Mark 5:1-35 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational [Music] let's pray Lord we have just been singing how great you are how great is our God so many of us need that kind of vision of you tonight because of recent things going on in our lives experiences that we've been going through we have forgotten how great you are how powerful you are the greatness of our problems of our present situations that tend to bring us down and overwhelm us they're getting all of the attention and all of the press and we need that vision like Isaiah that in the year that King Uzziah died he said I saw the Lord seated on his throne high and lifted up so Lord show us the grandeur of yourself in the person of your son the Lord Jesus Christ as we study this chapter of this gospel elevator floored to a place where we see you as great as grand as incomparable we give you the rightful place of worship and control in our lives we ask in Jesus name Amen if you recall when we were in Mark's Gospel chapter 4 that the chapter ended with Jesus demonstrating his power over the natural world they had been in Capernaum they got in a boat we're going across the lake Jesus fell asleep in the boat and one of those sudden storms that are want to come to that area stirred up the waves the disciples were afraid they thought they were gonna go under even though the Lord Jesus told them if you remember let us cross over to the other side and we remarked last time if Jesus says you're gonna go over you're not going to go under so he demonstrated his power over the natural world as he after being woken up from sleep commanded the waves to be still there was a great calm now we see Jesus power and control over the supernatural world in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark there is a supernatural world we forget it much of the time we just usually think about God sometimes when we forget that there is a whole host of demons who are very very active in our present age Paul said we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers rulers of wickedness and high places they were very very active in society at the time of Jesus which is a remarkable thing and we'll kind of make mention of that in a moment they would love nothing more than to destroy you if they could now they can't destroy you greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world but they would love to destroy you they would love to dismantle your faith in Christ Jesus said Satan comes to kill to steal and to destroy before I was saved I had a best buddy named Richard Wilhite crazy kid and my mom couldn't figure out why I would even hang out with this kid I think we all had kids like that didn't we did you ever have a few friends like that my mom just warned me about this kids stay away from him and he was he was trouble but I got a glimpse into the supernatural world in this guy's life when once he was on a substance lysergic acid diethylamide to be exact LSD and he lost the presence of mind he was in a room we were in a room and he decided he was invincible and he ran out on into a street with oncoming traffic coming right at him and ran toward a car coming directly at him now though I also had an altered state of consciousness at that time I at least had the presence of mind to know that what he was doing was wrong so I ran out and grabbed him and pulled him back in but I thought later on after I came to know Christ that it was Satan's designed to destroy his life to take it from him as the months went on I gave my life to Christ Richard will hide did not he was put in jail for a pretty significant amount of a production of synthetic heroin when he got out of jail I got a hold of his phone number and I called him and I shared the gospel with him and he seemed mildly emotionally touched but then eventually he just hung up I tried to call him back he wouldn't answer the phone two days later I read in the newspaper that somebody had a pistol and shot him in a head and killed him and it was so tragic because he was so close it seemed to me to know the Lord to being rescued he was at that pivotal moment that pivotal point when something grabbed hold of him and said hang up the phone it served as a mighty hefty life lesson to me that Satan wants to destroy people's lives in the ancient world let me put it to you this way the ancient world was a very spiritual world but in many ways a superstitious world the ancients believed that there were evil spirits that just swarmed around in the atmosphere in the air seeking to enter into human beings and control them they believed the ancients did even the Jews among them that in certain cases demons could attach themselves to food and that if you ate that food you would ingest a demon who once inside of you would control your motor reflexes control your body you would be essentially demonized demon-possessed that's why there were such elaborate washings among the Jews with their hands in one direction and in another direction far and above what the law required and that is the reason the scribes and the Pharisees would get down on Jesus and His disciples because his disciples didn't wash the proper manner they were paranoid of the possibility of demon possession among the ancient Egyptians the Egyptians classified the human body in 36 different parts and the demons could attach themselves to any one system rule any one of those parts and eventually take control and they would label certain activities as the activity of a demon they believe that all illness was a result of demon possession so if a person was deaf they had the spirit of deafness if a person was blind they had this spirit of blindness if a person had a fever they had the spirit of a fever etc etc it's not much different than the present-day false theology that seeks to cast demons out even of Christians I don't know if you've ever heard of this but I have seen services deliverance services were the demon of binge shopping is cast out of people the demon of warts I've must have had that demon when I was younger labeling almost any human activity whether it's a natural malady or a bad habit as a responsibility of a demon now all I can say is that when people have whole church services that are devoted to the activity of the devil that the devil must be very pleased with that he loves that kind of attention he loves that kind of press if he can get our focus off of the Lord and his greatness and his power on to Satan's pseudo greatness and his power I think he wins a tremendous victory here we see how Jesus has control over the super natural world which is one of the reasons why he came in fact it could be summed up in first John chapter 3 for we know that the Son of God has appeared to destroy the works of the devil now let's go in our minds backwards and then forwards and then hop into the story in times past Satan was subdued by God and kicked out of heaven Isaiah chapter 14 how are you fallen from heaven Oh Lucifer son of the morning he puffed himself up and said I will be like the Most High I will be like God I want grandeur I want greatness you will be cast down the scripture says and he was cast out of heaven but still has access to heaven as we've seen in the past in our studies now let's go to the future in the future we know from the scripture and Satan certainly knows as well that his days are numbered that eventually Revelation chapter 20 Satan will be bound and cast into a bottomless pit for a thousand years after which time he will be released for a period of time but eventually he'll be cast into the lake of fire he's been kicked out of heaven he'll be eventually bound incarcerated and then cast into the lake of fire until then he does have a tremendous amount of freedom but here we see how Jesus handles somebody who has demonized demon-possessed and it's remarkable it's one of those the most bizarre stories in all of the Bible but we see how a man possessed with the devil reacts when he sees Jesus verse one then they came to the other side of the sea that's exactly what the Lord said would happen let's cross over they thought they were going under listen if that boat would have filled completely with water they wouldn't have gone under because Jesus said you're going over so he's true to his word then they came to the other side of the sea to the country of the gadarenes now some of the Gospels say Girgis scenes other translations say Guerra scenes it's not too hard to figure this out it's all the same region there was a little city on the sword called Gaza which was part of a larger region called Ghaderi or the gadarenes region so you had a small city and a larger municipality but it's all that same area there are remains of that town to this day on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee if you ever come with us to Israel we'll take you to this spot we'll start off in Capernaum six miles away and go toward the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and you can just see the difference the western side is pretty flat and it's a beautiful verdant Valley where things grow but you get to the eastern side and the cliffs rise precipitously so that you can imagine if there were a flock of pigs in that area if they would take to flight if they would run that they could run easily and be killed in that sea so that's where this area was and when he had come out of the boat immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spare that's a euphemism for a demon-possessed man we'll keep reading and it'll say that he was demon-possessed so this is just another way of describing so many who's demonized somebody who's possessed with the devil somebody in whom resides an evil spirit that is controlling the human victim or the human host so Jesus left Capernaum a storm arose they veered off-course they got back on course and then on the placid lake they got to this area of the gadarenes it is now early in the morning the other Gospel writers tell us that this man who was demon-possessed and lived up from the shore of the lake he lived in the tombs in the graveyard of that area so a boat lands at the dock maybe a place was there to tie off the boat and that demon-possessed man could look down and see oh there's more people there's more humans for me to torment and immediately they and I say they because Matthew says there were two men mark tells us there is one man so you say oh there's a contradiction in the Bible note both are true there was one plus one one of them is more prominent and even if you read the Gospel accounts where the two demon-possessed man come the more prominent one is the one with whom Jesus has the conversation with and probably the only reason Matthew included saying that there were two rather than one as Mark deals with the one who's most prominent Matthew deals with two of them is simply because Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience and according to the law by the mouth of two witnesses every word will be established so in line with his audience he mentions that there were two who were demon-possessed that Jesus dealt with so notice immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit Satan our enemy attacks spiritually he attacks emotionally he attacks physically he attacks spiritually mostly through false doctrine through deception now he does a great job with that a grand job with that he tells people lies he deceives them with their worldview with their outlook on life with their philosophies so he attacks people spiritually I think he also attacks people emotionally through a number of things getting them to be depressed getting them to doubt God attacking people in the realm of their feelings when people feel about me what God might feel about me but he also would desire to attack a person physically if he can and in this case he can now here's what's interesting we don't really read of demon possession in the Old Testament we automatically turn to the New Testament and suddenly there's all of this demonic activity do you ever wonder why why don't we read about it in other places and then suddenly we come to the Gospel of Matthew Mark Luke John and we find people who are demon-possessed for a very easy reason an understandable reason this is the Messianic era the one that has been prophesied in the Old Testament to come the one in Genesis that says we'll come in crush Satan's head is here so there is a disruption in the supernatural world you might say it's gone out on the wire and the network of the demon world they're all informed something else that I do find interesting you don't find a single case at least in the Bible of demon possession in the city of Jerusalem but in the more rural areas of Galilee the more Gentile areas of Galilee to be exact now somebody might say well how come we don't see demon-possession today that's a whole nother issue I believe we do see it today but I think Satan's primary activity on the earth isn't to cause people to be scared by a demon-possessed man or a woman in their Mets because that would be an obvious tip-off an obvious giveaway look that's satanic he has chosen a more effective subtle means and that is deception he puts people in churches who believe in false doctrine or lies about God and puts them in the church or puts them in seminaries as teacher or behind pulpits as pastors getting them to compromise the truth it's a far more effective way than just throwing a bunch of demon-possessed people in your midst get people who will come to you in the name of Jesus Christ but tell you lies about God and deceive people with error verse 3 says he had his dwelling among the tombs and no one could bind him not even with chains now this indicates that they had tried to bind him and perhaps they had done it several times but they were just inadequate in pulling this off in fact one of the other Gospels talks about those who kept the man that is it was probably their job to monitor what's going on in the graveyard and to make sure that this guy doesn't get out and bother everybody in town no one could bind him he had superhuman strength because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces neither could anyone tame him and always night and day he was in the mountains and the tombs crying out and cutting himself with stones note what Satan wants to do to a person robbed him of sanity robbed him of self-control robbed him of the joy of a home life the peace of a home life of friends and family notice also what society tries to do and how d a society tries to handle a person like this isolation incarceration we can't change a person just put them away it wasn't too many years ago when people were put in padded rooms padded cells I worked at a hospital when I was doing radiology training called Ward B where people were kept simply incarcerated I mean in in restraints on Gurney's in rooms padded rooms because they didn't know what to do with them they were so mentally ill and they didn't know how to handle them how to treat them when he saw Jesus from afar he ran and worshipped him very strong word in Greek pross canal it's a word that is translated typically to to bow down and to give homage to to recognize as one being greater than oneself worship these demons though they hate everything about God and everything that God represents they are still powerless in his presence this demonized man this tormented individual filled with demons as we will discover in the presence of Jesus is reduced to bowing down he has no power in the presence of Jesus now this is a preview of coming attractions Paul says in Philippians that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow and every tongue should confess of those in heaven on earth and those under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father here we see this happening in our story now they had never seen Jesus before but there is this instant recognition and people have asked about that well why is it here's the guy running down from the tombs seeing this boat dock and running running and then all of a sudden bowing down and worshiping Jesus probably the man was unsuspecting not knowing who these visitors are in Ghaderi didn't anybody warn them you don't come here because I'm here he runs down but now in the spirit there's this instant recognition this is Jesus this is the one as that I said has gone through the demonic Network word is out Messiah the one prophesied has arrived and he cried out with a loud voice and said what have I to do with you Jesus son of the Most High God I implore you by God that you do not torment me for he said unto Him come out of the man unclean spirit now there's some key elements I want you to notice first of all the demons have faith in fact let me put it to you this way demons the demons faith is Orthodox faith it's as pure andhrite as any good theology school or Church could ever be their theology of God is spot-on they traffic in heresy they promote liberalism and false teaching and cult cultish activity and teaching but what they personally believe is right on remember what James says in chapter 2 you say you believe in God you do well even the devil's believe and tremble first of all they believe in the existence of God they don't sit in hell and argue I wonder if God exists they were created by God they know he exists they're not that stupid number two they believe in the deity of Jesus Christ I know who you are Jesus son of the Most High God a term of deity they know that Jesus Christ is God in a human body number three they know that ultimately they're going to lose the battle they know that they know that their days are numbered have you come to torment me Luke says that the demons pleaded with Jesus not to throw them into the abussos the abyss the bottomless pit Matthew says that the demons cried out asking him have you come to torment us before the time see there is a time coming when Satan will be incarcerated in the bottomless pit and in recognizing this is that one that has been predicted I wonder if he's going to incarcerate us now so they believe in God they believe in the deity of Christ they believe that they're going to lose and number four they know they believe they can only operate by permission they don't have total control they don't have unlimited access in this world or in people's lives they can only act under the sovereign control of God so you'll notice that it says I implore you I beg you I bow before you and I submit myself to you ultimately and I'm asking you my my request is I implore you that you do not torment me for he said to him come out of the man unclean spirit then he asked him what is your name and he answered saying my name is legion for we are many a Roman legion is approximately six thousand men now during the time of Caesar Augustus it was six thousand eight hundred and twenty six men to be precise sixty-one hundred were foot soldiers seven hundred and twenty-six were horsemen so a large number six thousand plus is a legion that doesn't necessarily mean that this is an exact count by the demons see demons are liars there were certainly more than one of them but there could have been just a few of them but I believe that one of their ploys is to make you and I think they're more powerful than they really are the name is legion it doesn't necessarily mean that there were six thousand eight hundred and twenty six demons residing in that person that was the name name that he had chosen perhaps and one used to intimidate into scare also he begged him earnestly that he would not send them out of the country now a large herd of swine were feeding there near the mountains so all the demons begged him saying send us to the swine that we may enter them see these demons knew if this is Jesus and it certainly is Jesus son of the Most High God he's already been on the scene for a while in this area ministering to the people they know since this is the Messiah he's not just gonna stand around and let us wreck havoc continually on this human host or these two fellows that were inhabiting that he's going to do something about it and so they're already anticipating that and looking for a new home to them it was better to go into this herd of swine than to be cast out into the abyss the bottomless pit which is their destiny in the future it seems that demons long to have some kind of physical host if not a human then in this case an animal question why did Jesus give them their request why didn't he say no I am going to incarcerate you before the time why did he say sure go ahead go into these pigs because it was a very costly thing to lose a couple thousand pigs well think what kind of animals they are they're pigs according to Jewish law it's like the most uncultured thing you can raise and sure this is a Gentile region but this is a Jewish nation and if there are Jews that are raising this pigs it's an illegal enterprise anyway they shouldn't be doing it so he's gonna deliver a man from demons and he's gonna put an end to an illegal enterprise so I said sure and he let them go in at once Jesus gave them permission notice no hesitation I like well let me think about this yeah ok at once Jesus gave them permission then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine there were about two thousand and the herd ran ran violently down the steep place that's that eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and drown in the sea now I mentioned that demons and for that matter Satan the Prince of demons that they operate by permission they're powerful but not all powerful when you get to the book of Job in the Old Testament and Satan appears before the Lord and God says have you considered job my servant who's blameless he's upright job was a godly man but Satan had been observing him and he said yeah but that's because you put a hedge around him and you blessed him remove that hedge and let me at him and let me afflict him and he will curse you to your face God allowed Satan to have a certain amount of power with job but only up to a point okay you can afflict him but you will spare his life and on both occasions that Satan appeared before God he had to get permission and it was given to him in increments so these demons operate by permission in the New Testament Jesus said you know Peter said to Simon Peter Satan has been asking for you that he might destroy you and sift you like wheat but I prayed for you and when you are recovered strengthen your brothers so evidently there was a conversation between Satan and Jesus about Peter Satan has had his eyes on Peter Jesus of course was keeping Peter by his power Satan's desire in his life was to destroy and to sift him and certainly Peter did struggle and denied the Lord but he was recovered he was brought back and he did strengthen his brothers so just remember this Satan's going to come knocking on your door either through deception or an emotional attack or a number of ways because he has studied you and he is gonna craft some incessant temptation or attack in your life he knows the weak spots so when he comes knocking at the door rather than for you to open the door in rebuked him hi Satan I'm skip I rebuke you let Jesus answer the door don't you bother doing it how do we defeat Satan by us rebuking him by us opposing him by us yelling at him no James says flee from Satan flee from him why have a conversation with it I've heard people say Satan I rebuke you in Satan I this I go whoa whoa whoa whoa wait a minute you're talking to Satan you're actually having a conversation it sounds like you're praying to the devil I don't talk directly to Satan I talked to God about Satan let him deal with it he's better at dealing with it he created him he's going to ultimately destroy him let him take care of the riffraff he's knocking at the door Jesus would you answer that for me so those who fed the swine fled and they told them in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was that had happened then they came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon-possessed there it is it describes him as a demon-possessed man and had the Legion sitting and clothed I love this clothed and in his right mind now they were afraid of this guy before but notice it says and they were afraid they were afraid of this guy before now they have a fear but for a very different reason they have just witnessed the exercise of ultimate supernatural power and they're going oh and those who saw told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed and about the swine then they began to plead with him Jesus to depart from their region now just let that sink in for a moment here you've got a guy who's demonized demon-possessed he's living he's been shackled he breaks the shackles he has supernatural strength he yells at people he screams he cuts himself he cries out he's like a deranged demonized tormenting the worst neighbor you could ever have Jesus comes to town delivers a man from the demon and they asked Jesus to leave now in most neighborhoods if you were to ask people to choose between the two a demon-possessed frothing at the mouth naked guy who cuts himself yells at people breaks chains or Jesus Christ if you want one of those two neighbors gone from your neighborhood which would it be most people thinking people would say get rid of that demon possessed guy he's been a bad neighbor for years we've been afraid of him for years we hate to go on the road they pleaded with Jesus to leave boy humans can be so unhuman now for Jesus Christ it wasn't about the pigs and for Jesus Christ it really even wasn't about the demons for Jesus it was about delivering the man who was the victim of those demons he was compassionate toward the man he loved the person they loved the swine this was a considerable financial loss and I'm gonna spare the deviled ham jokes tonight this was a considerable financial loss and they said Jesus would you please get in your boat and go away would you please get out of here we don't want you here anymore the demons bowed before Jesus and gave Jesus better worship than the people who lived in the city they also had a prayer of Jesus but that was that he would go away that's my prayer Jesus just go away not a prayer of invitation not a prayer of who wow that was amazing we have a few more bad people we'd like you to handle and deal with and clean up just Jesus go away the death of the pigs and the sanity of that man were the evidence of the power of Jesus Christ to change lives dead pigs and restored sanity prove God is at work what pigs in your life have to be killed what prevailing nasty habits are holding on in your life the demonstration of God being at work in our lives is that he's killing the pigs restoring sanity giving us purpose and they asked him to leave when he had got into the boat he who had been demon-possessed begged him now notice that word that's been prevalent so far in this entire chapter the demons begged him the man of Ghaderi begged Jesus now the previously demon-possessed man begged him what did he ask them they begged him that he might be with him you can understand that right man has been tormented all of his life suddenly he's delivered I just want to be with a guy who did that I want to be close to that one I have never experienced what I'm feeling right now I have never had sanity of mine clarity of thought every every day of my life has been physical emotional torment exposed to the elements being cut up now he's delivered when I was first Saved I couldn't get enough of going to church and Bible study and prayer meetings I just wanted to be around the Lord and around God's people I couldn't get enough so I read this and I go I understand this guy but Jesus does something and says something very interesting to him however Jesus didn't let him but he said to him go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you that's a testimony goes just go tell your testimony tell people what God has done for you and how he has had compassion on you sometimes God doesn't want us to just stay and praise he wants us to go and proclaim we have made Christianity we have limited it to what we call a worship experience let's go have a worship experience we'll gather together we'll sing some songs we'll open the Bible will read that will feel good about what we read that's good not knocking that at all that's fundamental that's necessary but that's just the first step after you come and you praise now go and proclaim and what do you proclaim just help people what God has done for you see some of us are afraid we think well they're gonna ask me questions I can't answer so I get questions like that all the time that I can't answer most questions I can't answer or some that I can I've worked my way through them but I'm called to be a witness a witness to somebody who see something I've seen what God has done in my life I've seen how he's changed me I've seen what he can do for other people I can tell you that I'm not called to be the prosecutor I'm not called to be the jury I'm not called to be the judge I'm called to be a witness so just go tell people what he's done go out and proclaim it and he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him and all Marvel this guy probably had a reputation the Decapolis well you know what that means deca means 10 Poulos is the Greek word for city deca polis is a ring of about 10 cities in the Greco Roman Empire that was on the far eastern frontier most of the cities of the Decapolis would be in present-day Jordan one of them was a city called bet she'an which is by the Sea of Galilee and that was the capital of the Decapolis called the Scavo Phyllis so probably starting there and the area around the Sea of Galilee he went and proclaimed it and it says all marveled now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side a great multitude gathered to him and he was by the sea and behold one of the rulers of the synagogue gyrus by name came and when he saw him he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly saying my little daughter lies at the point of death come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and she will live now at this point in Luke's rendition of this story he says that this girl was 12 years old you're gonna read that mark will tell you the same thing but he'll save it for the end of the story we have a twelve-year-old girl who's at the point of death gyrus is the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum the word ruler is the Greek word Archon at once there's a guy who supervises the worship he is the highest standing spiritual authority in the city of Capernaum he was probably a Pharisee Pharisees were the notorious of Jesus Christ so it's interesting that a man of this stature of this standing of this position in the community in the religious Jewish community knowing the animosity between his group and Jesus came to Jesus to ask for his daughter to be healed you would have to overcome your prejudice you would have to overcome your pride you would have to overcome that animosity but this guy's desperate his daughter the light of his life is on her deathbed and when you're desperate you are more prone to overcome those kind of prejudice and he came to Jesus's and he baked Jesus my little daughter lies at the point of death come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed notice this and she will live he exercises tremendous faith in Jesus so Jesus went with him and like every place is a great multitude followed him and thronged him I don't know how you came to know the Lord but I have met an awful lot of people who came to know Christ at the worst lowest most desperate time of their life and that's because when people are suffering or people are desperate or people are in pain or somebody they love is hurt and it's an impossible situation people are prone to look upward until then people typically live their lives looking inward or outward but rarely upward but when when something happens like this people often will call upon God nothing else has worked that's why CS Lewis said God whispers to us in our pleasure but he shouts to us in our pains pain he said is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world pain gets people's attention suffering gets their attention and so he comes to Jesus now this brings up an issue we live in a world filled I mean filled with this kind of stuff with pain and with suffering the typical question the most frequently asked question is how could there be a God of love who would allow this world so filled with suffering I remember the first time I saw a little baby on a table in a hospital with hydrocephalus and enlarged head water on the brain huge so helpless broke my heart and I noticed not just one but several cases is a young Christian this troubled me greatly why Lord Lord it says in your word that you love people for God so loved the world how can a God of love allow this to happen and it's it's indiscriminate pain and suffering doesn't just happen to unbelievers and then if you're a Christian you'll never have a baby that's hydrocephalic or that has spina bifida or that gets a disease if you're a Christian you're immune from it I know there's a false theology camp that teaches that they just make matters worse but as troubling and it's probably the most frequently asked question let me answer it in part by saying number one God did not create evil but he created the potential for evil there's a big difference the Bible says God is good and only does good things does not commit evil acts but he creates the potentiality the possibility of evil by giving people free choice God has until nations go ahead and kill that other nation he allows people to make decisions and that's necessary there could not be a world where there is genuine freedom and thus the ultimate value which is unless there were volition human choice you can't have human choice unless you give people an actual choice between the highest good or the highest evil so if people do certain activities take certain substances incur certain consequences that's because God is allowed free choice you well then what good why would God allow free choice because there couldn't be genuine love which is the highest value unless there were absolute freedom of choice number one number two God is a purpose for suffering a purpose for it it can actually be helpful I didn't say it feels good I didn't say it's enjoyable but it's helpful you say how is it helpful well first of all it keeps us pure I have not seen people who are believers going through periods of suffering who don't come out the other and very very purified and very clear Peter said in first Peter these trials have come so that your faith which is of greater value than gold even though refined by fire may be proved genuine your faith is proved genuine and you are pure when you come out the other end it purifies you number two it keeps you humble it keeps you humble it deflates a cocky arrogant attitude very very quickly Paul the Apostle in 2nd Corinthians 12 said and lest I be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations that I have received from the Lord I was given by God a messenger of Satan a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buff at me lest I be exalted above measure I saw so many great things I had so many wonderful revelation that in order to keep me humble God allowed that in my life so it'll keep you pure it'll keep you humble number three it'll keep you dependent Paul said I prayed three times for this over and over and over again I went to the Lord and finally he said my grace is all you need it's sufficient for you it keeps you coming back it keeps you depending on the Lord so it can be helpful let me add a third thing to it suffering well let me let me rephrase it God has a desire that he would love to see in suffering and that is what we see here this ruler of the synagogue came in and bowed before the Lord the demon did intellectually he was under the control of Jesus this man willingly came and he bowed before the Lord pain will move people in different directions it'll bow your knee or it'll break your back it'll move you away from God you'll become angry at God or it'll move you closer to God God would love to see the net end result is that you are moved toward him some people become bitter they turn inward they become resentful angry of God some people become battered you just grit their teeth okay heat this what I'm just gonna grit my teeth and go through it other people become actually better people not bitter not battered but better they turn upward they become dependent they become humble they have those rough edges taken off them do you have any rough edges in your life or am i the only one yeah I've got a few and the Lord keeps reminding me got to deal with that and he is his ways now a certain woman verse 25 let's get through this chapter at least a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years now this I find a fascinating contrast and I believe it's here by contrast gyruss had a twelve-year-old daughter this woman had a twelve-year-old disease for 12 years this daughter brought nothing but joy to gyrus for 12 years this disease brought nothing but torment to this woman watch how Jesus can control both she suffered many things from many physicians she spent all that she had that is on doctors and was no better but rather grew worse so all the medical treatment of that day and age didn't help a bit it was rendered an incurable disease when she heard about Jesus she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment for she said if only I may touch his clothes I shall be made well immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction I don't know if you've ever experienced physical healing now let me just put on record that I believe in physical healing I believe that what Jesus did 2,000 years ago Jesus can do the same today Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever that wasn't just something that happened 2,000 years ago it can happen and does happen today Anna I don't know if you've ever felt what it's like to be healed but when you when you're healed you know it I had years ago an accident it was I suffered a consequence of my own choice I was skateboarding in a swimming pool fell off the up at the deep end when I was trying to do a Turner I wasn't really good at it and I just proved that I wasn't and I fell off from the lip of the pool fell backwards and hit my shoulder on the cement of the pool and I had what's called an acromioclavicular separation an AC joint that's right up here separated wooden got x-rays of it sure enough it was separated they put it in a sling I was in a friend's house that night and we were praying for different things and he just very casually I mean it wasn't even like this Oh God we come before just very simply Lord and it would be awesome if you healed skip shoulder to would you do that in Jesus name instantly I felt cured healed the pain was gone I had articulation movement in my arm the very next day because I wanted a document I went and got a tree x-rayed because there was a separation of that joint before now the joint was no longer separated it was back don't down what doctors called within normal limits I knew what it felt like this woman felt like it now she touched the hem of His garment because she said if only I touched the hem of His garment I'll be cured was there something magical about Jesus garment now Jesus garden was like anybody else's garment but she had observed something she'd been watching Jesus touch people and whenever Jesus touched people people got better so she naturally thought if he can touch people and they get cured I bet it'll work in Reverse if I touched him I'd be cured so she set as a point of contact that robe and in particular the tassels probably the for one of the four blue tassels on a Jewish man's robe if I touch one of those tassels if I touch the hem of His garment the boy is closed I know I'm gonna be healed so when she touched the hem of His garment since she made that as her point of contract contact she released her faith she was cure she felt that she knew it Jesus immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him turned around in the crowd and said who touched my clothes but his disciples said to him you see the multitude thronging you and you say who touched me you get the picture there's multitudes of people pressing him crushing him he can't move and then he stops it goes huh who touched me what why everybody's touching you but Jesus could tell the difference between the touch of Fame and the touch of faith you know rock stars have people who want to touch them athletes that people want to touch them politicians that people who want to touch them it's very different than if their son or daughter or wife or friend touches them it's a very different kind of a touch who touched me this was a different touch this was a touch of faith and believing he perceived him he looked around to see her who had done this thing but the woman fearing and trembling knowing what had happened to her came and fell down and told him the whole truth and he said to her daughter your faith has made you well go in peace be healed of your affliction while he was still speaking some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said your daughter is dead why trouble the teacher any further because we're out of time we'll have to see how Jesus handles both situations so father were so grateful to know that you control the natural world and it only makes sense since you made it you spoke it into being you spoke it into existence and you have absolute and sovereign control over the supernatural world Satan and all of his host of demons in high places it's amazing when we read this just how right down the line how Orthodox Satan and demons belief system about you is only stands to reason they know the truth they know of their ultimate demise [Music] Lord this man this demon-possessed man bowed before you out of sheer and absolute submission being powerless in the presence of Jesus knowing intellectually what was true but not worshiping you affectionately because true worship true affection is a matter of the will and when we willingly bow before you we willingly pour out our worship to you that's a touch you recognize Lord even as this man exhibited a change of life sanity of mind clothed and in his right mind Lord I pray that our lives would experience the touch of Jesus Christ that those things which we shouldn't be a part of which we shouldn't be raising up we shouldn't allow in our lives that we would eradicate them by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us that there would be the evidence of Jesus moving in us in Jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 8,559

Rating: 4.7543859 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Church, Skip Heitzig, Mark, John the Baptist, John Mark, synagogue, missionary, New Testament, clergy, baptism, satan, devil, King of the Jews, kosher, law, disciples, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John

Id: Ahng4TpZkYM

Length: 61min 14sec (3674 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2018