Fear of Jesus

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning, South Realsome Baptist Church. My name is Daniel Oster, and for those that stuck around after that warm introduction by my pastor, Drew Caperton, thank you. We are going to be in Mark 5:1 today if you want to get your Bibles ready. Now, Mark is a fast-moving gospel. It starts with Jesus' ministry and really focuses in on His power, a lot of miraculous events. And so we're going to look at one of those today and we're going to focus on how the power of Jesus causes fear, which forces us to respond. So the scripture today sets up a lot like the TV show, What Would You Do? And this is a show that's on ABC or NBC, one of the main channels. And essentially what it does is it takes actors and it creates a social scenario of events And then looks at how people around who are not actors respond to it. So for instance, I purposely watched a little bit of it this week and it was a oversized lady

who was working out and these fit young women were making fun of her. And then it was the reaction of people in the gym. And so you were seeing these people get really angry. You're seeing some people ignore. Some people just left because it was really uncomfortable. But then the cameras would go in and interview them and say, you know, what were you feeling during this time? So what we're going to do is we're going to take kind of a little bit of a bizarre event and we are going to do something similar. We're going to go in and look at each party there responded that's in the story today. So let's go ahead and set the scene with in verses one through five, Mark one through five, says, they came to the other side of the sea to the country of Gerasenes and when Jesus had stepped out of the boat immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore,

not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles into pieces. No one had the strength to do him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones." So we have a scenario here where you can imagine that people were fearful. They tried to contain this man and he was too strong. He broke the chains. And what we have is we're going to have Jesus and his disciples arrive. And so you can imagine the tension that we're going to see here. So let's read, let's go ahead and read verses 6 through 13 moving on. It says, and when he saw Jesus from afar, talking about the possessed man, he ran and fell down before him and crying out with a loud voice. He said, what have you to do with me Jesus son of the most high God I adore you by God do

not torture me for he was saying to him come out of the man you unclean spirit and Jesus asked him what is your name he replied my name is Legion for we are many and he begged him earnestly not to send them out to the country now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on a hillside and they begged him saying send us to the pigs let us enter them so he gave them permission and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd number in about 2000 rushed down the steve bank into the sea and drowned." So this is kind of a bizarre story takes place. You know I think what's really interesting is I imagine if you were to make a movie of this you would start with Jesus stepping out of the boat and this crazed looking man just running at him real aggressively and the camera goes to Jesus and the man running and Jesus and you kind of this tension is building and we see what happens was this response was fell down

and begged for mercy. One thing to point out is that the demons recognized Jesus they refer to him as the son of the Most High God and this is a this is a this is important because the disciples were even trying to figure out that Jesus was just a few verses before this in Mark 44 41 Jesus had calmed the storm and the disciples reply and this is in the boat ride to where they are now it says who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him so the disciples are trying to figure out what Jesus is and understand him and here we have the demons recognizing him as the son of the Most High God and when asked if their name is Legion which in those times usually referred to an army of numbering about 6,000, so that's a multitude of demons here. And they recognized Jesus as the Son of the Most High God, but the difference is even though that they know who Jesus was, they weren't submitted to His story, their

response was to be sent away. So however, when it comes to Jesus's authority, our initial fear can lead us, we can look at Jesus's authority and we can have boldness in who he is and who he is in our life. And this isn't uncommon that when we come to Jesus, there's some fear or uncertainty of who he is. He tells us over and over in the scriptures what he's done for us and that we can put our faith in him and have boldness and confidence in him. Ephesians 3, 11 through 12 says, this was the eternal plan which he carried out through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because of Christ, our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence. Romans 8:31 says, if God is for us, who can be against us? When I was middle school age, I would go spend weeks with my grandparents. And when I was with my mom's parents, my uncle lived nearby and he at the time

was playing Division I college basketball, six foot eight, and just a massive man. And during the summers, he'd go to the high school, he was open, he would go to the gym, work out while the high schoolers were there, people playing basketball. I'm going to the gym to play while he was working out. And I was real me, I was real shy, didn't get picked up. And if I did get out there, I was afraid to make mistakes. I never really shot the ball. But when he came and he'd pick me first and I would go, I'll be on his team. And all of a sudden I had confidence that I could make shots anywhere on that basketball court. And I was very confident in my ability. Now, my basketball ability did not change at all. I still was not making any of those shots. But what did change is I had my uncle to, if I missed a shot, he was probably under there to put it back in. And so I had confidence in what I did because of him.

And that's how we as believers can be with our confidence in Jesus' authority. You know, we serve Jesus that makes a legion of demons fall down and fear him. And that's the same Jesus that wants to walk hand in hand with us through life. And really what that should do that should help us subside our feelings of anxiety, loneliness, worry, or fear. So I think the thing first we can learn from the response of the demons is that Jesus's authority can allow us to can lead us into oldness. So let's take a look at the second response here in our story. We're going to look at verses 14 through 17. We'll stop in 16 but 14 says the herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country and the people came to see what it was that had happened and they came to Jesus and they saw the demon-possessed man and the one who had a legion sitting there clothed in his right mind and they were afraid and those who had seen it described it to

them what had happened demon-possessed man and to into the pigs. We'll start there. So you see you see the people that saw what happened ran into the town told everybody else what happened and they all came out to see it for themselves. So they came out and they looked and what did they see? They saw 2,000 dead pigs floating in a sea. They saw this possessed man healed and in his right mind and clothed. And so some potential reactions you might think would be maybe asking Jesus, who are you? Or maybe you know asking Jesus, you know, can you heal me or or hear a little of my family,

asking him or thanking him for healing the man. Well, let's look at what the response is here in verse 17. It says, and they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. So their reaction was for Jesus to go away. So they witnessed this powerful event and the reaction to Jesus was, please leave us. And you kind of ask yourself, why would that be? Well, 2,000 pigs were gone, dead. And that was, in that region, that was economy. That was money. Those pigs meant a way for them to make money. So we see here that there was a fear of his power which led to the fear of cost of what it meant to be with Jesus. If Jesus is around, what else might he take away from me? And this isn't a crazy thought because Jesus is really clear in his ministry about the costs of following Him. Two places in Luke, in Luke 9:23 through 24 says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily

and follow me. Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. In Luke 14:25 says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciples. So, I mean, these are sermons in their own right, but my point is that people don't wanna sacrifice things in their life to follow Jesus. And these things can seem small and insignificant. Something like my Sundays are the only days I have off. That's when churches, Christianity's not really for me. I don't want that. Christianity is just about a bunch of following rules. I'm not a good rule follower. Christianity is not for me. So what is missing here? Well, we shouldn't really minimize the people weighing the cost to follow Jesus, but in fearing the cost, they're not realizing the value of Jesus.

So let's imagine that your loved one is taken and locked away by kidnappers far away. And the police come to you and they say, look, you can get this person back, but there's some things you need to consider before you go. You might get hurt, you might get injured, you possibly could be killed. You're probably not really caring what those things are because you love that person so much, it doesn't matter. You're gonna chase after them, you're gonna go after them. So in your love for that person minimizes the cost that you face. And so when we can see the full value of Jesus, the cost is minimized by our love and admiration for Him. However, this starts with us learning more about who he is and what he did for us and our need for him. And we should make light of the difficulty in seeing Jesus's value. It's easy to say, Jesus is good, you should want Jesus. But here in the US, most Americans don't have a ton

of need, right? We'd say we're a good person, right? We believe in Jesus, we believe in a Bible, but maybe the lifestyle reflected. And so we only start to see the value of Jesus as we recognize who we were before He stepped in and saved us. And we see a really good picture of this in our last response. So let's look at verses 18 through 20. It says here, it says, as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged that he might go with him. And he did not permit him, but said to him, go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you and he went away and began to proclaim in the Diakkopilos how much Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled. So here we see our response from the man who was healed is he begged to be with Jesus and think about what he was before Jesus right

to go back to the verses before he was often bound with shackles and chains night and day he was among the tombs, he was alone, always crying out, cutting himself with stones, he was in a bad place. And this was a picture of a man trapped by evil with no hope, and we know that humans could not, the townspeople could not help him. He was helpless, he was hopeless. However, when Jesus stepped in and removed his shackles of evil, Jesus saved him. And so his response to Jesus was a fear to be without Jesus. If you were to tell this story to someone who may be out of context about a guy who was in this kind of way and a man came along and did this, they probably would understand why that man loved him and maybe even devoted his life to him. And so when we read this scripture, what we can easily miss is how much we are like this possessed man before Christ.

We forget the devastation and the damnation that the sin in our life causes and the separation it causes between us and God. So we don't see ourselves this broken, this naked, this vile and rejected worthless before Christ. But realizing that no one can, and realizing that no one can save us. But if we don't understand our need for Jesus, we'll never have a fear to be without Him. how Paul describes in Ephesians who we are before Christ and who we are after. It says in verse 1, starting in chapter 2 verse 1, it says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sin, in which you once walked, following the forces of the world, following the prince of the power of air, the spirit that is now work in the sons of disobedience, among whom all once lived in the passions of flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and in mind and war by nature, children of wrath,

the rest of mankind." And this is the important part. It says, But God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loved us, even when he was dead, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ. So look at the before and after picture of this. The But before is we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Jesus comes in, intercedes with his grace and mercy with his ultimate sacrifice. And it ends by saying that we are seated with him in the heavenly place with Christ Jesus. So like this man, Jesus healed, who brought nothing to the table, was not deserving what Jesus did.

We are like that as well. And we should be fearful to be without Jesus. Look what Jesus tells the man to do in verse 19. It says, go home to your friends and family and tell him how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So we see this natural of being saved, wanting to be with Jesus. And what does Jesus tell the man to do? He says, no, it's better for you to go and tell people what I have done for you, what the mercy and the grace that I've poured out. And I think this is an important message for us as well, is that us like the guy, follower of Christ, we have been saved. And I think that it's important that we live out a life that shows that we've been saved out of our own means, that nothing we deserve. And so that looks like telling people outside just church people, church people that you've seen on Sundays, but in your normal conversations,

talking about what the Lord has done for you, the way the Lord has answered prayers. Maybe also somebody in your church has stepped out and just has really just sacrificed for you or done something really nice and just attributing it to the Lord. Our conversations should be seasoned with this. On Saturdays, Drew mentioned it in the announcements earlier, Daniel Sutor leads an initiative here to go out and we asked five questions and we're trying to say it many homes in Burleson. And one of those questions, before you read the gospel to them, is how would you describe your relationship with God? And honestly, that's probably the question that gets kind of everybody off guard a little bit. And if they want, an answer commonly heard is it's personal, it's individual, and they say that with a full stop. Like, I'm not talking about it anymore. It's personal, it's individual.

And I think it's, I think you'd be hard to find something scripture that tells you that we as saved believers in Christ should keep that secret. As Jesus is leaving, he gives the disciples instructions and this is known as the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 18 through 20 and it says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold I am with you always till the end of the age." And you're gonna notice some some key words that are in is in this scripture that we've talked about. It starts off with says, all authority in heaven are given to me and we're reminded that that Jesus's authority is over all and that's this and he gives these commands from that authority and so that should instill a

boldness of what he's asking us to do. So let's read what the cost was. What the cost is, is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe what I've commanded you. And this may sound like a lot, but unlike those towns, unlike the people of that town, fearing the cost, asking Jesus to go away, our actions out out of a response of what Jesus did for us, really did minimize the cost. We see the value in Jesus and our response of love is to do these things out of love. Lastly, he says, and at the end here in verse 20, he says, I am with you always to the end of the age. And so our fear to be without Jesus is good, but Jesus tells us, look, I'm not going to be without you. He's not going to leave us alone. So we see here, we see the power of Jesus causing fear and which forces a response.

So I'm going back to the beginning illustration of the show, what would you do? I'll ask you that question, what will you do? And if you're a follower of Christ, just maybe consider to ask yourself these questions. Am I allowing fear to prevent me from speaking to others about Jesus? And what he's doing in my life? Am I seeking to share what Jesus means to me, to people around me? And this next step could be coming to what we're doing on Saturdays. And just for the full disclosure, you could come and not say a word. You could just watch it be modeled. And that's typically how it goes. We'll just, my first time with Daniel Sutor, I watched him do it a few times and then I stepped in. And just some really good things are happening from that. Just sharing conversations with people what the Lord's doing in our life. And so, this, we can fall back on Jesus' authority

and have boldness. The next question, am I avoiding doing something the Lord is asking me to do because it makes me uncomfortable? Or takes away time with something I'd rather be doing? Serving, making time for discipleship, such as life groups. We're starting life groups, and it's a time where you're committing to meet with people and to share and be vulnerable, and it can be uncomfortable at times, it can be hard. But when we can put the focus of the value of Jesus and focus on our motivation, because we're like this man that was saved and rescued, then it prompts us to do these things out of what Jesus did for us. And then lastly, the question is, am I allowing worry or anxiety or loneliness to maybe fill in out of control to dominate my thoughts feelings and we're assured that Jesus is with us the whole time. We don't have to be fearful to be without Him because He says He's going to be with us. So maybe

you're exploring Jesus, maybe this is the first time you've listened to something like this, maybe you've been in church a while and you start questioning, you know, does my faith go even further than the demons who recognize Jesus who He is but then doesn't really want to have anything to do with him. So some next steps for you, I'll ask, what will you do? Some next steps could be that you continue coming, you keep continuing listening to the word, to be preached. You can contact us, and if you want to be prayed for, if there's something here, you can contact us. If you want somebody to walk through and explain the Bible, so you just walk through and help you understand it. We have that too. Maybe you're not willing to do any of those things. I would encourage you to pick up the Bible and just start in the Book of Mark where we are today. And you could just start reading and just explore who Jesus is.

And just maybe spend just a few minutes of prayer just asking to understand what it is you're reading. So let's go ahead and close in prayer. Father God, I thank you that you are a God that is powerful in order that we can have boldness. Lord, I just thank you for the fact that you don't ask us to do it alone, that you are with us. Lord, I just pray that we, as a church, as a body, can live that out, that the gospel is woven through our conversations and how we live out our life. We're quick to think and praise you, God. We're quick to lean in when talking about the truth. and how we live out our life, that we're quick to thank and praise you, God. We're quick to lean in when times are rough to the God that is always true. And Lord, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for saving us. I thank you for dying on a cross for our penalty of death. And Lord, we just praise you for who we are and you answer your name, we pray.

Amen.