Luke's Gospel

So page 137 Luke chapter 8 verse 22 to 39. 1 day, Jesus said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side of the lake So they got into a boat and set out. As I sailed, he fell asleep. A school came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger. The disciple the disciples went and worked him saying master, master, we're going to drown.

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters. The storm subsided and always calm. Where is your faith he asked his disciples? In fear and amazement, they asked from another, who is this He commands even the winds and the water and they obey him. They sailed to the region of guarazines, which is across the lake from Galilei.

When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon possessed man from the town. For a long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet shouting at the top of his voice. What do you want from me? Jesus, son of the most high god, thank you.

Don't touch me. For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times, it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept on the guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. Jesus asked him, what is your name? Legion, he replied because many demons had gone into him, and they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the abyss.

A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hill on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pig. And he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herds rushed down to the the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When those standing the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this to the town and countryside and the people went out to see what has happened.

When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the geyser gerazines asked Jesus to leave them because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. The man with from whom the demons had been gone, had gone.

Sorry. The man from whom the demons had gone out beg begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away saying, return home and tell how much god has done for you. So the man went away and told all over the town how much Jesus had done for him. Thank you very much, Sophie. Let's pray again together and, do turn back to Lucate if you've closed it.

Father, we want to thank you for this gospel, and we thank you for Luke, the doctor, the historian for the careful eyewitness accounts that he put together. And, we thank you that his intention was to show us Jesus, to show us him in his glory and his power that we might follow him. And we pray that as we look at these stunning, amazing scenes this evening, that you would move our hearts with the greatness of our lord and savior and that we might be challenged and encouraged by the challenges and encouragement that are here. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Oh, man.

Well, we're now in the second half of May, and, that means summer summer is approaching. And, that means that many of us, maybe have already or certainly will be soon, going on holiday. And, 1 of the things that Brit love to do on holiday is to be beside the seaside. I don't know if you've got any seaside holidays planned, but, according to some research that I was reading this week, 27 percent of British people book a seaside holiday. That is what they want to be by the sea compared to just 9 percent of people.

Who would opt for a city break instead. And there's lots of reasons for that. I think there are many, really, but for for lots of people, there is just something about the sea. Isn't there? Maybe it's the connection to childhood, the nostalgia of being by the see reliving old family holidays and in enjoying a life that you once knew.

For others, it's just relaxing. To walk beside the sea and to look out for miles and miles and to feel as small as a grain of sand and to wonder what is going on in the world and to be away from the pollution and the cityscape and all kinds of things. Others like going for the water sports, you know, lo loads of reasons we we go. But for lots of us, we wouldn't consider a holiday to be a real holiday unless we've been by the sea. But not all cultures, have this love affair with the ocean.

Even though quite a large percentage of the world lives in coastal margins, they do so for economic reasons. They don't do so because they love it. In fact, for many people, the ocean doesn't mean strolls along the pier listening to the brass bands, with a stick of rock. It means, flooding, it means devastation, it means storms, it means typhoons, it means loss of property. It's it's not a good place to be, really.

And actually, the further you go back in history the more common that idea was about the sea. It's so difficult for us to understand, but for many ancient cultures, The idea of body boarding and paddling and being by the sea would not have been pleasant. They would have seen the ocean as a very destructive and frightening place to be. And the Hebrews, the Israelites, were 1 such culture. To them, the big ocean blue, the wide open sea, was not a playground in which you could frolic and enjoy life.

It was a place of chaos and danger and fright and even evil. In the creation story, right at the beginning of the bible, we're told that the earth was formless and void. It was formless and void to begin with. There was no light. There was no shape.

There was no order. But there was water. So you can imagine it before god went to work by his spirit, that same spirit was hovering over creation, And what was creation, it was a vast chaotic black ocean, a watery chaos. In their poetry, they spoke of great sea monsters like leviathan, who were mysterious, really, in their nature, but they were dwellers in this chaotic world. They were dangerous.

They were sea creatures that lived out in the the unknown, and they were connected to the underworld in some way. And it wasn't just them. The Babylonians actually had a similar idea. So they believed in this god called Tearmat, which was a, a watery dragon. It was a god of chaos who created 11 other sea monsters to live in the in the ocean, in this underworld, in this place of fear.

So you see, for many cultures, particularly these ancient ancient ones, the ocean was was was not somewhere that you would want to go. It was a place of chaos and darkness. But of course, in the Bible, unlike in these pagan religions, the 1 true god was always seen to be sovereign over the watery chaos, sovereign over the darkness that dwelt in the deep. Have a look at this verse from Psalm 74 on the screen. But god is my king from long ago.

He brings salvation on the earth. It was you who split open the sea by your power. You broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. In the exodus story, if you know that, it's not it's not a coincidence, that after leaving Egypt, they pass through the Red Sea.

They go through the Red Sea. That's not an accident. Yahweh in that story is showing his lordship both over the evil of pharaoh and over the watery chaos. He leads them out of 1 darkness, slavery, and through another darkness, the ocean. Right at the end of the Bible, we read this about the new creations, 1 of the first things that we learn.

Revelation 21 1, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Now some people get very upset by that because they think of all their holidays that they've enjoyed by the sea and they can't believe that they would be robbed of the ocean for all eternity. And when where where where where will I stroll along the promenade? And that where will my stick of rock be? And goodness, will that mean no skinboarding?

You know, and, we don't like the idea, but it's not really there. I don't think to teach us there'll be no water of any kind. It's in line with this theology. It's in line with what we've been learning. When the new creation comes, there will be no more chaos snow more places of darkness and evil, no more uncharted territory, which poses a threat to us.

It'll all be gone. So unlike paganism, you can see that the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation says, god rules over these places. God rules over evil. He rules over chaos. And 1 day, it'll all be gone.

And with that, we come to our text this evening. In these 2 stories, we see basically an extension of what I've been saying. In these 2 stories which do belong together, Jesus, the god man is confronting the forces of chaos and darkness. Jesus, the god man, as he has been doing all the way throughout the Bible, is coming again to show his lordship over chaos. And so as we're gonna see, These are awesome stories in their own right, but they have a purpose.

And their purpose is to answer the question in verse 25. The question in verse 25, the disciples put to themselves, who is this? Who is this? These 2 stories are designed to answer that question. Who is this?

And so, firstly, I want us to see Jesus encountering a double dose of evil. Jesus encounters a double dose of evil. Have a look at verse 22 of chapter 8. 1 day, Jesus said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and set out As they sailed, he fell asleep.

A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him saying master, master, we're gonna drown. So to begin with, You can see that this may have been a very beautiful scene. You can imagine them sailing out after a busy period of ministry listening to the watery waves lapping against the side of the boat, hearing the woods creak as it relaxes in the cooler temperatures. Creaking along gently on the still waters chatting about the last few weeks of ministry and the things that they'd seen and the things Jesus had done.

But then, all of a sudden, and Matthew literally says without warning, without any warning, they are blasted with this incredible storm. The phrase in verse 23 that has translated his squall literally means a windstorm of wind. It was a windstorm of wind. If you didn't know what a windstorm was, it's of wind. It's a windstorm of wind.

Luke says it 3 times in just this very short story 3 times he draws our attention to the wind. It was obviously a huge part of his eyewitness account as he was interviewing his people and putting the gospel together. They kept talking about the wind. There was this furious, intense windstorm of wind. Throwing their boats around.

I remember years ago watching the film twister. Does anyone seen seen the film twister? Great, great film, particularly when the tornado goes through a farm and hurls a cow, you know, kilometers away, and it's just a brilliant, brilliant film. And, I was thinking when I was younger watching it, what a cool job that would be, to be given the task of chasing tornadoes. That was that was that you were employed just to wait for the latest latest tornado to get in your car chase it and to throw some measuring instruments into it.

And, I thought, how cool that would be? To be so close to extreme power, to be so close to such a devastating force, knowing that you would just put a hundred meters further on, you would be in the eye of hell itself. And the disciples have gone that extra hundred meters. They are now in the middle of the storm, and it's hard for us to imagine what it must have been like. These mountains of dark water swelling up all around them.

1 minute, it was like they were in a roller coaster carriage. Climbing steeply up to the top of the lip of the crest of the wave. And in the next minute, it's like they were in a lift that was in free fall. Just plummeting down to the bottom of the wave. They would have been water pouring into their boat way quicker than they could ever get it out.

And where is Jesus at this point? Well, spot the odd word out. Squall, swamped, great danger, drown, raging waters, asleep. Which word doesn't belong in the sentence? Squall, swamped, great danger, drown, raging, waters asleep.

If there is just 1 detail in this whole section, which shows the difference between the chaos and the storm and the sovereign lord of the storm. It's that detail. He was sleeping in the boat. I just don't know humanly how that was possible. I mean, I remember last time, myself and Pete went to Belarus were actually taking off in, in in storm, 1 of these storms.

I can't remember which 1 it was now. And, it so happened that the winds were so severe on the morning that we were due to part that a number of flights had already been canceled that morning, and we were flying out to Frankfurt first, and a flight to Frankfurt had already been canceled to the 1 before ours And so I couldn't believe that our flight was actually going ahead, if others were being canceled. And, it was incredible. As we took off, I mean, I'm not a very keen flyer anyway, just a little bit of turbulence, and I think that's the end. But we were taking off, and we were the the wind was terrible.

We were you know, sailing around as we were going up through the through the and I was looking around, and I was petrified, you know, gripping my hand rest chomping on my boiled suite, trying to memorize Psalm 23 and pray it in in my mind. And I was looking around, and there was there was other people just, you know, chill, you know, on their laptops or chilling out, sleep, you know, ordering drinks, just having a little doze eye patches down. And I was thinking, you know, these these are probably unbelievers, and, they're so confident, you know, so confident in the face of this storm. And, I was thinking, what is going on? How could you possibly sleep or rest or enjoy leisure?

In the face of almost certain death. And I think the disciples have got something similar in their mind. How is it possible that he could be sleeping? As the chaos raged against them, Jesus was asleep. But remember, this is a double dose of evil that we're dealing with here.

And so now what I want us to do is to move on to the next storm. We've been in storm number 1, and now I want to paint a picture for you of storm number 2. Have a look at verse 26. They sailed to the region of the Geresines, which is across the lake from Galile Lee. When Jesus stepped to shore, he was met by a demon possessed man from the town.

He was met by a demon possessed man from the town. And and already, Luke is trying to show us that we are entering another storm. Already, Luke is trying to show us that this is scary because verse 27, I think, implies that this man was near the shore already. He was near the shore as if he had seen Jesus coming, and was preparing to meet him. As if he'd seen him from the tombs in which he lived on the horizon coming over, and there was a sense in which he knew what was coming and was itching to come and confront this 1 who was coming across the lake.

And was going to wait for him. And so you see already, Luke is absolutely clear. We have not left the store. We've not left the storm. We've just moved from 1 type to another.

And we see that in verse 27 second half of verse 27. For a long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. And then just turn over to 29, second half of us 29, where Luke carries on the description. Many times it had seized him. And though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains, and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

This man's life was a wreck. He was in a storm of chaos and evil. It's interesting when you read as we will later the conversation between him and Jesus, It's actually hard to know who's speaking. Is it the man speaking or is it the demon speaking? And I think that's the point The point is to say it's now hard to tell.

His life has been so dominated by evil His life has been so become so miserable. He's so mingled now with darkness. It's hard to know who's who. He's naked. He lives in the tombs.

He is alone. Mark tells us in his story, that he would howl and cry out by night as he wandered around the tombs. He would find rocks and lacerate himself and cut himself and destroy himself. He was a menace to society. The townspeople were told had sent teams to try and bind him.

I mean, you you imagine that groups of people, presumably strong capable people, presumably, you wouldn't send your weakest members to do this job. These were probably the earliest strongest of your townsfolk And they had tried to bring him under control, but he had snapped metal chains as if they were straw. If you lived in the decapolis, these these 10 10 cities, and you were a small child going out to play during the day, your mother would say, Be home by 5, and don't go near the tombs. Don't go near the tombs. This man was a menace.

1 Bible commentator says says this. I put the quote on the screen. This poor, naked man was a mass of bleeding lacerations, scabs, infections, and scar tissue. Living in a delirium of pain and displeasure. The man was wild, naked, unkempt, and ill.

And as a result, all were against him. In his lucid moments, he surely realized how repulsive unloved and unwelcome he was. He was dehumanized, animalized, marginalized, frightening and fearful. What incredible misery? That was his condition, right in the middle of the chaotic storm of darkness.

Now, of course, as we know today, evil is not always this obvious, is it? It's not always this clear 2 Corinthians, in fact, tells us that sometimes Satan can even masquerade as an angel of light. And the point there is not everyone who is under the influence of this kind of evil will be so out of control and violence. So obviously howling out But Luke is trying to teach us a bigger point with these 2 stories. Whatever form it takes, evil, destroys chaos disorders.

And that is the real tragedy. Of this man. The real tragedy of this man was not his mental or physical symptoms. It's his spiritual condition. That's the real tragedy.

The Bible tells us that the spirit filled life is 1 of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Rightsness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, this man was the direct opposite. And so you see as Jesus gets into the boat in verse 22, he enters 1 type of storm, when he comes out of the boson onto the shore, he enters another type of storm. This is a double dose of evil that he has encountered Secondly, though, I want us to see that Jesus conquers a double dose of evil. Have a look with me now at the second half of the first story verse 23 chapter 8.

As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him saying master master, we're going to drown. He got up, and he rebuked the wind and the raging waters. The storm subsided, and all was calm.

No process involved. There doesn't seem to be any slow calming of the waters. You know, the wind disappears. But after a couple of hours, the waves just disappeared too. It's instant it's instant calm.

Instant calm. And what is interesting, I think, here, is that Jesus rebukes the wind. Now, some people think that that is just a poetic description of what happened here. But when you read it in connection with the other story, and with the Hebrew understanding of the sea, there may well be something satanic about this storm. I mean, you think about what is about to happen.

Jesus is about to go into this new region He's going to step onto the shore, and he is gonna win a decisive victory over evil. Thousands of demons are gonna be cast out and destroyed. A man's life is gonna be saved. That man will then go and preach Jesus. In the cities.

That's a great victory for Jesus. Is it something that Satan would want? Now look, that's not to say that every time you see a gust of wind in your garden, it's satanic. But it seems that something like that is going on here. He rebukes the storm in the same way he drives out the demons.

In both of these stories, there is a confrontation with evil And in both of these stories, Jesus comes out on top. We see it again in verse 28 to 29. What a wonderful moment this is. When he saw Jesus, 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. For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. And then look at verse 30. Jesus asked him, what is your name? Legion, he replied because many demons had gone into him.

And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the abyss. A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and was drowned. When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town in the countryside and the people went out to see what had happened.

When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at Jesus' feet. Dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Once again, the raging, stormy, chaos is replaced by calm. Naked, now closed. Running around the tombs, now sat peacefully.

Standing on the edge of the shore, ready to fight, now sitting in submission. Possessed out of control in his right mind, crying out at night, verse 39 preaching Jesus. What is the spirit life, righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit, and now he has it. And once again, Luke is saying there is only 1 way that this can happen and it is at the word of Christ, the conqueror. Doesn't matter how many demons there are, Some people suggest that this word legion refers to a Roman legion and that there could have been up to 6000 demons possessing this man, because that's the maximum size a Roman legion could be.

6000. You can imagine them all looking out through the man's eyes at Jesus. 6000. But that is no issue. In fact, even if every demon in the cosmos was lined up on the edge of the shore, ready to confront Jesus, they would fall in submission to his word.

And here's the thing, they know it They know it. They have a faith of some kind. It's interesting, isn't it? They believe in god. They know that Jesus is the son of god.

They know that Jesus can banish them to the place of torment. They know that Jesus is the ultimate judge, It's not a saving faith. It's not a faith which loves these things about Jesus and treasures these things about Jesus. It's a faith which hates these things about Jesus, but they know the facts. And just like the storm, they know they must submit.

So Jesus encounters evil, but he also conquers evil. When faced with the worst chaos that we could imagine Jesus brings calm. Jesus transforms verse 25. Who is this? This is the lord of darkness and chaos.

That is the main takeaway point. But Luke has not written this so that we can just sit comfortably eating our popcorn watching on as Jesus does these incredible things. We also need to see that this lord not only confronts evil. He fronts the onlookers. He hasn't just got a word for the chaos.

He's got a word for the crowds. And that is what I want us to see now in this third points, Jesus turns to the onlookers. And before we see that in this passage, I want us to go back in time very briefly to the story of Jona. And the reason I want us to go to the story of Jona is because there's something in that first chapter, which is like a key that in locks so much treasure in versus. So don't worry about turning to it because I've got it on the screen, and I'll put it up in a minute.

But just if you if you're unsure about the story of Jonah, it's about this feisty prophet, a feisty prophet tucked away in the middle of the old testament, who is running away from the lord. The Lord has called him to go and preach the word to nineveh. Now nineveh was chaos. Nineveh was darkness. Nineveh was a city of evil, and Jonah really, really, really did not wanna go there, and he really, really did not want them to experience god's grace.

Didn't want that for them. Judge, amen, grace, no. And so he finds the first ship he can find going the furthest away from nineveh that he can go, he gets on it, and he sails. But was the lord going to allow that? Now, and so he sent a storm to stop Jonah in his tracks, to turn him around, and to get him to do what he was meant to do.

And I wanna pick up the story here in chapter 1 verse 4. It's quite a long reading, but I think it is, very helpful, on the screen. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god, and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

The captain went to him and said, how can you sleep get up and call on your god. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. Then the sailors said to each other come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity. They cast lots and the lot fell to Jonah. So they asked him, tell us who is responsible for making all this trouble for us.

What kind of work do you do? Where'd you come from? What's your country? From what people are you? He answered, I'm a Hebrew, and I worship the lord, the god of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

This terrified them. And they asked, what have you done? They knew he was running away from the lord because he'd already told them so. The sea was getting rougher and rougher. And so they asked him, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?

Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied, and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to row back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the lord. Please, Lord.

Do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man. For you, lord, have done as you pleased, then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the lord and made vows to him. Now, what do you notice about those sailors?

In verse 5, they're afraid What are they afraid of? They're afraid of the storm. In verse 16, they are greatly afraid. And who are they afraid of? They are afraid of the lord of the storm, and they worship him.

And that is what I want to call a fear replacement The fear of the storm is replaced by the fear of the lord who rules the storm and they worship him. Enter, Luke chapter 8, fear replacement. Verse 24. Master master. We're gonna drown.

We're gonna drown. We're going to drown master. Get up. Now, in 1 sense, they should not have been afraid at this point. Jesus had told them we are going to the other side.

It's not a debate. It's not a suggestion. It's not a maybe, we are going to the other side. He told them that they had seen many of his miracles and seen his power. So there's a rebuke here.

Why are you afraid? Where is your faith? But then look at verse 25. Of chapter 8. In fear and amazement, They asked 1 another, who is this?

He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him. Fear of the storm is replaced by this amazement, this fear of Christ who is Yahweh in the boat with them. Fear of the waters is replaced by fear of the lord of the waters, as it should be. Or verse 37, see it again in the next story. Now again, this this is a fear replacement But this is an extremely unhealthy fear replacement.

We've had 2 healthy ones, Jonah, first story. Now here's a very unhealthy fear replacement. Not a good 1. Have a look at verse 37. Then all the people of the region of the Garrison asked Jesus to leave because They were overcome with fear.

So he got into the boat, and he left. Now, isn't that weird? Which you not expect them to say, great. I know somebody who is sick. I know somebody who is suffering.

My mother, maybe Jesus could heal them too. Just like Jesus healed this person so powerfully, if Jesus could conquer a legion who is about the worst person we can imagine, suffering in the worst way that we've ever known, then he could probably help us in all the problems that we've got. Why don't they plead for him to come? Well, it seems that they don't want this kind of power around. I mean, if Jesus came to their town, he might change things, money.

He might stir things up. He might command something of my life. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Or he might do as great financial harm. See what he did to the pigs?

2000 pigs ain't cheap. You know, we're already on hard times. Jesus is gonna chuck us into a recession. If he comes here and keeps damaging our property, well, we don't want that. And so they beg him to leave.

That is not a healthy fear replacement. That is not the fear of faith that is the fear of unbelief that they have taken on. Amazing, isn't it? To begin with, They were afraid of this man. This man, they couldn't control.

This man, they this man, they exiled to the tombs. But now they're afraid of Jesus who has power over that man, but they don't want to worship him. They want him gone. Not a good fear replacement. And so you can see as we begin to wrap up, The question that Luke is confronting us with as we look on at this kind of lord is what is our reaction to him.

Does it lead us to worship him? Does it fire up our affections for him? Does it humble us as we see his power over darkness, does it make us wanna bow before him and say, Who is this? I love this. This is awesomely powerful and great.

I wanna sail through even the worst storm as long as he's with me? Or do you want to observe this Christ from a distance? But the idea that he might come to your town and start commanding things of your life and start demanding your submission and worship. Is just not an attractive idea. Luke puts this crowd in as a warning.

Don't respond to Jesus with this unhealthy fear because if you beg him to go, then he will. He gets in the boat. That's it. He's gone. Instead, we should ask for the fear of faith.

That is the take home idea. But as well as that, there is a challenge and an encouragement, 1 challenge, and 1 encouragement. The challenge is this As you look back on your Christian life, you can probably remember times where Jesus has shown his power and grace in your life. You can probably remember tangible moments where the lord has been with you, where the lord has guided you and helped you and answered your prayers where the Lord has come through for you. And when you look back, you say, well, I didn't see it then, but yes, the lord, the lord was being kind.

The lord was at work there. And yet when the fresh storms come, the storms which threaten our faith in some way, maybe downturns, unexpected bad news, often we can believe that Jesus has vacated the boat. Often we can believe that he is gone. Even though past experience should teach us differently, even though we should have learnt from what he's done before, it's easy to start believing that he is asleep and that we're going to drown. And if that is us, we need to hear the challenge of verse 25 Where is your faith?

Where is your faith? But this is also an encouragement. Because perhaps you're here, and you do feel a little bit like this man, even though it's very hard for us sympathize with him. Perhaps you feel that like this man, you've thrown yourself so deeply into sin, and the scars are so obvious that you've given up on the idea that you could ever be restored. Maybe you can actually identify things And you're saying to yourself, there's no way out.

Evil and sin have ruined my life I can never imagine myself training changing. And so here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to be a polite member of society, But in reality, I'm going to be alone in the tombs. But Luke has put this here to show us that Jesus banishes evil, and with a word, you can be restored. Jesus banishes evil.

Jesus orders the chaos. And that is so that is so important for us, pastorally, as believers, but it's so important for us to understand generally because the reality is This man, of course, had a particular spiritual condition. But by nature, he is a description of us all. And if you're not a Christian, that may come as quite a shock to you, but it's true. The Bible declares without embarrassment that by nature, we are born dead in our sin.

By nature, we are born ruined by evil. Dead to the things of god and yet alive to the works of darkness, alive to the works of the evil 1. So hard to see, isn't it? When we walk around because we're, you know, look look pretty good and look fairly normal and reasonably prosperous. Nothing untoward about us to look at, but spiritually, it's true.

Without exception, we are sinners, And without exception, we are alive to evil, devastated by evil. And yet this Christ can restore us. That's the encouragement for us here. This man's story can be our story. This man's restoration can be our restoration.

What Jesus did for him, he can do for us. He died to secure it He died to make it possible. You see, on the cross, Jesus died for our sins, but he also died and rose to show his victory over chaos, his victory over darkness, his victory over evil, the bonds with which Satan could damage sin and death. He breaks at the cross, and now who can bring any charge against god's elect. No 1 because the charges are paid for.

Those who have trusted Christ, have experienced what this man experienced. We have been clothed in righteousness, whereas before we were naked in our sin. We have been transformed by the renewing of our minds, whereas before we used them to rebel. Jesus has given us this sense of calm which only he can, the calm that comes when we are restored to god. In Psalm 23, it's just a wonderful Psalm.

And we're told that the lord, the shepherd of his people, makes us lie down in green pastures, and he leads us beside still waters. You see, they were very afraid of the sea and the raging storm. But if the lord was with you, the waters went calm. If the shepherd was with you, the waters were still. The chaos was ordered.

So as we close this story, I wanna ask, where are you with this Jesus? If you're a believer, as you feel humbled and in awe of him again, if you're a believer and you feel like you struggled and you're alienated from god in the tombs, Do you see his power to restore you once more to bring calm to you again? And if you're not a believer, Firstly, do you understand your spiritual condition? But secondly, do you understand that this Christ walks off the pages of scripture this evening? And he can bring calm to your soul as well.

Let's take a moment to pray. Perhaps you'd like to bow your heads and talk to the lord about anything that you've heard from his word this evening, and then I'll lead us in a prayer. Father, we want to praise you for your son, the lord Jesus. And we thank you that he is god, truly god, and truly man. We thank you that he came into this world of chaos and darkness and evil, and throughout his life.

Time after time, he showed that he was the lord of those things, that he banished and conquered and defeated and calmed chaos. We thank you lord Jesus that these stories are not just here for us to observe but for us to experience. We thank you that you can calm us that so many of us can say, yes, my life was devastated and ruined by evil I had given myself to a life of opposition. But the savior came and the savior called me, and the savior sat me at his feet and the savior renewed my mind, and the savior clothed me in his righteousness, and the savior sent me home to preach. Thank you that so many of us can tell that story as our own story.

And we pray that for all of us, and that you would help us to go away remembering that this is the god we serve, awesome god. Lord overall, we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.