of jesus this easter sunday the whole world reflects and celebrates jesus resurrection but three days before jesus was beaten falsely accused abandoned betrayed and killed on the cross for our sins without this payment our condition is pitiful desperate and wretched as sinners as we know and celebrate today it does not end at jesus death but he resurrected which points us beyond this tragedy of the cross to the hope of the empty tomb it tells us there's a living hope for eternal life into an amazing inheritance as a result of christ conquering death these are amazing gifts that we can't earn and we don't deserve but we do need to remember what cause they were given the life of god's precious one and only son jess will now share this is an amazing scripture you know verses 6 and verse 7 always stand out to me every time i read it where it talks about the way that we can rejoice in jesus in spite of having to suffer grief in all kinds of trials you know and this stands out to me in particular because one of the biggest challenges to my faith since becoming a christian has been enduring grief and loss my grief journey started only months after becoming a christian when i was 16 years old and since then every single year these last 11 years i have lost at least one close friend or family member in many of these painful seasons the scripture has been such a safe place for me because it has given me the necessary perspective to look beyond the tragedy of the deaths in my own life and to look for the joy that comes from jesus's empty tomb it reminds me time and time again that jesus death burial and resurrection brings meaning and purpose to my grief and gives me so many reasons to rejoice in spite of it this scripture describes the way a craftsman attentively places gold in a crucible in a hot fire to purify it and compares it to the way god is purifying my faith through these trials on earth and in the process tenderly removing the parts of me that are not like jesus the pride the self-reliance the love for this world the lust the selfishness my many spiritual impurities the very sin christ died to redeem making my faith stronger my heart more resilient and my character more christ-like through it although i deserve death because of my own sin and rebellion against god god was willing to send his one and only son to die a brutal death to endure the most painful form of grief imaginable for me so that i could have the gift of a living hope through salvation not only that with each passing year god lavishes my life with so many other gifts day to day this moves my heart in an incredible way his love and grace as perfectly displayed on the cross of christ the very same sacrifice the whole world pauses to meditate on this weekend gives me the hope and joy that is necessary to help me to persevere through any trial ultimately my grief and loss reminds me that this world is not my home because death is not the final word for those who are in christ instead jesus is preparing an inheritance for me one that can never perish spoil or fade a great place in heaven where there will be no more pain no more sorrow no more grief a place filled with inexpressible and glorious joy and for that until jesus returns or takes me home i will greatly rejoice thanks for sharing jess when i reflect on my own life and remember before i was a christian i'm finding out that i was guilty before god because of my sin his enemy lying for the approval of others and aimlessly pursuing of the dead hopes i felt sorrowful but jesus death burial and resurrection prompted me to respond to live a resurrected life full of purpose authenticity and truth but even to this day many years after giving my life to jesus and being baptized for the forgiveness of my sins i still have to keep on contemplating the sacrifice that jesus made so that i continue to pursue a life that is characterized by this living hope what should our response be today as we reflect and remember jesus death and resurrection as it says in verse 8 though we have not seen jesus physically we are to love him believe in him and obey him as a result of jesus resurrection we can be filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy and celebrate the new life and the hope we have in him today let us pray before we take the bread father thank you that we can remember your son at this time the blameless life that he lived on this earth and how his body was beaten and bruised for us but lord we celebrate lord and we thank you that it didn't just end there but his body was resurrected and that's why we have the hope that we have today please father as we take this bread they re we remember this hope and are energized by this in jesus name i pray amen now pray before we drink the wine father thank you for the sacrifice that your son made that his blood was spilled and poured out so that our sins could be washed away or that we could have a clean slate lord and have a relationship with you lord this is amazing lord please father that we can be grateful and thankful and really take this to heart as we take the wine in jesus name i pray amen [Music] where are you [Music] my [Music] is sometimes it causes me [Music] were [Music] is [Music] sometimes it causes me to turn [Music] oh [Music] two [Music] is [Music] sometimes [Music] were [Music] right here [Music] sometimes shout glory [Music] glory us to live good morning i'm rob and i work for the charity hope worldwide which our family of churches started and supports i'm going to talk about how our homeless services have been able to respond to the pandemic our plans for the future how you can help and how all this relates to easter as we know easter celebrates the resurrection of jesus and the hope that it brings jesus was crucified by the romans the ultimate display of their power and cruelty jesus's resurrection meant that he had conquered death and that his crucifixion on the cross was not a demonstration of the power of the romans but instead was a powerful demonstration of the love mercy and forgiveness of god by rising from the dead jesus had now conquered death and his followers now had that same hope of resurrection the early church preached the good news of the resurrection and followed the example of jesus who had healed the sick and preached good news to the poor by loving their neighbors as they loved themselves in the roman empire the poor sick and weak were often seen as cursed by the gods and left to fend for themselves however the early church shone in those dark times by showing mercy to those in need adopting abandoned babies nursing the sick and feeding the hungry the teaching and lifestyle of the early church spread like yeast through the ancient world so that eventually helping the week was seen by many people as a noble thing to do and that legacy lives on in the charitable culture of many european countries today and explains why there are so many organizations to help those in need in the uk we recently marked the anniversary of the first lockdown at the time i was representing hope worldwide in a national homelessness event and we all participated in a minute silence to remember all of those who lost their lives due to the pandemic one of the success stories of the uk's response to covet 19 is the everyone in programme which led to 37 000 people facing rough sleeping on our streets being offered somewhere to stay during the lockdown the medical journey journal the lancet estimated that this avoided 200 000 infections and saved over 200 lives the scale of this operation highlighted that those few thousand people that are seen rough sleeping are the tip of the iceberg for every one person counted rough sleeping on our streets there are many more who are hidden homeless sleeping in cars or on buses on sofas or on floors often dependent on the goodwill of others others who understandably didn't want to take the risk of having people coming in and out of their homes during a pandemic at hope worldwide we have been glad to play our part and by working in collaboration with councils night shelters day centers the greater london authority and many other partners we have housed over 200 people since that first lockdown one of the people housed was sonja like many sonja became homeless following a bereavement after her husband died she felt very isolated and moved to london to stay with a relative after a few weeks though she was asked to move out and eventually ended up in a homeless shelter however she was still striving to make things better for herself and didn't lose hope she had found a job just as she was being referred to hope worldwide but couldn't afford rent in advance or deposit so would be at risk of losing her job if she didn't find somewhere to live our team listened to her story talked about what she could do and how we could help and supported her in looking for accommodation she was so grateful for the compassion encouragement and support she received that she wrote a christmas message to my colleague daniela which daniela will now read i want to say a very massive thank you to you and all staff of hope worldwide for your help support and guidance no words are adequate enough for me to express my gratitude may god bless you all at hope worldwide thanks daniela over the last few months hope staff board and congregational hope ambassadors have been reflecting on how we work and our focus for the future we want to grow in our ability to encourage and equip others for compassionate service and to connect willing volunteers such as yourselves with opportunities to use their gifts and resources to serve others please get in touch with your congregational hope ambassador or with us directly if you have any thoughts questions or ideas about how we can do this like many charities our funding has been affected by covert 19 and we are facing a challenging year ahead so a big thank you to all those who support our work which empowers people to overcome poverty homelessness and addiction if you would like to support our work find out more or have questions or ideas please visit our website or message us on instagram or facebook thanks for listening i [Music] [Applause] am [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] strong [Applause] [Music] she [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is is [Music] is greetings to our sister churches all around the uk and also to my soon home church the salt lake christian church in salt lake city utah hey with the digital age upon us here and our digital services it's amazing that i can preach in two places at the same time or actually multiple places around the uk it's just great to be with you i'm really honored to be your guest speaker today for your special easter service this is the high point of the christian year this is why we are christians um it's it's the the resurrection day that's what we're talking about um i have the privilege today of sharing some inspiring stuff from the bible from life from history um encouraging all of us on the topic of new beginnings what a great what a great title what a great theme for this resurrection day that we're celebrating and i do i know that we have a lot of guests with us today who may or may not have faith and this message will hopefully meet the needs of those who've been veteran christians a long time to those who have uh just decided to maybe look into the christian faith just a little bit curious or maybe a friend bugged you so much they say hey it is easter why don't you at least show up and listen to something and you just came to get that person off your back hopefully even you will get something out of the new beginnings message that i'm going to be talking about today so i'm going to be sharing some powerful thoughts about how you can start with a new beginning in your own life not just for a season and how you can experience an ongoing renewal with your life whether or not you have faith and you can learn a lot about new beginnings from the man who brought about a new beginning in literally every person's life that he ever touched and we're talking about jesus he is an historical figure there's a lot of evidence about his life his teachings what he did the effect that he had on people and we know that jesus literally gave sight to the blind he he gave them a completely new beginning on life the lame were made to walk the demon possessed became possessors of the holy spirit a dead rotting man who was in the grave four days was brought back to life a prostitute became a prophetess an extortionist became a philanthropist a a murderer and a persecutor of the early church became a love preaching apostle jesus power to bring about a new beginning in people's lives is well documented and i can here to tell you that his power is just as alive today in 2021 as it was 2 000 years ago first place i'd like to look at in the word of god is the first corinthians chapter 15 which it's it's the resurrection chapter it's the argument where paul writes that if the resurrection didn't occur then the christian faith is actually worthless and christians are supposed to be pitied more than anybody else so the resurrection does matter it's not a myth it's an historical event i i dare say the most significant event in human history first corinthians chapter 15 verse 1 this is an ancient creed that uh many scholars believe came from the first or second year after jesus's execution and resurrection so that it was penned extremely early on it could not have been a myth that was later added it takes some several generations to be able to even begin to insert mythological elements into an historical uh rendering and so the fact that this is such an ancient ancient text with well within the lifetime of the people who are around for jesus's execution and resurrection this is a true account and first corinthians 15 says in verse 1 paul writes now i would remind you brothers of the gospel i preached to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word i preached to you unless you believed in vain for i delivered to you as of first importance what i also received that christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that this was prophesied in the old testament not an accident not a mistake that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures this also prophesied in the old testament and then he appeared to cephas that's another name for peter saint peter then to the twelve the apostles then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive it's kind of the challenge of paul why don't you go and talk to them if you don't believe what i'm saying about the resurrection most of them are still alive you can go talk to them about what they saw though some of them have fallen asleep a couple have died then he appeared to james and then to all the apostles last of all to one untimely aborn he appeared also to me paul referring to himself for i am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god but by the grace of god i am what i am and his grace toward me was not in vain on the contrary i worked harder than all of them though it was not i but the grace of god that is with me and in fact paul went on to write 13 of the letters of the new testament he started countless churches on his missionary journeys the the the evidence for the resurrection of jesus christ is in fact overwhelming this is my personal library these are just two of the books that i have on the evidence of the resurrection historical archaeological documentary these are extremely scholarly books of one of them 816 pages by n.t wright the other one on the resurrection of jesus christ is 700 pages the evidence is overwhelming uh of course things when when things start in history in mankind's history you have to have some kind of explanation and the rise of christianity out of judaism all of a sudden when the founder of the religion had been executed on a garbage dump outside of jerusalem and all of his followers scattered and just a few days later these same men who were too afraid to even watch jesus be executed except for john and a few women they boldly were proclaiming jesus as the christ the son of god died and rose from the dead literally this quote that we just read from paul was what they were proclaiming just just a few short days after that execution at the risk of their lives the only historic explanation for even the start of christianity is that these people actually saw a resurrected jesus one of the other proofs is the jews who were converted one of their most sacred things that they observed were the sabbath sundown friday to sundown saturday all of a sudden these extremely devout jews were now worshiping on sunday which was changed they said because it was the day the lord rose from the dead it's the resurrection day every sunday in a true christian's calendar but this time of the year we celebrate it in a special way as the very first sunday of the resurrection when jesus rose from the dead easter morning one of the other proofs is paul's conversion itself like he mentioned in the text paul was famous as a persecutor of the early christian church dragging men and women out of the houses in their secret underground house churches and getting them arrested he voted for their death at the death penalty this was paul breathing threats and all kinds of murderous intent against the early church and then one day while he was on a mission to destroy the church in damascus he saw the resurrected jesus who appeared to him spoke to him challenged him that you were persecuting me when you persecute the church and then i live i am the son of god he converted and there's no other explanation for the radical change in saul of tarsus's life to paul of the new testament except that he saw the resurrected jesus we are preaching the resurrection today we are preaching new beginnings today if you need more information on that and your guest today i just encourage you the christian who invited you to attend today ask them to sit down and study out the resurrection with you and it will open your eyes it was one of the things i needed to have answers about before i could even become a christian and there's plenty of answers out there but today we're going to take on a specific study about how jesus brought about the transformation of a man so controlled by evil that his name in the demon-possessed world was legion uh look in mark chapter five we're going to be studying how jesus brought about a new beginning in this man's life the struggle it was for him as jesus approached the change that occurred and what this has to do with our lives today i'm convinced that the miracles that are written down in in the new testament are there to build our faith but also teach us something about how we can interact with god how we can appropriate some of the power of god in our own life for our own new beginning mark chapter five beginning in verse one now hang with me this is a crazy passage of scripture if you've not read the new testament before this is an eye-opener they 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 combined him anymore not even with a chain for he'd often been bound with shackles and chains but he wrenched the chains apart and 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 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 do you have to do with me jesus son of the most high god i adore 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's your name he replied my name is legion for we are many and he begged him earnestly not to send him 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 rushed down the steep bank into the sea they were drowned in the sea the herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country and people came to see people came to see what had happened and they came to jesus and saw the demon-possessed man the one who 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 and the demon to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs they began to beg jesus to depart from their region and he was getting into 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 now you may be thinking that is extreme who can relate to this guy or maybe you say i don't even believe in demon possession there is an author english author philosopher uh apologetic and professor from oxford in fact c.s lewis and the preference to his famous book called screwtape letters had this to say there are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils one is to disbelieve their existence the other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them they themselves are equally pleased with both errors and hail a materialist that would be a strict atheist who doesn't believe in demons they would hail the materialist and the magician the person who's worried too much about magic and the occult they would hail both of these the materials in the magician with the same delight speaking about how the demons themselves would feel about humans falling in the errors of either dismissing out of hand i don't believe in demon possession or being overly fixated and fascinated and afraid and studying it both of those are the wrong way to approach things jesus very matter-of-factly confronted evil talked about demons and demon possession in the new testament all the time himself being tempted regularly and assaulted by satan who was an actual being trying to thwart jesus's mission on earth but that's that's for another study that's for another time and you know all i'd like just like to say is whatever this passage however it affects you the first time i read it i thought this is this is nuts this is crazy but i want you to hang with me as we look more deeply into this account and i guarantee that you will find some things here that speak to your life and your spiritual condition first point ice points of just very simple titles today point one legion's life before jesus legion's life before jesus and that would be just the very first five verses what does it say here in the first five verses and beginning in verse two 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 freed often with bound with shackles and chains but he wrenched the chains apart and broke the shackles and 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 this is legion's life before jesus says he's possessed by an unclean spirit and this unclean spirit caused him to cry out and to bruise himself with stones i mean can you imagine picking up stones and smashing your arms and maybe your head and your chest and you know any your legs any other place just causing incredible amount of pain such self-destructive crazy behavior that's what this demon was doing to him there are well-documented cases of the effects of voodoo and the dark arts especially in places like africa the caribbean south and central america there is a lot of demon possession and things that go on in some of these other countries where people have an active belief in the spiritual world and stuff really does happen it's very absent up here in the nordics where i where i am and around western europe and uh maybe it's a little bit more in america but not still not as much as some of these other places i've mentioned my thoughts on that is that satan if he is camouflaged and nobody believes in him he he's already won the battle why should he blow his cover in a country that already doesn't believe in him but to keep moving and manipulating and possessing people in many different ways that are explained away as psychological or other kinds of challenges in the countries where people have an act of belief in good and evil right and wrong god and devil the devil you're not going to make that go away so satan instead reveals himself and scares people and creates that other reaction of an over uh you know maybe attention pain to this and a fear of the dark and the unknown but there is tons of talk and written down documentation of demon possession out there this guy was an extreme case let me just say about there's destructive behavior that happens with us today all the time all the time i think about things like eating disorders anorexia and bulimia and how a lot of that is caused because of the bad self-image and the way people were talked to or maybe were treated on things like social media and how they can get in your mind and literally possess you like a demonic force and make you do horrible things to your body my wife is studying with a beautiful young woman the other day who right in the middle of the bible study had to run out of the room and make herself throw up in the bathroom active anorexia while we're actually studying the bible it's incredible and she couldn't she's having trouble even controlling this but she's starting to get come to her own sense of mind and peace through the bible studies and to find an inner an inner voice from god giving her a different message about who she is where there's also things like other addictions out there that that's destructive behavior to yourself even just the common thing of smoking that you might as well take a stone and smash yourself in the head every time you smoke a pack of cigarettes i've read all kinds of studies where every pack takes something like an hour off of your life so you're smoking out a pack a day we're talking 30 hours off your life every single month that's a day and a quarter off your of your life every month times 12 i mean you're just chunking down the time and that is so common it is like cutting ourselves with stones codependent relationships staying in abusive relationships when we know they're not good for us cutting ourselves with stones and crying out possessed in a way that we don't want to be but we can't we can't give up this addiction we can't give up this codependency you know i think one of the reasons that we have trouble maybe admitting or believing in any kind of demon possession is because then that would mean that what what is inside of me is somehow evil that is actually evil i don't like thinking that about myself i didn't i didn't like it before i was a christian especially it's kind of scared me i don't like it after i'm a christian but have you ever been shocked by your own true thoughts your own true motives i remember many times when certain people that i did not like who did not treat me well who had bullied me who had belittled me or made fun of me or in some cases even stole my girlfriend back in the day when something happened to a few of these people painful accidents and broken legs and and things like that inside myself i laughed and was happy i had glee that that person was suffering and i remember stepping back and looking at myself wait wait a minute like it was almost like i was watching myself in my own movie and i was shocked at the evil in my heart that i was happy it's somebody else's pain and misery because i wanted them to get it and i didn't have the guts to do anything myself now i i look back on that and i'm ashamed the eagle the evil that was there now the other thing about this guy in his condition before before jesus people had tried to bind them many times with these chains and shackles but every time he could bust the shackles apart he was extremely strong he was uncontrollable and dangerous to other people now here's the wild thing legion could break his own shackles break them apart yet he wasn't free there's a parallel in that for us today we have the power over our own lives the power over our careers and yet we can't control ourselves we can't control our egos a good friend of mine who just became a christian about four or five months ago johan he has been very successful he managed to establish four different accounting firms in four different cities he was making a ton of money driving the fancy car having the women having all kinds of everything from fancy watches to nice place to live he had it all and yet in the midst of controlling that and trust me being an accountant you got to be on top of things you got to be on top of details and organized and he hired a bunch of people and be on top of their lives and their payroll and all this and yet he could not control his temper he couldn't control that temper at all and he couldn't give himself peace inside he was just unrest a lack of peace explosive temper everything else under control he would could break those chains he was strong economically strong in his field strong in his career and yet not free could not control himself we'll talk more about him later the situation here also to understand the jewish background for jews any non-jewish area or territory was completely spiritually unclean the pig was an unclean animal they could not eat this okay not only that you shouldn't have anything to do with in your working with them like taking care of pigs so this situation for a jew which jesus was a jew was the ultimate the utmost in uncleanness you have a man with an unclean spirit living among unclean tombs tomb and death were also unclean according to numbers 19 that was also an unclean place he was surrounded by people employed in an unclean occupation pig herders and uh you know this is the ultimate of uncleanness that you're seeing here but here's the thing i think is amazing jesus wanted to go there jesus went there and i know the parallel for me there was a time when i i was confronted with my sinful nature what really was going on in me my motives who i really was in the light of the bible and i thought there's no way jesus wants me there's no way i could even come to jesus as a matter of fact if i tell the people who invited me to this fine church what i've been up to what my life is really all about the impurity sexually the partying life the lies the egotism that all that stuff if i share who i really am they're not gonna want me to be part of this church and i'm sure jesus doesn't want me and so i was just overwhelmed by my own uncleanness that's exactly where jesus wanted to go the ultimate unclean area in every way and jesus willingly went there he wants to go into the dirtiest of situations and make things clean let's second point here when legion actually meets jesus what happens when legion meets jesus and that's in verses 6 through 12 in the same chapter well legion meets jesus mark 5 6-12 and when he saw jesus from afar he ran and fell down before him and crying out with a loud voice he said what are you to do with me jesus son of the most high god i enjoy 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's 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 greater pigs was feeding there in 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 where they were drowned in the sea when legion actually meets jesus what happens wow the first the first thing here that strikes me is actually strange legion runs toward jesus and yet falls down in his knees and is terrified now i don't know about you but when i'm terrified of a person a dog or a situation i'm running the other way i don't run toward what makes me afraid i run the opposite direction legion ran towards jesus feared that jesus would torment him and is screaming out the words in the greek there indicate that he screamed a preternatural just howl like like a like a wolf before he even said a word just as this animal like how extremely loud and then by reciting jesus's name that's actually something that it was like an incantation back in the day at jesus's time they actually thought that if you recite a person's name that you have power over the person and can have some kind of control a supernatural control over the person so it it there's a good chance that he was trying to send an incantation over jesus and gain control over jesus but he couldn't so what i think there's a parallel here is when a lot of people including myself when i started looking for god i wanted to know about jesus i wanted to figure out is this true is he the son of god can i rely on the bible what if there's some answers and there was there was some excitement i i ran toward people who were trying to i was looking for all kinds of spiritual stuff i read all kinds of the quran the bhagavad-gita the analytics of confucius i was running toward it and when i ran toward jesus especially the new testament sermon on the mount oh man this was incredible and then the terror struck well if this true i might really have to change my life this might really hurt i might be tormented i might be tormented by how my friends would react to me i might be tormented by my own self can i even live this out and so there was this incredible tension just like what i see here he ran toward jesus yet was afraid i wanted to know spiritual truth and i was so afraid please don't torment me oh what's this gonna be like oh but i wanna know oh oh and it was incredible but in the midst of all that i think jesus saw that pain saw that tension and what does he do he says what's your name that's jesus for you well what's your name just calm down i care about you personally i want to know who you are personally i want to call you by name that's jesus in the midst of our confusion pain fear hey what's your name as if he didn't know but jesus just wanted to calm him down and say i'm interested in you personally not you generically you personally i'm calling you by name one of my favorite passages about how god is a personal god is in isaiah 43. this was written in the old testament by prophet isaiah about 700 years before jesus came but it also describes the way jesus calls us today and the way god has always called people to come to come into their life isaiah 43 verse 1 but now thus says the lord he who created you o jacob he who formed you o israel fear not for i have redeemed you i bought you back from your sins i have called you by name and you are mine when you pass through the waters i will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you and you when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you for i am the lord your god what incredibly comforting words that's the god who's calling you that's the god who wants to walk with you that's the god who is in jesus he calls you by name hey what's your name legion he told him now for historical interest here legion of soldiers roman soldiers was about 6 000 soldiers and 120 horsemen and a number of technical personnel so this man had a tons of demons in him but jesus called him by name you know it says in acts chapter 17 talks about our our conversion and the way god comes into our life it says in acts 17 when paul's giving a speech about jesus that he's telling the greeks in the areopagus there which is like a big stadium for debating philosophical ideas he explains a lot about the true god who's there and then he says for you know he has determined the exact places and times in which we should live so that we would perhaps reach out for him and find him that he's determined exact places and times in which we should live god sets up the situation the best possible way so that you ran into just that person who invited you hey something happened in your health that just made you start to think you found your old bible that you hadn't read in years you saw something on a on a film that made you wake up spiritually god orchestrates the times and the places so that every person has the best possible chance to perhaps seek him he doesn't force anybody but he wants to wake up your thoughts and call you and i think about my my own life i told you i began searching for spiritual meaning a long time ago and i i got convinced that the quran wasn't it i got convinced that hinduism the bhagavad-gita wasn't it i got convinced the analytics of confucius wasn't it now there was truths in these religions that i adopted that i thought had some great morals and principles in them but when it came down to what is true i got convinced that the bible is true by the prophecies in the old testament that are documented by the dead sea scrolls and a lot of other archaeology that were written down hundreds of years before they ever happened historical things political things but especially the life of jesus being the messiah i couldn't deny that i couldn't deny when i read the the truth of what jesus had to say and and like i said the sermon on the mount matthew 5 6 and 7 this is this is so true if the whole world lived by this we would not have any of the problems of the world and it had a major major effect on me i was convicted by the bible the other books tickled my intellect stimulated some thoughts but didn't convict me there was a deep spiritual thing that began to happen there and so i began looking for god and i remember i i got convinced the bible was written by god i prayed every morning and every night god can you please send me to the church of the new testament before there became any denominations i don't want catholic or protestant or pentecostal or baptist i would just want pure christian before there was denominations every morning i prayed that every night and then i studied the book of acts how the early church was and then i began to add to my prayer also the book the the the church like the book of acts before there were denominations lead me to that church and make a long story short i got an injury uh to my leg that enabled me not to get my soccer scholarship and play in as one of the states in the southern united states instead i had to go to another school up in boston uh because my sporting days were over and i had to do something with engineering there instead um that was exactly where the boston church of christ was just getting started and i'd prayed and praying and praying it didn't seem like this was any kind of answer to prayer my very first day i was there i was so disgusted by the partying i saw the loose living that i went on the campus and i tried to find the religious life office to see is there any christian activity on this campus anywhere they didn't have anything going on except for mass every morning at 7 00 am i knew that that wasn't for me i'm coming back to my student corridor my dormitory room and i started to cry i mean god you put i'm surrounded by all kinds of pagan people here um there's nobody who seems to be interested in christianity i'm tempted by everything i'm gonna fall like crazy this is not good help me help me and as i walked down the hallway i saw a note on a door of somebody else's dorm door that the word church was there and i i went back and i read it and there was a free bus to pick up students at the corner right where my dormitory my hall was that sunday i was like wow what can this be from god i invited three of my other friends to come so there were four of us at the bus stop a big crowd of christians were there and somebody came up to me goes wow who's neighbor are you because it turned out it was bring your neighbor someday and then i felt really guilty i said you know i have to admit i i read somebody else's note on their door it wasn't even for me i mean do i have to buy tickets or i mean do i need to know somebody i'm really really sorry i have three friends here no no that's fine that's fine and i remember the the bus ride in i met some of the most incredible people i walk in the singing was already going on four part harmony it was amazing and i i just knew from the singing i'd never met this whole heart of the group ever before uh this is either something really weird or something really good and then the preacher got up there and he started preaching and he said today it's the name of the sermon is give me that old-time religion let me tell you who we are the church of christ we are a church trying to be the church of the book of acts before there was any denomination we're not there yet but we're trying to restore the church to get back to that point this was my exact prayer i couldn't believe it i couldn't believe it i asked some of the people who were there around me if there's any bible studies on my campus they knew some bible studies i began studying the bible with them and within just a few short weeks i saw what it needed i needed to do to become a true follower of jesus and i was baptized and i have not looked back since but that was exactly the times and the places god had orchestrated it exactly even my injury and i lost my scholarship in other part of the united states and even just got walking down that hallway right after i was trying to find a religious group on campus and there was a note about a church and a church bus all this stuff all of it was perfect from god he orchestrates our life to give us the best chance but he won't force us he wants you to actively seek him too as he gives clues and promptings and all kinds of other encouragement well what did legion do once he met jesus and jesus tried to calm him down but it says what's your name he comes up with a brilliant idea send us to the pigs put us in the pigs so he was ready to acknowledge the authority that jesus had to drive out this demon but he still didn't want to surrender to jesus and this is where our own sinful nature makes us so dumb he actually thought he would enjoy a life inhabiting a pig more than being restored to his own peace of mind incredible our sinful nature makes us dumb to i prefer life in a pig then you giving me my right mind jesus right now there's an epidemic going on in sweden that i heard a report about this on on the radio about three days ago an epidemic not the pan to me not the pandemic not that but people in their 50s and newly retired people early to mid 60s getting divorced like crazy at record level levels all around sweden and this was a program where they were interviewing counselors a psychologist and psychiatrist what do they think is happening here uh now that it's such a a a pandemic of this or a you know epidemic here in sweden well the answers were well people are at the age where they finally have wisdom and this gives them perspective to be who they really are that was one of the answers another answer is well i'm finally going to be true to myself okay the third answer is one realizes that time is running out there's not much time left in life and i gotta get in one more dance these are professionals now giving these answers and number four people are in fact having an affair with themselves they've finally given themselves permission to love themselves and everything about themselves and they look at their partner realize not for me this is your own sinful nature making you dumb rather than go deep on yourself and root out the real cause for discontent loss of love continuous friction in your relationship with your partner to root out the real causes behind an unfulfilling marriage your sinful nature fools you into thinking that all you need is a new partner where most likely you'll run into the same trouble and the same tension again because you never really dealt with what was going on you just ran into a new partner our sinful nature can make us dumb a lot when we don't want to surrender to jesus last point i want to talk about today point number three legion after jesus gave him a new beginning legion after jesus gave him a new beginning we pick it up here in mark chapter 5 verse 13. mark chapter 5 verse 13. 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 they came to jesus and saw the demon-possessed man the one who would have the legion sitting there clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid and those who had seen it describe to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man into the pigs and they began to beg jesus to depart from their region as he was getting into the boat the man who had been possessed with the demons begged him that he might be with him and he did not permit him but he 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 legion after jesus gave him a new beginning all of the demons were driven out and then killed there is no evil that jesus can't defeat there's no sin that jesus can't forgive there is a writing about the unforgivable sin in the new testament that's another thing if you're really wanting to be right with jesus and it matters to you trust me you haven't committed that sin yet okay so there's no power of darkness that jesus won't throw into the abyss on the last day the herdsmen in the country though the eyewitnesses they saw this miracle what happened but they were terrified and they begged jesus to leave their region why would they want jesus who finally solved this terrifying man his problem and the terrifying threat he had been to them why would they want jesus to leave well that can be like us too can it i think they were afraid of change they saw such a radical change how do you normally react to change even if it's positive even if this thing about being a christian looks like it's really really great but i have to change so many things we can just be afraid of change they're afraid of the unknown they've never seen such power they couldn't explain such power fear of the unknown and there was also a huge economic loss 2 000 pigs that's a lot of money and that this was inconvenient it challenged their lifestyle it was going to cut in it was going to hurt a little bit it was inconvenient you know you can tell jesus to leave too and he will you can actually send jesus away he won't push himself on you he gives you a free will and he even allows himself to be commanded away from you if you don't want him so be careful you don't do that legion though in verse 15 the description of legion is he's sitting he's clothed and he's in his right mind each of those has an incredible meaning he's sitting what was he doing before he was roaming around crying out cutting the selfie stones wandering about in tombs all over the place he was on roaming about constantly he was not at rest jesus gave him rest and peace he's sitting rest in peace he's clothed before he was naked naked is in his case it's a shameful it's shame jesus restores your dignity and takes away your shame that's what jesus does and he's in his right mind jesus takes away the confusion jesus takes away the darkness and the evil and enables him to think and value properly getting back to the story about johann johan my friend who started these four accounting firms in four different cities and had the big car and the women and making money and very very successful yet he couldn't control his temper he didn't have peace inside god had our paths cross on a ferry outside of stockholm a number of months ago back in the summer and we began studying the bible and he'd been hungry and thirsting to understand the bible for all his life and he finally understood when he when he understood sin it wasn't something dark and heavy for thing it liberated him like this is what's right and wrong and wow he began to see certain clients that he had they weren't doing illegal things but it was stuff that was questionable that he thought jesus probably wouldn't do this and i need to change that i need to tell these customers they need to go elsewhere because i'm not going to do what they want me to do he was constantly pulled out from all sides trying to make people's books look right in some kind of legalese way and it was tearing him apart he didn't have peace the very day after we studied sin he had a meeting with his biggest client and within 15 minutes he told this person thank you for entrusting me but you need to find another accounting euro that's just the way it is and that guy was so angry he went around calling the other clients that he knew about johan and tried to destroy you on yohane was just at peace and gave it to god and now he's cut down his business significantly he's still doing fine by himself the peace of mind he has he became a christian he he is he's getting his control of his temper back the peace inside his relationship with his ex is way better his relationship with his daughter is better his relationship with his extended family they can't believe the change that they've seen in him and he just has a peaceful purpose in his life it's incredible legion had a total change of attitude towards jesus first he was begging jesus not to torment him now he's begging jesus can i stay with you can i follow you anywhere and when somebody really meets jesus this happened to me i just wanted to be around the words of jesus and jesus people all the time and i still have a lot of friends in the world as well but i i literally want to be with jesus he wants us in a relationship that's very real despite that we can't see him to hear his voice to hear his direction to have his presence in our life and this happened to legion from begging him don't torment me to i want to be with you but jesus said no um i i'm going to give you instead of being with me i'm going to give you a life-changing purpose i want you to go and share the good news of what i've done for you and then how i've shown mercy to you and that's the best definition of evangelism there actually is true evangelism christians is not inviting somebody to church it's to share how what the lord has done for you and how he's had mercy on you he gave him this incredible mission and purpose and he preached in the decapolis a ten city area and all marveled he now had a purpose in his life he had the presence of jesus in his life he had a new beginning and he was not going back to the tormenting of himself to the confusion the darkness the loneliness of that one young man became a christian two and a half years ago elias is also a great encouragement to us here he finally got his dream job of being a chemist a research chemist and once he's there with his research job and doing what he wants and all that he realized how empty it was it was during the same time he became a christian and just seeing the power of the bible in his life as he read it these things had changed his perspective of his parents his perspective of other people value system all this kind of stuff completely changed and then he realized because he's had some death in his family and it's one of the things that just kind of woke him up to what really matters what do i really want to do with my life i want this purpose of sharing such good news such transformative news with other people this means more to me than having my dream job as a chemist and just a few months ago he actually quit his job and went into the full-time ministry helping the young professionals and teenagers in our church find a faith in god he's an inspiration to us all let's end with a parting challenge for those of you who aren't christians are you running towards jesus but afraid do you want to be sitting clothed and in your right mind to not just kind of a slight improvement that you fall back on like a new year's resolution but to actually have the abiding presence of god in you to help you have inner peace to help you think properly to help you overcome sin and to help you just be in a peaceful life situation with a purpose it's worth turning to that christian that got you here today say hey help me understand more of what jesus is calling me to christians what i'd like you to do is actually homework assignment from this message today i want you to take a piece of paper or in your journal and write a short summary of how jesus gave you a new beginning your testimony answering jesus command to tell the whole world how much the lord has done for you what has the lord done for you and i always had mercy on you and then i want you to go and use that with some of your friends all around this is my message today happy easter and may god bless you thank you so much chris for that awesome message thank you for reminding us that this is indeed the anniversary of the resurrection of jesus christ a witnessed fact in history and for teaching us from the bible about how central that is to our faith if you need to understand more about why that is so central and what evidences there are as chris suggested please ask the person who brought you to help you with that and then you know chris you talked about the demon possessed man at first blush a man whose life has nothing to do with our own but the more we investigate the more we realize that his helplessness and his need and his discovery of life in christ parallels our own helplessness our own need and our own discovery of life in jesus christ and so once again if you need or if you want um some more help to know more about how to have a relationship with god please don't hesitate to ask the person who brought you or any other friend in the church um to help you um explore in the bible more about these things let's pray at this time father thank you for this opportunity to pray thank you for this day in our calendar which marks the anniversary of the most important day in history and father i pray that the words we've heard today will be a blessing to everybody who's listening and god that many many will take the invitation to seek you and to reach out for you and to find you father bless everyone with whatever they're doing today on easter sunday i pray father also for the many who are ill help them to recover help us as a world to get through this pandemic allow the vaccine rolled out roll out to be fabulously successful father i pray for those who are grieving um because of the loss of dear ones comfort and strengthen them lords and lords for those going through all kinds of trials and suffering i pray as well lord that you will watch over comfort and help them and draw them to yourself all of these things we ask for your name's sake as we pray in christ amen we have uh one announcement and that is please do connect with us our instagram page is london disciples our facebook page is london international church of christ our website is the londonchurch.org if you would like to find a local meeting join a small group or set up a personal bible study please go to the londonchurch.org and uh slash forward slash connect with us and if you would like to be part of a fellowship group if you would like to meet some christians right after this meeting the londonchurch.org go to events okay on the little uh three bars on the top right corner click on that click on events and you will find links for fellowship in your part of london finally whatever you're doing today uh whether you're out with family or uh you know whatever you're doing today and tomorrow on the bank holiday monday listen have a fantastic time we're gonna have one final song and so please do uh share with us in this worship thank you so much for joining us this morning [Music] ages mighty [Music] your mighty hand is reaching down to set my feet [Music] was of life my soul is free [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] my [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: London ICOC

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Id: 5A9nAxyG9Nw

Length: 111min 13sec (6673 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021