Life Change: Change that Leads to Freedom Mark 5:1-20 *Dog in a Cage For Christmas this year, Santa brought us a puppy. Puppies are cute, but at the same time, they re a lot of work; barking in the middle of the night, peeing on your carpet, chewing on everything We realized early on that training our dog was going to be a necessity. I remember the first night we had him, we decided to make him sleep in his kennel. He whined and cried begging to get out. Second night, it was the same. Third night, the same but after a while, he finally realized that at night, he was going to be in that cage and he wasn t getting out. At first he tried to get out, but after a while, he stopped trying. Now, he s nearly a year old, and every night of his life, he s slept in his kennel. The other night I decided to do a little experiment. I told him to get in his kennel and he did but this time I didn t close the gate. I called his name Boss Boss He looked at me, but that s all. I got a doggy treat in my hand, and called for him and you could tell he wanted it, but as far as he was concerned, it wasn t a possibility because he was in his cage. Then, I got about 5 feet from his cage, and I dumped an entire bag of treats on the ground. He was excited motivated he was moving around, licking his chops hungry for those treats; he wanted them bad, but because he was convinced it was impossible to get to them, after a few seconds, laid down in his bed and quit trying. That s a sad story, but what s even sadder to me is the fact that some of us here tonight are missing out on blessings in our own lives because we are convinced that we re stuck convinced that we re trapped convinced that we can t change or be changed and so we watch the blessings that God intends for us, we smell them and dream about them, and they always seem out of reach. Hear me when I say this: YOU CAN BE SET FREE! FREEDOM IS AVAILABLE!!! And what that means is this: Whatever has you in bondage; that addiction, that habit, that thing that s destroying you physically, destroying your marriage, destroying your family, destroying your reputation, destroying you mentally THAT THING! You really can be set free from it YOU CAN CHANGE! And that s what we ve been discovering in this journey through the Gospel of Mark. We ve discovered that, no matter what the circumstance may be, change is possible with Jesus.
We saw that with the man with Leprosy, we saw it with the paralytic. We saw Jesus raise a 12 year old girl from the dead in front of her family and heal another lady by her simply grabbing a hold of his clothes. We ve seen that when we get desperate for him when we have that kind of faith; where He s all we need He s more than enough CHANGE HAPPENS. Today, we re back in the 5 th chapter of Mark and we re going to read about a man, who like many of us today, wanted to change. He knew he needed to change and the people around him knew he needed to change. And I m sure people tried forcing him to change, but if you remember, you cannot force someone to change. Force doesn t bring about real change, neither does fear or facts. No matter how hard his family tried, no matter how hard his friends tried, there was literally nothing they could do to cause real change in his life Mark 5:1-5 1 They 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. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. 4 For 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. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. Let s take a look at the timeline here: chapter 4 closes out with Jesus on a boat with his disciples and all of a sudden a huge storm breaks out. Jesus was asleep and the disciples woke him up in a panic saying, Teacher, don t you care if we drown? Then he woke up and spoke to the waves, told them to be quiet and still and the storm was over. Jesus, in this boat just showed his disciples what he was capable of, and now, they re in the boat, cruising to another region on the other side of the lake. I m sure they were still a little freaked out by the storm and that whole experience and now they re getting out of the boat in a new town and they re greeted by this Demon Possessed Man who s screaming at the top of his lungs. It says this man had an evil spirit, which basically means that this man s life was completely controlled and influenced by the power of Satan. This man had become a maniac because of the satanic influence that was directing him.
You ask How did it get that bad for him? How did he lose control of his own life? For him, it worked the same as it works with us SIN. SIN ROBBED HIM OF HIS OWN LIFE. HE WAS ROBBED OF HIS SANITY 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. 4 For 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. This man was insane! He was mad! He was living in complete isolation in a filthy place. THE TOMBS: This is where they would store dead bodies and in many cases, the bodies would be exposed. He chose to live there. He s no longer enjoying real life in society; he s now living among the dead because he had been robbed of his sanity. HE WAS ROBBED OF HIS SELF CONTROL *Report Cards: When we got our report cards in school, on the left side were our grades and on the right side were our conduct scores. My parents were just as concerned with my conduct scores as they were my grades. And many times, my teachers would check the box that said, Needs Better Self Control. You see, this guy was beyond that he had no self control. He had lost control of his life; he was wild. Chains on his hands and shackles on his feet couldn t contain him. He was out of control. HE WAS ROBBED OF HIS SELF REPECT Luke tells us in his account of this story that the man was naked! He just didn t care anymore. He wasn t worried about modesty he had no self respect. He didn t value his life or his body 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. This man would abuse his body and intentionally cut himself and cry out; shrieking at the top of his lungs. Sin leads to self destruction The wickedness in his life led him to this position to become someone that lacks self respect also lacks peace. Isaiah 48:22 says, There is not peace for the wicked. And this man had no peace. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He 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! 8 For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you evil spirit!
9 Then Jesus asked him, What is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them. 13 He 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. This guy was suffering from what I would call, Spiritual Schizophrenia. He s possessed by demons and now we find him on his knees worshipping Jesus. It was the MAN that worshipped Jesus, but at the same time, the DEMONS controlling the man were afraid. They knew what was going on. James 2:19 says, even the demons believe and tremble. They knew they were in the presence of the Son of God. For me, it s interesting to see this interaction between Jesus and this man. And the reason it s interesting is because, if I meet this guy after church tonight I m terrified. I m completely terrified!!! And I shouldn t be, because He that is in me is greater than He that is in the world. As long as Christ dwells within me, there s no demon powerful enough to overpower that but for some reason, that sounds terrifying to me But Jesus is so cool he s like, So what s your name? He was so cool and I think I understand how he was so cool: When Jesus met him, he saw him as a man not a maniac, but a man. He didn t look at his problems he looked at his potential. We may not realize this, but the SIN in our lives will rob of us of these same things. They ll rob us of our SANITY SELF CONTROL SELF RESPECT They ll eliminate our PEACE HOPE FAITH JOY But even if we ve been robbed of everything when we come to Jesus, he sees beyond our problems and he focuses on our potential. That s an amazing biblical principle that I hope we don t miss When Jesus meets someone, he isn t so limited that he sees them only in the moment; he doesn t only see us today, but he looks at where we CAN BE tomorrow if we ll trust him. He can take a PAUL, persecutor of the church and turn him into PAUL a great missionary and church planter. He can take a SIMON PETER, a cursing fisherman and turn him into PETER, a mighty preacher of the Gospel. And if you ll give yourself to Jesus just like you are today you ll be amazed at what He ll make of your life as well. 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them. 13 He 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. Jesus instructed the demons to leave this man s body and to enter the 2,000 pigs on the side of the hill. (Devilled ham) And when the pigs were influenced by Satan, they become wild just like the man did and then they give us a vivid example of how SIN leads to DEATH. 14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 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. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demonpossessed man and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. The townspeople saw the man who had been demon possessed and now, he wasn t anymore. He was normal. He was dressed and in his right mind. This man had been COMPLETELY CHANGED! Verse 15 says this man was SITTING and in his RIGHT MIND finally he had been set free. Finally he had PEACE. Now he had self respect Now he had self worth He wasn t cutting himself anymore. He wasn t screaming. He was sitting down completely changed. And you would think that they townspeople would rejoice, that they would celebrate but it says that they were afraid. Not only were they afraid, but then they looked at Jesus and said, You ve gotta get outta here! We don t want you in our town anymore. Get in your boat and leave!!! You see, they were afraid and they were angry. They made up their mind that they would ve rather had their 2,000 pigs than have Jesus. They would have rather had their money for the pigs, than a miracle for that man. So Jesus, decided to leave. 18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonpossessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus 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. 20 So 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. This man had a Mom at home a Dad at home. He had friends waiting for him, and you know that they wanted him to change. They probably tried to force him to
change. They probably used facts and fear to change him they probably did everything they could But supernatural change can only happen by a supernatural God When Jesus met this man, his life was in shambles he was stuck he was absolutely trapped in a life that was influenced and controlled by the power of Satan himself this man was in a hopeless situation and for the longest time, he was incapable of escaping the Hell he was stuck in And in a moment, he meets Christ. And Jesus shows this man, that FREEDOM was possible through him. In just a moment, Jesus showed him that he wasn t stuck in the cage, but the door was always opened. And because of this man s faith, Jesus set him free. [PRAY] Invitation: Do you need to be set free? No matter what it is that keeps you in bondage tonight, listen you can be set free. (CAGE) Maybe you re convinced that there s no hope for change no hope for getting out and enjoying the blessings God has for you. The gate is open the question is, Are you willing to walk out? Do you need to tell somebody? Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you. 20 So 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. When people meet you, are they amazed at Jesus?