Luke 8:26-39
“We Have a Story to Tell”
By: Rev. Kenneth Emerson Sauer,
Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
Why are we here this morning?
Why are we not doing what most of the people in our
community are doing
right this moment?…
Sleeping in.
Playing golf.
Trying to overcome a hangover from the night before.
Cutting the lawn…
…whatever?
Could it be that something has happened in our
lives…something so
great…that we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else?
Or could it be that we are searching for something…
…something we have seen in others, something we know exists, but have not yet experienced for ourselves?
I know what my answer is.
What is your answer or reason for being here?
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus is met by a
demon-possessed man
who wants nothing to do with Him.
He is afraid of God.
The presence of the Holy for him is a tormenting thing.
But in the later part of our Lesson we see a new man.
Legion is healed.
He is sitting at the feet of Jesus, not because he has
to—but because he
would not want to be anywhere else.
And he even begs Jesus to allow Him to come with Jesus onto the next town and the next and the next.
Not only is he no longer fearful of God, but he can’t get
enough of Him.
He wants to be with Him at all times and everywhere.
How many of us were like Legion before we were saved?
We weren’t comfortable with God.
He was a fearful thought to us.
And even though our lives were not whole…
…even though we were possessed by many demons who drove us to
solitary places…
…we still did not want to be healed.
At first glance, it may seem very odd to us that Legion was
not overjoyed when he first met Jesus.
Legion was naked and unwashed.
He had no home, but lived alone in a cemetery, chained their
by townspeople who were at their wits end with how to deal with him.
“Many times…” Legion “had broken his chains”… but the demon drove him into
even more horrible situations.
How many of us have tried to ‘break our chains’---to ‘save’
ourselves only to find that our own salvation is no salvation at all?
Maybe we were comfortable in our sickness—in our sin—we liked
playing with evil…we thought that evil was the answer to the miseries of this life.
Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 3: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light
because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
It’s like sitting in a dark room, and someone suddenly turns
on the lights.
What might be our first reaction?
Well, the light hurts our eyes…
…the light causes us pain as we see ourselves as we are—sinners in need of God…
…so we either turn the light back off or leave it on—allowing our
eyes to see sin for what sin is…
…allowing the Light of Jesus to cause us to repent and change…
…and then learning to love that Light that has finally brought us
real hope, real peace, real joy, real love!!!
Is that why we are here?
Can we relate to this?
When I was working in a tee-shirt shop in a mall in Syracuse—after having given up on my first career in journalism…after having rejected the call of God in my life to go into the ministry…
…I thought that I was happy.
I had finally given up my struggle with the Almighty.
I wanted nothing to do with Him anymore.
And then, and then…
I started to get my faith back.
At first this scared me.
I had a successful business going.
I had been struggling with faith issues for a long time.
But the call of God would not leave me alone.
As I received the gift of faith in God through Jesus Christ—and it is a gift…well…
I remember the joy, and the overwhelming sense of thankfulness!!!
I had blown it the first time…
…I wasn’t going to blow it again.
I would let the lease run out on my store, apply to seminary and get on with the work of telling the world about the “Treasure hidden in the field”…about the “Pearl of great price”…
About the life-changing experience that comes when one accepts Christ’s offer of healing.
I walked across the hallway of the mall one morning and told another storeowner, “I had forgotten what it was like to be happy. I had forgotten what it was like to feel that life is actually worth living!!! I didn’t even realize how miserable I was.”
I would imagine that the same holds true for those who are not in a church worshipping God this morning.
They do not realize how miserable their lives really are…
As John writes in his first Epistle: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
It is God Who knows that those Whom He loves are lost.
It is God Who seeks us out.
It is God Who finds us.
It is up to us to accept His offer to come into our hearts and lives.
Remember the movie Forest Gump?
Forest is asked by his Lieutenant:
“Forest have you found Jesus?”
Forest answers : “I didn’t know He was lost.”
And this is so true.
Jesus is not the One Who is lost, we are.
We are not the ones who find Jesus…
…Jesus finds us!
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning we see that when Jesus found the demon possessed man, “he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me’”
And this fear of the Holy is the type of thing that we—as saved persons will come in contact with as we fulfill our calling to tell our unsaved neighbors, friends, co-workers, classmates and yes—even strangers about the Great Salvation which comes through faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.
Are we willing to do this?
Are we willing to take the chance that we will be rejected as we tell our story about what God has done for us?
How God found us and changed our lives?
Often, when I try and encourage other Christians to talk to others about Christ, to invite others to church, to hand out invitation cards, tracts, to put Parkview bumper stickers on their cars I am met with:
“That’s just not for me.”
“I don’t do that…”
“…or I am afraid to do that.”
I understand that fear.
I often feel it myself, and have missed many opportunities to witness because of it, but there is nothing more fulfilling in the entire world than to tell others about the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
If they reject our offer to accept Christ, they are not rejecting us…
…they are rejecting the One Who created them…
…and believe me…
…most folks…
…deep down inside…
…have a lot of respect for Christians who are willing to risk telling them their story.
Because they know that it is done out of conviction, and out of a sincere love and care for their souls.
What good is a Christian who does not show his or her love for God and neighbor?
In this same chapter in Luke, just a few verses before this morning’s Lesson Jesus says: “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.”
Are our lights on a stand for the entire world to see, or are we hiding them under the bed or in a jar?
After Legion was healed, the people from his town came and found him sitting at Jesus’ feet, “dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.”
So they told Jesus to take a hike, to hit the road Jack and never come back!!!
They were afraid of the Holy.
They were uncomfortable with God.
They wanted nothing to do with Him.
I remember a friend telling me that when he told one of his friends that he had accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior…his friend wept…
…his friend didn’t want him to be changed.
And even though this town was no friend to Legion…they didn’t want him to change either.
The Light of God was shining bright, and it hurt their eyes to look at it…
…because maybe, just maybe…
…They would soon be forced to face their own demons—and accept the fact that Jesus does indeed save!!!
So Jesus got into a boat and left, and the newborn Christian—who had once been called Legion wanted to hop into the boat with Him.
But Jesus had other plans for him.
“Return home,” Jesus commanded, “and tell how much God has done for you.’
So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.”
We are the Body of Christ within this community…
We are Christ’s representatives within a place where most people neither know God nor want to know God.
And Jesus is telling us to tell those in our community how much God has done for us.
Are we doing this?
If we have been healed by Jesus Christ.
If we are born again adopted children of God.
We have the most exciting, intriguing and important story to tell.
Nothing else beats it!
Let us return to our homes and tell our stories today, tomorrow, the next day and for as long as we all shall live!!!
