From Madman To Missionary

Scripture: Mark 5:1-20; Ephesians 6:12

Title: From Mad to Missionary

Theme: Dealing with Demons

This sermon looks at the 1. The Reality of the Devil and Demons 2. All of Creation Acknowledges the Lordship of Jesus Christ Jesus 3. Jesus Loves to brings Salvation/Freedom

INTRO:

Grace and peace this morning from the God our Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

As you read the Gospels one thing becomes perfectly clear. Peter, James, John and the rest of the boys had no idea what it would mean to follow Jesus when He first invited them. I don’t think they had any idea how exciting it would be to travel and live with Jesus. They couldn’t have because Jesus was unlike any other rabbi that they had seen or heard about.

When they left their fishing boats, their tax collector’s table and all that other stuff, I am sure that they thought that most of their time would be sharing the truths about God and faith. I am not so sure that they understood that it would mean having some exciting boat rides, healing hundreds of people and facing what they faced here at the beginning of Mark chapter five.

I am not sure that they thought that they would be in the middle of an intense spiritual battle between their rabbi and a legion of demons. The question has been raised recently by a lot of focus groups on whether or not most people who attend church, read the Bible and do their best to live a good life ever think about going toe to toe with a bunch of demons? Do Church people still believe in spiritual warfare?

A recent You Gov Survey tells us that the majority of people in our country still believe that evil exists in our world. (http://cdn.yougov.com)

Other surveys tell us that most people who regularly attend church believe that there is a sentient being called Satan, Lucifer or the Devil. Barely a majority of those outside of the church share that belief. However, most church people do not believe that they will ever have to face a demon or an evil spirit at any point in their life time.

They believe that evil forces are for the most active in other parts of the world. Places thousands of miles away from the safety of their local churches. They don’t believe that in their neighborhoods, their schools, their work places and the like, that any truly sinister evil forces are actively at work.

Well, maybe, just maybe down in the inner city or in a ghetto area or even in a red light district but for the most part demonic activity happens very rarely if at all.

What do you think?

Let’s see what the Bible says about all of this stuff.

The Bible tells us that:

I. Evil Spirits, Demons and the Devil Exist

The Bible is very clear on the fact that Evil spirits, demons and most assuredly the Devil does exist. From the beginning of the Book of Genesis to the final words of the book of Revelation is this – Forces of Darkness, evil spirits, demonic beings are at work in our world – in our neighborhoods, schools, places of work and sadly to say in many of our houses of worship.

The Bible calls them by many names – principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness, evil spirits, demons and devils to name a few. The names vary, but the reality is that the Bible which God gave us gives us example after example of the reality of demonic existence.

As we shall see in our passage this morning an individual person can be possessed by a demon. That is to say that a person can invite or become a false temple where an unclean spirit is allowed to take up residence.

And if you would read Daniel chapter 10 the Prophet Daniel speaks about an entire nation can come under the power and presence of demonic spirits. Not just an individual person but a whole group of people even a whole nation.

We may balk at those thoughts but how else can we explain some of the more wicked chapters in human history. How else can we explain the wicked nature of the practice of traditional slavery in the Western World; in particular in the United States and in Britain? How else can we make sense of the idea that human beings were bought and sold as commodities? How else can we make sense that people were seen as being less than being a person made in the image of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY? How else can we see how people were able to beat and treat people far worse than they would an animal?

How else can we explain what happened in the Soviet gulags, the Japanese prison camps and the horrors that went on at the Nazi death camps?