Mark 2022

And in your booklets, you'll be able to see a reading from the bible. Now we're in this section of Mark's Gospel, this biography account about Jesus, and we're in a section where are these 4 amazing miracles that Jesus performs to show his authority over just about everything. And we're dropping in just this 1 maybe slightly strange sounding miracle in chapter 5 and then we're gonna hear that opened up and explained to us. So we're gonna read just chapter 5, the big bold 5 and versus sentence numbers 1 2 20.

They went across the lake to the region of the Garrison. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. The man lived in the tomb and no 1 could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No 1 was strong enough to subdue him.

Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he cry out and cut himself stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice. What do you want with me Jesus, son of the most high God. In God's name, don't torture me.

But Jesus had said to him come out of this man, you impure spirit. Then Jesus asked him, what is your name? My name is Legion. He replied for we are many and he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out to this in the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on their nearby hillside.

The demons begged Jesus, send us among the pigs allow us to go into them. He gave them permission and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd about 2000 in number rushed down the steep bank and into the lake and would drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside and the people went out to see what had happened when they came to Jesus. They saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there dressed and in his right mind and they were afraid.

Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon possessed man and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him but said, Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the decapolis How much Jesus had done for him and all the people were amazed.

Well, good morning. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the past of the church. And welcome to you, if you're visiting, particularly John and Emma's family. Great to have you with it.

And and Rubins, I should say. And lovely to welcome those new members in how how fantastic that is. Now as as Thomas said, we've been working our way through Mark's gospel. It is a fascinating gospel. And I do really recommend that Mark drama so you can get the whole thing.

It's nearly every word of Mark's gospel, and you really get a picture of who Jesus is, what he's claiming, amazing stuff, and also the reactions of people to Jesus, is is quite an extraordinary journey that we've been going through, and we've landed this thanksgiving service on a demon possessed man and it's not fair that I should have to do a Thanksgiving Service on this. And so All week I was thinking, I'll do something else to do something else. But we've got to keep pushing through this this gospel. And what where I mean, If you're not used to church, this is a very odd story, a demon possessed man. And so I sat down to write a talk on How do I write a talk on a Thanksgiving service?

And I thought, well, there'll be times where Rubin will be demon possessed. And and the family, John and Emma have to be like Jesus and calm him down. Maybe that's a talk but that isn't really where we're gonna go. We're gonna come to that story, and we won't spend too much time on it, but we will come to that story in a minute. But what I wanna do is to set the story in its context.

So you see that we do take the Bible very seriously and I think we'll see how relevant that story is of this demon possessed man for us. I hope so anyway. But let me begin by asking John and Emma. Emma's not here, so you can convey this. How are you going to teach Rubin?

And this is an important question I think for parents. How are you going to teach Rubin to navigate this world? So I'm gonna talk to you and but I'll look at everybody else. How are you gonna teach Rubin to navigate this world? This world is very beautiful.

But it's cruel. This world is full of wonders, but it has storms that brings destruction. This world has so many good things in it, but it has so many evil things as well. This world is full of so much potential, but it's also full of disease. This world has got so much life in it.

But everything dies. How are you gonna teach Rubin to navigate through a world like this? I think it's very important. Is there a big story? Is there a narrative to a world like this?

Or is it just fate? Is it just chaos? Are you just gonna teach him be a good boy, get your exams, you know, get a good job, maybe work in the treasury as well, maybe be the be the chancellor 1 day and die. Is that it? Is is that it?

A cycle of just work, sleep, bit of fun, or rolling on to death? What is it? What is it? What worldview are you going to teach Rubin? Now, I know that you're going to say the Christian world view and you've already made great promises there and that's really good.

But is that just a religious thing sort of stuck on to life? Is the Christian world view how we look at the world? Is it big enough to explain a world of good and bad? Is it a credible explanation of the world that will help Ruben to grow up and navigate through the world. Now I don't know about you, but there's been times in my life, and I guess there'll be a number of people that have experienced this.

There's been times in my life where something has happened that has made me think that's challenged what I believe and how I behave that has grabbed me and made me think differently. There's things happen. I remember a big 1 and some of you have heard me say this before. When I was a teenager, I wasn't a follower of the Lord Jesus anything but I was at a great party that young men would love to be at. I was a young man.

I was 18. It was in Eton. It was a party in Eton in a posh house in Eton. And it was a terrific party going on all night. But I remember going into the kitchen of this house to grab a bottle of drink.

And as I put my hand on the bottle of drink, almost audibly, it wasn't audibly, but almost audibly, the question came to me Is this it? Is this what life is about? Is there anything more than this? And it was like a punch in the face. And it grabbed me and I had to get rid of that thought and drink to get rid of it.

Or look at a baby like Rubin. When you see Ruben, it's fantastic that we nearly cried. He just yelled it together. It was beautiful. He did it.

He was looking at me, that's why. And it's very very hard to dismiss a little baby like that when you see a little baby as just simply a fortuitous occurrence of atoms. As an accident, and nothing more than that. Someone that's accidentally or some bunch of cells have come together into existence and just will easily go out of existence. It's very hard to say that when you see a little baby, isn't it?

Really? It challenges our thinking. You could stand up in a lecture theater and say, we're all an accident. But when you see a baby that. It's very hard to do that.

It's hard to send a card. What a nice little fortuitous occurrence of atoms that are here 1 minute and gone the next. Have a nice life. It's hard to believe that love for Ruben is just gray twitching chemicals in a gray matter, imbalanced. When you look at hands and feet, when you look at his unique fingerprints, it's suddenly easy to agree with the bible that he's fearfully and wonderfully made.

Challenges, isn't it? The great thinker and writer, CS Lewis. He writes about this type of experience. He's writing about those great times where you see something wonderful. You're experiencing something beautiful.

But suddenly, as soon as you've experienced it, it goes away like a puff of air. It's a bit like the experience is only a shadow of a reality that's really out there and he writes this. He says, For they are not the thing itself, the experience is the secondary thing. He says, for they are not the thing itself, They are only the scent of a flower we have not found. The echo of a tune we have not heard.

News from a country we've not yet visited. Even the beautiful experiences, seem to say there's something more. There's something more. Or to put it in the opposite opposite way, if any of you know the film the matrix. It's pretty old now.

I know. But there are glitches in the matrix that say hold it is everything well here. You know that? Sometimes, we're just getting on with life and suddenly something like a rubin. Or a question hits us.

I'm sure you've seen those videos on YouTube of sinkholes. Sinkholes that suddenly open up and a car falls in them. They're driving down a motorway, and a car suddenly falls into a sinkhole or a house suddenly collapses. Into a sinkhole. You've seen those things.

The ground seemed to be so firm We didn't know what was going on underneath. And suddenly a sync call opens up. Our foundations have fallen through. There's a question mark, a glitch in the matrix that makes us ask a question. Earthquakes, fault line.

They do the same thing. Volcano do the same thing in an opposite way. We think the world is fine and then suddenly a volcano erupts and bubbling lava comes up to make us say hold it. Under my perception of a nice, easy life are dangers. That challenged my very foundation.

That's what I want us to think about. That's what I want us to think about. Won't be long. Here's the first thing. We've got a couple of questions.

Is there something then wrong with the world that we live in. Is there something wrong with the world that we live in? As I say, along with the beauty and design, which makes you say when you see a ruben. Surely, there's a designer. Surely there's an architect.

Surely, there's an artist. Along with those beautiful things is fault lines, volcanic activity, sinkholes. And not only in the physical world, But in myself, in my own life, these things are meant to make us think. They're meant to make us question. They're meant to get our attention as if someone is trying to speak to us.

But we've been so taken up with nice things. We haven't heard before. Let me just go through things, and then we'll come to the passage. And then it won't take us long when we hit the passage. So don't think, oh, blimey.

He hasn't even started yet. Think of storms. We've just had Storm E and I love the names of these storms, Ian. I mean, theory me. Anyway, Stormy Ian has just hit Florida and Cuba and and places like that.

You've probably seen those things, but you know these storms come. We're in a wonderful world but then suddenly there's the horror of a storm, and particularly if you're in it. And they make us question. Is there something wrong? We often see the word why don't we on disasters when a tsunami or a storm's hit?

The camera always focuses on. Someone's written what I'm sure it's the the TV people, but they put it there with the flowers, don't they? And there's always a why? And that's part of what a storm does. They show us that we can't actually build heaven on earth.

Don't ever tell Rubin he can build heaven on earth. They show us that we're not completely at home in the world actually. We're not completely comfortable in this planet. And if you add personal storms to that, sometimes it it was like everything is against me and it makes us even ask a question about God when we've never considered God before. If there's a good god, why?

Interesting these things make us think. And behind those questions of course, is a desire for a world without storms? Someone asked this, why would we hunger or long for food if we were not made for food? Why would you have that feeling of hunger if you were not made for food? So why would we hunger for a world that's different to this 1 if there wasn't 1?

Or take evil. So many good things in this world that sometimes we just don't know who to say thank you to And that does lead people to God, and they want to say thank you. Praise someone for the good things. But there are terrible things, aren't there? That suddenly bubble up underneath us.

They're like a sinkhole in our in our belief system, in our foundations. And suddenly, we're forced to say, do you know what, there is right and wrong, there is good and bad, and there is evil. Think of the terrible things that go on in the world, glitches in our nice world glitches in our matrix, sinkholes, bubble up lava that people suddenly say, do you know what? I never thought this would happen in our neighborhood. Why didn't you think that?

Because you thought life was supposed to be ice, but suddenly the lathers come up and some nasty things happened in the neighborhood. I remember living in Chestington, and I don't know why anyone thinks nothing you know, nothing bad would happen in Chesington. You wanna live there? But I remember the reporters were down in Chesington down in Chestington with the cameras. And I I was walking along, and I thought I'm gonna be interviewed.

It was on French TV, actually. And I thought, yeah, I might as well get interviewed. And I heard a woman saying, I never thought that would happen in our neighborhood. And I was lining up to say, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often in our neighborhood, but I thought it would cheapen it a a little bit and then moved on with Sainsburitz. But think of the glitches.

You may not believe in absolutes, but when you hear what happened in Thailand Nursery, last week, you do? I mean, it's so horrible. I can't even read out what happened there. 3 hours of terror, 36 people massacred including 22 children stabbed to death. You have to say that's evil.

It bubbles up and you're forced to say, well, I didn't believe in absolutes, but now I do. Think of the chilling trial of Lucy Leppi. Now, she's not been found guilty yet, but The 32 year old nurse accused of murdering 7 babies and attempting to murder 10. It's awful. Even she's written a note about herself, which is true.

She as she, you know, it's true that she wrote it. I am evil. I did this. When you hear that, you have to say, there are absolutes, there are truths. I went to a wonder a couple of years ago, it was 1 of the most extraordinary times of my life.

I'd never openly burst out crying so often. It was uncontrollable tears. I went to a compound where 10000 people were murdered within an hour. I mean, even thinking about it, I can't tell you what I saw there. But even a ists in that country said the devil was at work in Rwanda.

When neighbors who grew up together loved each other, played together, were friends were massacring each other, something satanic. Well, think of Outswitch. Again, we asked why, and we hunger for justice. And behind those desires is a world without evil. Why would we hunger or long for food if we're not made for food?

The hunger feeling would be pointless So why would we hunger for a world that's different if there isn't 1? Or disease sickness and death Think about those things. The pandemic took us all by surprise, didn't it? And we learned lots of things there or the sadness of death when you have to bury half your heart. And when the dead person now, you have to lock away and put away from you.

The 1 that you loved and loved being near, now you have to put in a box and take them away. And again, we ask, we hunger for health and life, and behind those desires, is a world without death. Why would we hunger? Why would we long for food if we weren't made for food? The hunger would be pointless.

So why would we hunger for a world that's different if we weren't made for 1? That's my first question. There's something wrong with this world and it points us to something more. Here's my second question and I want you to remember to teach Rubin this. Does the bible show us a credible narrative that fits with what we see in our world.

Does the bible show us a credible narrative that fits? And I want to say it does. The Bible says that God made the world. That's why there's so much beauty. That's why there's so much artistic flavor to it.

That's why you have to say an architect built it. Look at the design and the in it's unbelievable. What this thing can do, this is not an accident. This is well designed and is an extraordinary bit of design. What a bit of kit this is?

Yeah? Look at the finger. Perfectly situated to go up the nose. Good design. The bible says God designed the world.

That's why there's beauty. But secondly, the bible says that we were made to thrive, and love, and enjoy, and grow in a relationship with God. But thirdly, the Bible says that we divorced God. We separated it from him. We gave our affections to another, an evil 1.

We gave our affections to a liar who tells us lies. Now we're in a world full of storms and evil and disease and death. But god says, there's hope. I've sent my son Jesus, and that's what Mark is presenting to That's why I want you to hear the whole of Mark in Mark drama. He's presenting Jesus to us.

And Jesus comes to change this world and show us that actually through and beyond death, there is great hope for a brand new world. And he says, I'll prove it while I'm on this earth. In chapter 3 of Mark's gospel, Jesus gives this very strange little parable. He's talking about not just evil but the face of evil. A satan, a liar.

He calls him the father of lies. This is his little parable. He says no 1 can enter a strong man's house without first tying him up and then he complundered the strong man's house. It's a funny little parable. But the strong man there is Satan, the liar, the 1 who spends a whole life lying to us.

That tells us that life should be just nice and simple. And there's a stronger man that needs to come in to plunder the strong man and untie the ropes that the strong man, the evil 1, has tied us in. To convince us that the matrix is good. There's a there's a stronger man, and that's Jesus. And in these 4 miracles, you see in this passage, and you'll see the whole passage, we just didn't have time to read it all out.

4 miracles of Jesus untying the bonds of this world and showing that he is a stronger man than evil. If you just look at the headings, Jesus calms a storm. Here's a storm, the disciples are in a boat. It's frightening their scared out of their wits. And in verse 39, the little number, Jesus stands up and looks at the storm and says be still.

With Jesus, there's no storms. In the new world, the sea is like glass, it's not a threat. And then the story that we're we will get to, but it and we won't take long over, but we will get to, of the demon possessed man. You see in verse 15, Jesus comes into this evil, and he says to this man be get get rid of the the demon and then in verse 15, The man is in his right mind and dressed. Jesus deals with a storm.

He deals with evil. No more evil, no more murder, no more lies, no more insanity. And then in the third story, You'll see Jesus deals with a sick woman. She's been diseased. And in verse 34, he says, go in peace and be free from your sufferings.

With Jesus, In this new world, no more strokes, no more cancers, no more depression or mental disorders, health and strength to do the will of God. And then in the last little story, you see there's a dead girl. She's 12 years old, and Jesus comes in and he says in verse 41, little girl I say get up and she gets up and she's alive. No more fear. No more decline in the body.

No more goodbye to loved ones. No more hello, lonely heart. And what Mark is trying to show us is that Jesus has come back into this world of eyes. The world that we sometimes think, oh, it's it's nice and comfortable, but these potholes keep popping up to show us something's wrong. Jesus has come and he will put it right.

So briefly, Let's look at this demon possessed man then. We're there. Yeah? We're there. Is it just Ruben will act like a demon, you've got to be like Jesus and calm him down.

Yeah? Good. Yeah. Or Emma. Let's blame it on her.

She's not here. That's her job. I've got to go to work, of course. And sort out the easy storm of the treasury or the demon and anyway so no. No.

No. No. No. Gosh. Let's just focus on this.

It's an extreme case of evil, isn't it? It's extreme, obviously, and it's there to show us that. This is a volcanic bubbling up. This is a massive sinkhole. This is a fault line going on in this man.

And he's beyond help. Look at verse 3 of chapter 5, the little number. This man lived in the tombs and no 1 could bind him anymore, not even with chains. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No 1 was going strong enough to subdue him, night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

Notice that he's chained but he's not chained. He breaks human chains, but this man really is chained and no 1 could subdue his strength. He's a strong man, not chained physically, but chained to evil. He's in a desperate situation. No 1 can help him.

He's cutting himself. He has no respect, no dignity, He's naked and there's no self awareness here. And Jesus comes into the situation and he thought we find out his name is Legion. He's a very violent man full of enormous evil. But Jesus comes and banishes the evil.

Look at verse 6. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. And he shouted at the top of his voice. What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? In God's name, don't torture me.

For Jesus has said to him, come out of this man, you're an impure spirit. Jesus comes into this evil situation of an uncontrolled man who's chained to evil who's strong, and he rescues this man from the strong man's hold. Look at verse 15. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Jesus brings sanity.

Now, I'm nearly done, but there's a twist in this story. There's something that's going to volcanic up into you. You may not like it. You may want to stamp on it, but be careful because it'll burn you. There's a glitch, a sinkhole to get our attention in this story.

There's evil, personified, and Jesus sorts it out. But look what happens, verse 14. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this to the town and the countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there dressed in his right mind and they were afraid And those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon possessed man and told about the pigs as well. They'd all chucked themselves over the cliff.

Look at verse 17. Then the people began to plead with Jesus, to do what? To leave their region. That's the twist in the story. Jesus, this amazing person who has changed this man's life, who's opened up a whole area that was shut down because of evil around it, has exposed the true values now of these pig farmers, of the town.

They want swine over a savior. They want animals over the authority of the king. They want revenue over redemption. They want hogs over heaven. They want this world over a new world and they plead As the demons begged to be thrown away, the same Greek word is used because this was originally written in Greek.

For the townspeople pleading, begging that Jesus would go away. These people who look so good are just good living pig farmers have been exposed by Jesus by this story of evil, that they're worse than a demon possessed man. The demon possessed man came out. To Jesus, they're saying, leave us alone. There's something about this of Jesus, I don't like this.

I think I'm quite a nice person. I'm not evil like the that nurse or the man in Thailand. But suddenly, when I think about evil and I think about Jesus and I think about God, suddenly those evils show me up. Am I that different? These sinkholes are meant to get our attention.

Do I want to follow God? No, they say. And they're even unhappy that evil has been cast out of the man. We call for justice. Do you want justice?

Do you want God to judge all the rights and wrongs in your life? See, these signals are tough all day. This is tough stuff, isn't it? Suddenly we're shown up. Ruben needs to hear these things.

The world is beautiful, but flawed. There's no heaven on earth. Stop building that. There are storms and evil and diseases and death, and the best of things are only foreshadows of some beautiful to come. And the worst of things are only pictures of the horror of living without God.

We need Jesus, and to ask him to go away according to the Bible. Is to side with the liar. We need Jesus. In our boat to help us face evil, to prepare us for diseases when we are going for surgery. To lead us through death, because he is the 1 that went through death, and rose again on the third day.

To bring us into a new creation. To ask Jesus to leave, is shocking. And therefore, my question to you is, are you shocked? Has there been some turbulence? Perhaps you're not as good as you thought you were?

Perhaps you need to turn to Jesus. At least ask the question before you stamp out or fill in the hole. Let's pray. Father we thank you that these words that we've just had read and preached to us really do explain the world that we live in and they account for the things that we see. Lord, we thank you that you have come in to this world that is scarred and wrecked with evil.

And that lord Jesus, you are the 1 who can restore. You are the 1 who can make it right. You are the 1 who can save. You are the 1 who can take people like us. Who think it's wise to ignore you and to bring us back into our right mind showing us Jesus and helping us to live for him.

Lord, we pray again for John and Emma and we pray for Rubin that they would bring him up to know your word and to know this precious savior. And that he would come to love and follow Jesus himself in Jesus' name, amen.