Deviled Ham

Have you ever been in the presence of real evil? Now, I’m not talking about someone who cut you off in traffic or someone else who may have cheated you in some way. I’m not talking about that person on your friends list who’s a raging liberal (or ultra conservative, as the case may be) who’s always challenging everything you post or calling you out for being opposite of them in your thinking. I’m not even talking about regular ol’ sinful people who are simply doing what sinful people always do, which is sin. No. I’m talking about pure and unadulterated evil.

Have you ever been in the presence of the devil or one of his demons? Maybe the moment you walked through the door, or as soon as they entered the room a chill ran down your spine and a wave of fear threatened to overwhelm you with unspeakable terror. You immediately knew that something wasn’t right. The atmosphere in the area instantly turned from calm and normal to perverted, heinous, and despicable. There seemed to be a “presence” of something so incomprehensibly wicked that your very being screamed out to you to flee in terror, but your body refused to move. Your legs were paralyzed and all you could do was stand and face whatever it was that had turned its focus on you.

Have you ever experienced anything like that? I have, years ago in a prison in east Texas. It wasn’t an inmate, but a ranking officer of the prison staff. Now, I only had one encounter with this man, and brother, sister, I’m glad of that! I was a new Christian and was still ignorant to many spiritual things, but when I entered the same room as that guy, I instantly knew that I was in the presence of evil itself. It’s difficult to describe the weight of oppression I felt just being in this person’s presence.

Folks, the presence of a fallen angel is scary, and the fear he invokes within us can be difficult to overcome. When you come into the presence of evil, fear is a natural reaction. Even though the Bible tells us that 2Ti 1:7 …God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. We will still experience it from time to time because that’s just part of the human condition and there is great wickedness in the world. Now, in Christ, we can overcome fear, but overcoming something does not mean that we’ve eliminated it. It is still there, but our faith in Christ gives us the confidence we need to press on and overcome. You cannot have bravery without fear. We call them heroes who despite their fear finish their task.

Our story today in Mark chapter 5 actually has its beginnings in the previous chapter. The Lord and His disciples were in Galilee. Jesus had been teaching the crowd from a boat on the edge of the sea of Galilee, and then when the sun had begun to descend, He and the disciples shoved off and began to cross over to the other side.

Well, that night, while they were still somewhere out on the sea, a great storm arose and threatened to swamp or capsize the boat. Now, because of its location and terrain, these storms are a common occurrence on the sea of Galilee. They would come up without much warning and they would be fierce and fearsome. Anyone, like fishermen, who made their living on the sea would know that the proper course of action would be to rush back to shore, but if you were caught out in the middle, and especially at night you might have to just ride it out and hope for the best.

On this night, though several of the disciples were experienced fishermen who were very familiar with these waters, the storm was so fierce that they feared the worse. Now, in the back of the boat, the Lord was asleep, so they woke Him up and cried out to Him, “Don’t you care that we are about to perish?” Mar 4:39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Now, you would think that when the wind died and the sea calmed the great fear of dying the disciples had would also have died down, but it didn’t. The Scripture says that Mar 4:41 …they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Friends, the disciples were in fear of the storm outside the boat, but that paled in comparison to the fear they experienced when they realized who or what was right there inside the boat with them. “What manner of man is this?” You know, it’s one thing to witness His miracles in healing the sick, and giving sight to the blind, but when nature itself obeyed His commands, why only God Himself could do such a thing. They feared the storm, but they feared the one who calmed the storm even more. Storms they had faced many times before, but they had never experienced anything like Jesus before.