ARE YOU ONE ORDINARY MAN OR WOMAN FOR JESUS

Message delivered by Steve Vekasy

OLD TESTAMENT – 1 KINGS 18:21-22, 38-39

²¹ Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him."
      But the people said nothing.

 ²² Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.

 ³⁸ Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

 ³⁹ When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!"

EPISTLE – ROMANS 5:18-19

¹⁸Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

GOSPEL – MARK 5:1-20

¹They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.^{[a] 2}When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil^[b] spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. ⁴For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

 ⁶When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" ⁸For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"

 ⁹Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

   "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." ¹⁰And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

 ¹¹A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹²The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them." ¹³He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

 ¹⁴Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵When 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. ¹⁶Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

 ¹⁸As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." ²⁰So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis^[c]how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Outline:

• Story of how a young child taught a lesson in love and humility
• Story of how St Patrick singlehandedly converted Ireland and saved Christianity
• Story of one man, Elijah, who turned a nation around
• Gospel lesson – sin entered by one man, redemption by one man
• Demon possessed man – sent to Decapolis and changes a country
• Can we be one man for Jesus?

Today I was going to read you some stories.  You know, sometimes we just don’t give ourselves or others credit for the great things that one person can do.  

• Dr. James Dobson (p. 226 of Night Light, A Devotional for Couples) tells the story of a seven year old boy named Chris Krebs.

READ STORY FROM BOOK

Summary of story:  Chris has cerebral palsy and is profoundly retarded.  Goes with Dad to hospital to pick up mom from work.  Sits next to derelict.  Dad goes to check on when mom would be out, finds Chris next to bum and bum crying.  Dad apologizes to bum, who says “your son is the only person that has hugged me in 20 years)

Imagine the scene in this hospital lounge.  A dirty dressed, smelly man waiting for some physical comfort, and one young boy shares with him the love of Jesus in the only way he knows how.  Jesus does a tremendous thing, through an amazing child.  In this child, most people would say he was too young to serve Jesus.  Most would say he didn’t have enough basic intelligence to serve Jesus.  Most would say it was inappropriate for this boy to have contact with that man, yet in that moment, Jesus touched the life of an old derelict.  And in doing so, he also taught a life lesson for life to a father about how much good one person can do for a person loved by God and not by society.

True story.

• Here is another story that is supposed to be true

READ THE STORY “KIDNAPPED” FROM P. 4 OF THE GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD

Summary of story:  Patrick, a 16 year old English boy gets kidnapped to Ireland.  Forced to work as a slave shepherd for 5 years.  Escapes, treks 200 miles to the sea, Hops boat for home.  Sees vision and returns to Ireland as first Christian bishop.

Through an incredible turn of circumstances, God decided to work in the life of a young man named Patrick.  Although he was raised in a Christian family whose members served the church as priests and deacons, many would say Patrick was too young to impact the world for Jesus.  But God had other plans.  Although he safely returned to his family, God worked on him nightly in dreams and visions to prepare him to return to preach the Gospel to those who had kidnapped him into slavery.  Though not the only Christian missionary in Ireland, history shows he was particularly effective, baptizing thousands.  He is credited with being the point man for God's movement to essentially convert a completely pagan Druid nation to faith in Jesus. 

Can one man impact the world for Jesus?  You bet he can.  In fact, you and I can in a large part thank St Patrick for being one of the chief reasons we are here in God's house today.  You see in the 5^th century and onwards a succession of Huns, Vandals, Saxons, Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks and other tribes relentlessly conquered the Roman empire and set out to destroy the writings of its religion.  They never made it to Ireland, and if not for the zealous copying of Holy Scriptures by Saint Patrick’s converts and their descendents, there may never have been any Scripture left to re-establish the church in the middle ages. 

• Our Old Testament lesson also reminds us up what one man can do for God.  You can look along at your lesson for a glimpse into what the scripture is sharing about the power of God that can come through just one man.  Baal worship was so prevalent in Israel in Elijah’s time, that they had gotten rid of all of God's prophets.  Elijah was the only one still left alive or brave enough to speak up for God.  In God's own chosen people, idolatry was so prevalent that the nation supported hundreds of priest of Baal.  And here comes lonely and faithful Elijah to point them to the truth.  Elijah challenges Baal and his servants to a contest.  The prize at stake – the faith of the entire nation.  Baal vs. Jehovah, winner take all.  The result – God wins, and in v. 39 we read that all the people fell prostrate and cried “the Lord is God”.  At least for a shining but temporary period of time, the entire nation of Israel threw out the Baals and returned to the Lord, all through the bravery and faithfulness of one man.
• Our Gospel lesson for today is about how the sin of one man, Adam basically ruined it for the rest of us.  It usually doesn’t take long to convince a parent that there is original sin in all of us.  That little precious bundle of joy that God gave us doesn’t take very long before they learn to say no, throw their food on the floor and steal cookies from the cookie jar.  No one ever taught them to do that.  They sin because we all do.  It is in our nature. The Bible tells us we are by nature enemies of God and aliens.  As enemies, our actions and nature completely oppose his Holiness.  As aliens, we have no standing or right to be in His kingdom.  Yet God sent one man, His one and only son, to live the perfect life on earth that we cannot, and to die on the cross to pay the penalty of the entire world’s sins.  Through the action of that one man, God has offered entrance into the kingdom of heaven with one condition.  His only demand is that of exclusive believe that faith in Jesus alone is the only way to heaven.  You see God doesn’t want to compete for our faith with Baal, or with Buddha, or Allah, or with humanism, or works righteousness.  He doesn’t intend to offer heaven as a gift to the men on earth that prefer other idols to Him.
• And so we come to our last story.  The story of the demon possessed man.  Most people look at this story and say they’ve heard this stuff before.  Nice story about how Jesus shows He is God because He can work a miracle that only God Himself can do.  Ho-hum, just like a bunch of other Jesus miracle stories.  But stay with me here because this story is one of the hidden gems of the Bible.

If you have never had it fully explained to you, I’m going to try to do that now, because we can’t understand the story without understanding the background and consequences of these 20 verses of the Bible. 

First of all, Jesus has been on a mission to His own people, the Jews, on the western side of the Sea of Gallilee.  It is His home territory.  The Jews have been expecting a Messiah, just a we are looking forward to His coming in the Advent season.  Jesus is walloping the crowds with miracles after miracles.  The synagogue establishment and the Pharisees from Jerusalem don’t like this intrusion into their power one bit, but the poor, sick suffering masses are flocking to Jesus for physical and spiritual healing.  Jesus is feeding people by the thousands, but as the Monte Python TV show used to say, it is now time for something completely different. 

Jesus and the disciples hop a boat for the eastern shore and disembark in the land of the Gerasenes.  Now this is not Jewish territory.  The eastern shore is Greek speaking, Greek cultured pagan territory.  It is the land of the enemy.  Although there were no wars going on, history tells us that the inhabitants of the eastern side of the lake were hostile to the Jews.  When Jesus lands, thousands looking to be healed do not come running.  Instead, we see thousands of demons come running, all contained in one man.  And what a man!   The demons had given him so much strength that the townspeople can’t control him.  He rushes around from here to there screaming and causing incredible havoc so that the whole countryside is afraid of him.  He lives in the land of the dead – in the tombs.  To the Jewish disciples they feel accosted by a crazy pagan who is unclean because he lives in contact with the dead.  The presumption is that since he is wild, he cannot farm or work, therefore his likely source of food is the ritual food that the townspeople leave in the tombs to placate the God's of their dead relatives.  The unclean man, who consumes unclean food, is filled with unclean spirits. 

The demons are wily.  They see Jesus coming.  Unlike the world today who can’t see Jesus when He is at work in their midst, the demons always recognize the power and authority of Jesus.  They drive the man to come rushing forward and fall to his knees in front of Jesus in an act of false worship as they start negotiating with Jesus to get the upper hand.  Jesus plays along and asked who they are.  The answer is Legion.  In that area and that time, a legion was known by what the Romans used as their military unit – 6000 men and 120 horsemen.  The man is possessed by enough demons to drive a heard of 2000 pigs crazy.  They know Jesus is there to kick them out, but they don’t want to just wander outside a body, so they ask to be preserved instead of destroyed, and sent to the local heard of pigs.  Here we have an image God presents to the disciples of unclean spirits entering unclean animals.  The demons drive the pigs nuts, and Jesus shows He maintains the upper hand as the demon’s plan falls apart.  The pigs rush headlong like lemmings into the sea, and both the animals and the demons are destroyed. 

Look how the townspeople react.  The person they used to be afraid of is now calmly sitting at Jesus feet, in his right mind for likely the first time in his adult life.  No thousands coming to Jesus to give praise for the miracle.  No thousands run to Jesus bringing their sick and lame family and friends along for healing.  No praise that Jesus has shown He is God and that their own idols are worthless.  Nope.  They come on up and tell Jesus to pack up and get out of town.  That which cures evil is not worth the economic loss to the flocks.  Religion is OK as long as it does not adversely affect business profits.

Now our focus shifts back to the man.  He is seated in front of Jesus in the position of a disciple.  He has received that which perhaps he never knew he wanted.    Jesus gets ready to leave and the man wants to go with him.  Jesus used to tell the people He healed to not tell anyone, but instead He tells this man to go back and tell his family.  But note, he on his own also goes throughout the Decapolis to tell what Jesus had done for him. 

And now, for the rest of the story.  First of all, what is this Decapolis the man went to?  They are ten important regional cities in Syrian controlled territory, including Damascus, Raphana, Dius, Canata, Scythopolis, Gadara, Hippos, Pella, Gerasa and Philadelphia.  No small task to spread the word of God through this vast hostile territory. 

Here is the best part.  Jesus has sailed back to Jewish territory on the west side of the sea of Galilee.  He goes around his usual haunts, even his home town of Nazareth ministering to God's chosen people.  You know what happened the next time Jesus headed back east across the sea to Gentile territory.  Mark shares that in Chapter 6 starting at v. 53.  Turn to it in your Bibles please.  No sooner did Jesus get out of the boat than the people of Gennesaret recognized Him.  Look what they did.  They started running for the hills.   Were they afraid that Jesus would send more pigs to their death?  No.  They ran for their sick relatives and friends to bring them to Jesus for healing.  No matter where Jesus went in this “used to be” hostile Gentile territory, they couldn’t fall over themselves fast enough to bring others to Jesus.  What could have caused this incredible change from people who wanted to drive Jesus out of town?  One man, whose life was changed by Jesus, went to ten towns to tell people what Jesus had done for him.  Wow!!  Isn’t that fantastic.

• So how do we respond?

We have a man in terrible turmoil, perhaps more than he ever knew.  He is an enemy of God, filled with evil.  He has an encounter with the living Christ who heals him.

How about you?  Were you ever filled with evil, an enemy of God and an alien estranged from His kingdom?  Did Jesus come to you when you weren’t looking for him and didn’t deserve Him, and He healed you of your evil?  How did you respond?

Look at our man.  Jesus healed him and removed the evil from within him.  Jesus’ actions resulted in giving this man faith.  He wanted to hang around Jesus.  Do we ever get into a rut where our greatest joy in life as a Christian is to enter some emotional attachment to Him in our worship where we never want to leave our church?  Don’t get me wrong.  Jesus does want our worship.  But just like our man in Mark 5, Jesus tells us to go.  Leave the comfort of Jesus presence and get out into that hostile world where people don’t want to know Him.  Jesus desires all to be saved, and it should be our desire to drag as many into heaven with us as we can. 

Is God capable of doing a great thing with whatever you can say to an unbeliever about Him?  You bet He can.  Look at our man from Mark.  Probably not educated.  Probably not a provocative public speaker.  Yet God used Him to completely transform an entire pagan land.  The same region where the apostle Paul would be converted.  The same region where Paul first started establishing the churches of Christ even before his missionary journeys.  Can Jesus make a miracle out of anything you can say in His name?  Oh yes He can.

I challenge you today to be one man or woman for Jesus.  Be bold.  Find someone who doesn’t know Him and give them the greatest news in the world.  Share the love of Jesus with the hurting.  God can use even our weakest efforts to fulfill His purposes, but we need to act.  Are you grateful enough for the tremendous burden of evil He has personally lifted off your shoulders, or is religion something that is OK for you as long as it doesn’t affect the commerce of your life?