Passages: 1. Luke
4:14-30 “Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth”
2. Mark 5:1-20 “Jesus Heals a demon possessed
man”
Luke
4:43 – Jesus said, “I must proclaim
the good news of the kingdom of God to
the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”
The mission of Jesus was to proclaim the good
news of the Kingdom of God – He preached the same message in the beginning of
the ministry (Mark 1:13-14); in the middle of His ministry (Luke 10:9); the end
of the ministry (Mat 24:14) even after His resurrection from the death (Acts
1:3). The Kingdom of God being illustrated by Jesus through various parables we
find in the gospels.
The good news in the above passage or the mission
of Jesus is comprehensively mentioned in Luke 4: 18-19, The works of the
Kingdom are,
·
Preach the Good news to the poor
·
Proclaim Freedom to the Prisoners
·
Recovery of Sight to the Blind
·
Set the Oppressed Free
·
Proclaim the Year of the Lord
All the above things in my opinion include three
things in the lives of the people Restoring, Rebuilding and Reclaiming. Every
saved believer is part of the Kingdom of God and in turn they get obligated to
work for the Kingdom of God.
Most of the times church thinks the work of the
Kingdom are preaching the gospel – Tracts Distribution – Open air preaching –
Personal Evangelism – TV Preaching – or anything related to spiritual –
Neglecting the physical side of the people.
Undoubtedly Jesus preached/proclaimed the Kingdom
of God, that’s what comes first in the Nazareth Manifesto “Proclaiming Good
news to the Poor.” The other works of the Kingdom often been neglected by the
church and considered as “Non Spiritual” aspect. I want to take you through the
Bible and speak the importance of Kingdom Works given to the church.
Restoring
People from the Bondage is Work of the Kingdom
The three aspects I will be dealing are closely
connected to one another. In original stage they were good and perfect –
something happen in between – that brought a corruption – That needs to be
fixed to establish the Kingdom of God among the people.
Restoration – Taking back something to the
original state
Rebuilding – Building back something that is
broken
Reclaiming – Claiming back something that is lost
In Mark 5:1-20 Jesus Restores (Delivers) a demon
Possessed man (Legion) both physically and spiritually – which is complete
restoration.
The world is going from order to
disorder – just like a cleaned home gets dusty regardless of closing all doors
and windows – an arranged home gets disorder automatically – the process of
happening is slow and invisible but it goes to disorder automatically. The
problems must be restored to go back to the original state.
Nobody
is born in this world with satanic imprisonment. In some point of their life
they are bound or addicted to some satanic bondage. The man we see here is one
of such varieties – it may be out of his own will. He needs a restoration to
get freedom from the bondages – it cannot happen within rather someone has to
help him to get delivered.
The Background: Chapter 4 ends with the miracle of Jesus calming the
storm to get to the other side of the sea (Luke 8:26-39 the same incident in
Luke’s writing). There was hindrance to deliver a man who is in the satanic
captivity – Jesus overcame it by the divine power – the disciples astonished by
looking at His authority. The other side of the shore we see this man who needs
restoration. Jesus restored His entire being and established the Kingdom of
God.
1.
RESTORATION IN HIS IDENTITY ( MARK 5:1-5)
The
state of that man was - Demon Possessed. It was not his fault but the unclean
spirits in him made him to lose his identity. Probably people would have called
him as Demonic Man/ Naked Man / Tomb Man / Legion … etc. He probably had a name
which was forgotten or overcome by the demonic possession.
Evil
Spirits controlled him so that he doesn’t know what he was doing. He was in
fact created in the image of God – the God created image is lost – people now
realized and called him with different names. The verses describe about him as
follows,
V 2: Man with Impure Spirit
V.3: No one could bind him.
V.5: Cried out day and night
V.9: His name was Legion
V.15:
Naked man- Now dressed!
We clearly see about the
demonic works that subdued the natural abilities of this man – He no more bears
the image of God or with the name his parents might called him. Jesus as the
Kingdom worker restored his identity at the end of the miracle.
There are people in our
community today lost their identity – they do not know what they are doing –
they need restoration – someone need to get into the spot to restore their
identity and values of who they are.
Church Father St. Augustine (Augustine of Hippo) lived in the
4th century was a robber in the horses with a gang – the Lord met
him and restored his life – as his friends called him “Hi Augustine” he said –
The Augustine whom you know died yesterday – this is a new man in Christ. His
identity as a robber turned into Saint Augustine in later days – he wrote
several books even in the third century.
2.
RESTORATION IN HIS RESIDENCE (VV 2-5)
Tomb
is the place of dead – we see a living man among the dead. He not only lived
among the tombs but hurt himself. He was restless day and night – nobody was
able to control him with chains – he was screaming and shouting day and night.
The
evil spirit wanted him to be in the tomb (v. 10 - he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the
area). His residence is the problem, he isolated himself from the world to
execute the plans of demons – God on the other hand restores people in dead
state to life.
Ezekiel 37:1-14 – Prophet Ezekiel in his vision
was taken to the valley of dry bones – God by his nature revives the dry and
dead (both physical and spiritual) to fulfill His plans and agendas. A
meaningless/purposeless life will be restored when God gets into it.
One of my
uncles an Architect Engineer – Wealthy and Rich – No idea about God – worked as
a head engineer in L&T construction company - As God restored him – His
selfish mindset gone – He left the place where he worked – Later he declared “I
was a builder for a company, now I am a Kingdom builder.” At present doing the
ministry of the Lord left his high position in L&T.
We see at the end of the story the man who had
his residence in the tomb is with Jesus (v.18-20) and later became a witness to
Christ whole through the towns of Decapolis. His residence is restored from
tomb. There are people who live in isolation, rejection, fantasy world. They
need to be restored with the life giving power of God. The Kingdom works
include restoring people from their location of bondage into freedom.
3.
RESTORATION IN HIS MIND
(VV 6-10)
Mind is associated to the body – the body and
mind of this man is under the control of evil spirit. Someone who is in right
mind would never hurt himself or scream out day and night. There are people mad
at Christian workers and church because their minds are captivated by devil so
that they are not able to bear when people are being freed.
Mother
Theresa is known as a social worker not an evangelist dedicated her whole life
for the people of India, however she is seen as an evangelist by some people
because their minds are corrupted to see the lepers who got compassion from her
but only how she lived for the Lord and led others to the love of Christ. Many
of the leaders today criticize her works even after she passed away as a means
to conversion.
Rom 12: 2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind.” As mind is renewed, transformation occurred.
Phil 2:5, “Have the same mindset that is in
Christ Jesus”
Restoration in mind is the foundational thing
that changes the entire being. Jesus wanted to restore him of his demonic
mindset but he replied in v.7 – “In God’s name don’t torture me!” – Some other
versions say “Don’t upset us” – Jesus wanted him to get out of the troubles but
he replied “Don’t send us out of this area.” He wanted to remain the same.
Restoration in mind is the hardest thing to do – once
we overcome it the rest happens by itself. The work of the Kingdom is giving
freedom to people who are captivated in their mindset to the evil one.
We are always challenged by the world when we do
good to them – people hate you when you do good (Luke 6:22 – Mat 5:11), it
shakes the foundation of the kingdom of darkness. You touch their ideology –
the core of their (evil) values – we challenge the status quo of the world. The
lie of the enemy in the passage “Being in bondage is freedom – freedom from the
bondage is torture” (v.7).
The Process
of Restoration (vv 11-13):
I wonder Jesus even heard the request of demons
and sent them among the pigs (v.12-13) – He sent them in – about 2000 pigs fell
into the sea and drowned.
The process of restoration is costly for the pig
tenders – they lost their pigs – selfish people don’t want to see others being
restored.
The Result
of Restoration (vv 14-17):
The demon possessed man sitting with right mind –
dressed – calm and quite (v.15) – the people on the other hand afraid of the
miracle. He got 100% restored from the demonic oppression – the complete
transformation cannot have 1% of the past nature but 100% new. 2 Cor. 5:17 -
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the
new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
The people on the other hand asked him to leave
the place (v.17). The restored man became a channel of restoration to many in
that area (v.20)
The Kingdom work includes restoration from
oppression/bondage. Jesus as Kingdom worker restored this man’s Identity,
Residence and Mind. We as the Kingdom workers must also involve in restoring
people’s lives.
The restored people must restore others – that is
a command not an option (v.19)
Amen!
(* This sermon is modified based on the concept of Rev. Samuel D Stephens on the Annual Planning Meeting of IGL on January 10, 2019)
(* This sermon is modified based on the concept of Rev. Samuel D Stephens on the Annual Planning Meeting of IGL on January 10, 2019)
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