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Out of the Tombs! (Part 2 of 2)
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone, California, United States
Delivery: 2007-08-05 02:46Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2007-08-05 02:46Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kir-oott2.php
Last week we learned some things about the incident where Jesus crossed the sea of Galilee and freed the demoniacs. But there is a good deal more. Today, then, we return to gather up some of it.
You will recall that Jesus was seeking a respite from His labors for Himself and His disciples, but that His Father led Him directly to this desolate place where two who had been possessed by demons were longing for deliverance but trapped. Jesus casts out the demons, and in doing so, heals the men.
Jesus, the Tormenter?
The demons immediately know who Jesus is. They acknowledge Him. They ask Him not to torment them (Mark 5:; Luke 8:28; cf. Matthew 8:29). What? Yes, not to torment them. Demons are angels who have chosen selfishness. They have rejected kindness. They have rejected self-control, they have chosen to be rebels. We understand from the Bible that they made these choices with a clear knowledge of God and His goodness. They have committed themselves to their choice. Thus, God knows and they know that they are destined for destruction. But before God takes this step of actually destroying them, He has given them time to demonstrate what they are made of. Time to show that they refuse to repent. Hence, in the present incident, demon possession.
The universe is not morally neutral. There is good and there is evil; there is right and there is wrong; there is truth and there is error. Ideas have consequences, actions impact others, and those whom we meet are either enriched by the encounter or not. Even religious viewpoints that may in certain ways be very different from the Christian view have some points of agreement. Often they will agree that from good flows more good, and from bad flows more bad. That is, they will agree that there are two poles, one positive and one negative, toward which we may journey.
Seventh-day Adventists, carefully studying their Bibles, conclude that there is no place called hell where lost beings will be endlessly punished. The theory that there is, is a fiction, an unbiblical virus imposed on Christianity from outside, from Greek culture. God does not punish for eternity a being who has sinned for sixty or seventy years. God is just, and any actual punishment meted to the lost, be he man or demon, will be proportional to his acts (Proverbs 24:12; Jeremiah 25:14; Matthew 16:27; 2 Corinthians 11:15; 2 Timothy 4:14; Revelation 2:23; 20:12).
The concept of Jesus tormenting fallen angels may at first seem alien to us. But we want to keep in mind that these are chosen rebels who have harmed others. God could simply blot these creatures out of existence when the time came for them to be destroyed. He could have told us that when they would be annihilated, “they would not feel a thing.” But He did not. Jesus actually said there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” for those who choose to be hurtful. The demons had tormented others; in the end, they will themselves be tormented. Was God so wrong when He warned, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”?
Actually, though, when God destroys the rebel angels, He will be acting in mercy, for in the universe purified, they would not be comfortable, they would not fit in, their philosophy of self-first could never mesh with the society in which every being is acting in compassion and unselfishness. And if there is a judgment and the evil are condemned for their evil as a result of their culpability, and will ultimately be destroyed for their evil, then there must come some time when they experience the just result of their evil.
Our sins will find us out (Numbers 32:23). There is a time when our deeds catch up to us. The fallen angels have made their choice. But we are making ours now. This life is our time to choose. In some systems of belief one has numerous lifetimes to grow into a compassionate person. Eventually, perhaps after thousands of years, it is anticipated that he finally will mature into a kind person. But there is a problem with that: we call it procrastination. One can persist in indulging sin now, for he will, inevitably, have another lifetime in which to change course.
In the Christian worldview, God also allows free choice. People can choose to procrastinate. But they only have one life to do it in. In other words, the harm that one can do to others, and to oneself, is limited to one lifetime’s worth. The universe is not made to suffer interminably while we slowly work our way through a process that hopefully lands us in the end as a kind and mature person.
“Send Us Into the Pigs”
When Jesus showed up, the demons knew what almost certainly would come next. And they had a contingency plan. They asked Jesus to send them into the pigs. He permits them to go, the pigs are then either possessed or spooked, the whole herd runs off the cliff and are drowned as a result, the owners are unhappy because of the financial loss, and the locals come out to urge Jesus to leave them. So you ask, why did Jesus let the demons go into the pigs?
These dead pigs have to be chalked up to Jesus, don’t they? Are they not His fault? So let’s consider the pigs.
I am not going to say to you that animals are people too. They are not. But they are animate creatures, they are part of God’s creation, they do experience pain, feelings of affection, and loyalty, and fear. Science shows us that in many ways, biologically, they differ little from ourselves. They are valuable. They have distinct personalities. The Bible, in fact, offers a series of directives for how to treat your animals. They are to be treated with compassion. The tradition in Judaism is for the animals to be fed before their owners. But Jesus allows the demons to enter the herd.
Let’s get something straight; in the Bible, a prepared place for humankind is the ultimate object of the creation. In the first days of the six day creation, the earth is fitted up, item by item to be a proper domain for a moral being—humankind. Finally, the last thing created is man. Then the Sabbath which was made for man. Man alone is made in the image of God, that is, with a conscience and the capacity to choose to do righteousness. Therefore, while we share much with the animals, revelation teaches that in God’s created order, man is superior to all other species. Man has precedence over the beasts. But because of his very privileges, he should treat the animals with care and compassion and gentleness. His very superiority demands of him that he treat the animals with the tenderness that should be found in him. Man is superior to the animals.
Because of his greater intellectual and spiritual gifts, much more is required of man. For a man to be reduced to carrier of an inconsiderate, selfish, evil being, is a terrible offense. Bondage is offensive to God. Man was made to be free. If there is any just way for Jesus to deliver man into freedom, He will do it, and He did it gladly with these two demon possessed men. While we might feel an injustice was done to the pigs, let us reserve judgment for now, and return to this in a few moments.
Clothed and In His Right Mind
The result of the removal of the demons was immediate. When they came to see what had happened, they found the former demoniac now, “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind” (Luke 8:35). This is where we all should be. Sitting at the feet of Jesus, ready to serve, ready to learn, ready to be shown how to be compassionate; teachable.
Another effect brought by Jesus will be renewed self-possession. The man is no longer driven about by whims and fancies and self-destructive urges. There are outward indicators of the inward peace. Immodesty becomes modesty. His dress changes from what might have been convenient to what is appropriate. Christians tend to more modesty, not less, more reserve, less display. Instead of making oneself prominent, there is a desire to make Jesus prominent.
Being in your right mind is quite an asset. How many times have we done something, and later explained it by admitting, “I must have been out of my mind.” In other words, I made an extraordinarily poor decision which I now recognize. The delivered men, sitting at jesus’ feet, must have thought this exactly. “I must have been out of my mind to dally with sin.” But now they sit at the feet of Jesus, delivered, restored, freed.
The Response
Turning to the reaction of the pig-herders and the local citizens, it seems that Satan won this round. The people are afraid of Jesus. They gather round Him and His disciples, urging them to leave. They are thinking of their great financial loss. As usual, the presence of those whom God is using has disrupted old patterns, interrupted lives, launched an earthquake among the people, worked to bring certain issues to the surface. Things can never be the same again. When God acts, He makes history. This was a bit of local history.
And so, word is spread in the city and in the country. Soon, virtually everyone in that area is on the scene. They see the men sitting at Jesus’ feet. They hear recounted the events of that morning. In the distance, dead pigs line the lake shore, visual object lessons floating on the waves. The people’s response? Fear. Fear, because their every day routine has been broken up; fear because the herd of pigs is dead; fear because of the obvious power that has been exercised. True, now they need no longer fear the demoniacs, but the fate of the demoniacs doesn’t loom so large yet. Their minds are full of fear, and they plead for Jesus to leave that country.
That is the setting for what happens next.
Jesus is Lord of Heaven and earth. It is His by creation, and, in short order (at the time described in the gospels), it will be His by redemption. He is the source of their life and of every ray of light that shines upon them (John 1:9). And yet, at their urgent plea for Him to leave, irrational though it is, unfair though it is, unwise though it is, insulting though it is, Jesus, without further discussion quietly turns, and boards the boat to leave.
He will not force them to receive Him. If you ever hear that philosophy, that attempt to force you to become a Christian, you can be sure that it is not the teaching of Jesus that you are hearing. Jesus forces Himself on no one. He respects the free choice He has given to us. He forces no man to serve Him.
So what do you think the men who formerly had been possessed of demons want to do? They want to stay with Jesus. They want to serve. They want to learn from Him.
Now, here they are. They have just finished a long run possessed by demons. Just now, you would think, is an ideal occasion to start a series of Bible studies. At the very least, give them a quick weekend seminar on righteousness by faith, or on the doctrines of salvation. Verse 38 surprises us: “But Jesus sent him away.” What? No seminars? No Bible studies? Not even a little booklet? What was Jesus thinking!
Jesus knows that for now, the crowd are beyond reasoning. But He looks and sees at least two locals who are rational. The men who had been possessed by the demons are listening to all with rapt attention, recounting their deliverance accordng to opportunity and receptiveness. The locals know them, they have chained them, they have been attacked by them. Now the men are free. The Gergasenians cannot hear Jesus right now. But when they regain some rationality, Jesus will have missionaries in place…
Now, Back To the Pigs...
Try this: as a byproduct of the demons being cast out of the men, the pigs died. But the men were freed. They proceeded to tell their story of bondage and then deliverance throughout the region. They could tell their experience of deliverance. The locals were all too familiar with them, and they could see for themselves that something extraordinary had happened. The loss of the pigs was further evidence that Jesus had exercised His authority and was able to cast out unclean spirits. The death of the herd offered corroborating evidence that something had happened.
It was not Jesus’ words, but the words of their own countrymen, that impressed the people of the region, and lent them an openness later that they would never have otherwise had. The best thing that could have happened for the former demoniacs, was for them to tell for themselves what they had experienced. They began to feel themselves men again as they labored to bring their story of Jesus compassion upon them to others. In themselves, in their deliverance, was the evidence of Jesus’ purposes. We should watch for opportunities to share with others what Jesus has done and is doing for us.
Remember, Jesus did not send them out to convert others. The conversion of others is not our work. That has been assigned to the Holy Spirit in connection with the free choice of all men. Nor did He send them out to force or coerce others. How, after themselves being possessed by demons, could they make the argument, Be delivered or we will force you to be delivered! That would be a message of force and bondage and coercion.
Jesus sent these men out, not to convert or coerce, but to be advocates. The word “advocate” means to call to, to speak in support of. These men were sent out as advocates of Christ. In that light, this statement rings richly:
As witnesses for Christ, we are to tell what we know, what we ourselves have seen and heard and felt. If we have been following Jesus step by step, we shall have something right to the point to tell concerning the way in which He has led us. We can tell how we have tested the promise, and found the promise true. We can bear witness to what we have known of the grace of Christ. This is the witness for which our Lord calls, and for want of which the world is perishing (The Desire of Ages p. 340).
There it is. We are to tell our experience. It is ours, uniquely ours. It is a gift to us from our God. He longs for us to tell it. If we have been following Him in close company, then no matter the situation, if a word is in order, He will give us precisely the most effectual talking points to bring enlightenment to the darkened soul.The counsel is strong. Without this witness, the world is perishing. What witness? Yours and my personal witness. This is the most effectual witness that can be given. We should be giving it. Let us redouble our efforts to live in company with Christ, and then to, without being obnoxious, tell others in a winning way about what God is doing in our hearts even now.
Conclusion
And so, we part from Gergesa. Back across the water, to the more populous land. And to so many friends, neighbors, acquaintances in need of the deliverance that we, individually, have experienced. So let us be aggressively following our God, testing His promises, receiving of the grace of Christ. And telling what we know. And God will be with us. GCO
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