"Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear" (Luke 8:37).
Jesus and his company of disciples climbed out of a boat on the east side of the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Gadarenes. Suddenly a naked man apparently out of control ran at Jesus and fell at his feet. Word was the man lived under guard in the cemetery among the tombs of dead people. The townspeople, out of fear, banished him to solitude and bound him with chains and shackles. He often brokes his chains and raced off into the wilderness screaming unhuman sounds and shrieks. The man was sick. When asked, the man gave Jesus the name he had assumed, Legion, because he was possessed by many demons.
Jesus was standing before one man but confronting as many as six thousand of Satan's demons begging him not to cast them into hell, but rather to allow them to leave the man and enter a herd of pigs grazing nearby. When Jesus gave his permission, the demons exited the man and entered the animals spiralling them into lunacy and sending them over a cliff, into a lake, and to their death. The pig farmers who witnessed what happened ran all over town telling what had happened.
By the time a crowd gathered, the man was sitting at the feet of Jesus, fully clothed, and completely normal. He wanted to join Jesus' company of disciples; however, Jesus told him to go home and tell every one what God had done for him. While he was going on his merry way, the townspeople, in gang-like fashion, insisted that Jesus leave town. According to their wishes, Jesus and his disciples got in their boat and left in the same fashion in which they had arrived.
In this account of one experience in our Lord's ministry on earth, we learn several sad realities about ourselves that often keep us from experiencing God in greater ways:
First, we often become too easily accustomed to living with fear. How long had that man lived in those tombs possessed by demons? Instead of confronting Satan's activity among them with faith in God's power, those townspeople handled the situation in their own way-- putting the man in a place where they did not have to look at him every day. Their actions neither solved their problems, nor alleviated their fears. Actually their actions made their problems and fears into a bigger mess.
It happens in our lives too when we run from our fears instead of face our fears. Listen, Jesus is not afraid of even what we fear most. He is Sovereign God over all that is-- that includes heaven, hell, and earth. There is not one single demon or Satan himself that does not tremble at the name of Jesus. How much more does all of hell stand attention and beg in the presence of Jesus? The psalmist reminds us, "I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears" (Psalm 34:4). We should call upon our Lord and face our fears with God's power.
Second, we often don't want to upset things or get radical in our faith. Those townspeople had learned to tolerate and live with demon activity among them. They had even hired men from among them to stand guard to make sure the demonic activity stayed in the tombs and didn't get near them. They had no problem with buying or making new sets of chains and shackles every time the man broke a set. Forming a search party to go after him and bring him back to the tombs when he fled into the wilderness in a demonic rage had become an accepted way of life. Day in and day out they listened to the terrible screams coming of the cemetery.
They had the situation under their control just the way they wanted it. If things could be changed, fine, but don't upset the apple cart by asking them to walk away from what had become comfortably under control, and live out of their comfort zone with radical faith in Christ. This is a 2000 year old story, but it paints a perfect portrait of twenty-first century people. In the words of Jesus himself, "In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples" (Luke 14:33).Yes, God calls us to a reckless abandonment of our lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Third, we might be okay with change as long as it doesn't change our livelihood. Apparently raising pigs provided a good living for the townspeople providing them with not only food but a source of income as well. When Jesus sent their money-makers over a cliff in a demonic craze, all they could see was their livelihood being flushed down the toilet-- or better said, drowned in the sea! I wonder how many people have missed their heavenly calling because they were too tied to their earthly career. How many churches have missed revival because the people have a death-grip on the status-quo? How many people have settled instead of soared? The fear of change alone has limited many lives and killed more potential than any other thing on this earth. These townspeople had God walking among them more than capable of meeting their needs, yet the change that Jesus brought with his presence was more than they were willing to endure.
We're the same way. Change is okay as long as it doesn't mean we have to live with uncertaintly, get uncomfortable, make a drastic move, do the unusual, spend more than a little, or rise above our reason. Too many people today want to believe they're going to heaven, but they don't want God fooling with their lives. Therein, lies the explanation for why we fail to see great moves of God in our lives, families, churches, communities, nation, and world. We need to go back to the very beginning-- to the experience of salvation.
Contemporary evangelism has reduced becoming a follower of Jesus Christ to a marketing strategy of getting people to assent to a few pre-packaged biblical truths, walking down the isle of a church, praying a sinner's prayer, signing a commitment card, and then going back into their world to think the same, talk the same, and live the same as they did before they quote "got saved."
None of that is in the Bible in precept, principle, or pattern. Biblical converstion to Christ is radical, earth-shaking, and life-changing. Men and women in the Bible who came face to face with Christ became competely undone. They fell prostrate at his feet, grieved and waled over their own sinfulness. Afterwards, they walked in this world dripping with the power and unction of the Holy Spirit. Many Christ-followers through the ages have given their own lives, rather than deny their love and commitment to their Lord. Hear the words of Jesus with your heart: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
So, what matters? Not what we think, but what Christ wants us to thinks; not what we say, but what Christ wants us to say; not what we want, but what Christ wants us to want; not what we do, but what Christ wants us to do. Open your Bible and ask the man at the tombs, Simon Peter, the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, or Paul how drastically Jesus changes a person's life when he becomes Lord. You might be surprised, or better still, you might be changed.
Prayer: Father in heaven, I've grown way to accustomed to managing my fears myself. I've organized my life myself and gotten bitter when anything came along upsetting what I've put in place. For too long, I've had my life all figured out the way I wanted it. Now, I'm afraid that some of it or none of it is the way you want it. I repent of the sin of selfishness and arrogance thinking I was supposed to be in charge instead of you. Forgive me and change me. Come now, clean up my mess, and radically fool with my means. I surrender everything, including my will, to you. Revive me and make me your instrument of revival in this world. In Jesus name, Amen.
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