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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. Preaching the word of Jesus drives out demons and ushers in the kingdom of God.
Now, it’s interesting because when you talk about preaching the Word of God, you talk about bringing about salvation to someone else as they believe and trust in that Word. But you typically do not talk about the preaching of Jesus driving out the demons. Because when you and I think of demons, we think of this text here. Someone who acts remarkably different than the rest of the culture in their behavior. And we say, that’s demon possession. Right?
Every one of the confirmation kids heard me say this to them for the last 12 years. The most common form of demonic possession is unbelief. Unbelief. The world recognizes something like in that text this morning. The whole world recognizes that, whether they are a believer or not. As believers, you believe and know demon possession is unbelief. Unbelief. And it doesn’t look like that. It looks like a really nice neighbor. It looks like a good person with whom to do business. It looks like family members who deny the faith. But it is demon possession. Because either your soul is grabbed hold of by Satan or your soul is owned by God. There is no third neutral position in which to be. Scriptures do not speak of such.
Interesting note, Jesus sent out the 72 to preach the gospel. When those 72 finish their preaching, they come back to Jesus, and Jesus tells them something that confirms what we’re talking about right now. Jesus tells the 72 after they have returned, and all they did was preach the gospel. He says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Because the preaching of Jesus’ word drives out demons and ushers in the kingdom of God.
But to the world who does not believe that an unbeliever is possessed by the demon or by Satan, does not see this. And for you and I as believers, the temptation is to think, well, the only demon possession really is that kind. We forget our own beginning. You weren’t born with the Holy Spirit, mind you. You were baptized, and the demons were driven from you as an infant, and the Holy Spirit came into you and made you a believer.
Now your parents may say, there were many times when the demons had possession of you and not Christ, for I could see it in your words and actions. Yes, that may be true. Unbelief is possession by Satan. Belief is possession by God whose Holy Spirit dwells within you. This is what happened to you, and it continues to happen each time you are hearing God’s Word.
When the words, “I forgive you all your sins,” are spoken, that God speaks to you through me, those are God’s words. And as you believe in them and trust in them, Satan is driven from you. God’s Holy Spirit is confirmed within you. You are preserved. In the same way, as you hear the word and you believe in those promises, Satan is driven from you, God’s kingdom has come unto you, and you are preserved.
But in this morning’s text, Jesus does something that’s remarkable in this. He goes out of his way to save one sinner. He only goes to this side of the Sea of Galilee that we know of this one time. And this side of the Sea of Galilee of which he goes is not a Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. So you can only imagine as the 12 apostles are in the boat, and they’re heading over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they’re wondering amongst themselves, why are we going to that side? That’s where all the pagans and Gentiles are at.
Well, is it not only the place where the pagans and Gentiles are at? It’s a place of uncleanness, for they get across there and what do they see? But a large herd of walking bacon, pigs. And Mark’s gospel tells us approximately how many—2,000 head of pigs. That’s a lot of pigs. That’s a lot of pigs. So they’re going to a land of Gentiles. They’re going to a land that they see and are around pigs. And you know the apostles are thinking, “Lord, do you not know what you’re doing?” Their eyes must have been as big as saucers.
But Jesus goes for one sinner. He finds him, and he’s demon-possessed of all things. So the most holy of all holy is encountering the most unclean of unclean because not only is he demon-possessed, living in a pig-ridden society full of unbelief, but he’s also unclothed, naked, and living among dead bodies in tombs. He is the most unclean of unclean, and the most holy of holy finds him and makes him his, drives out the demons.
Now Jesus does something for your sake, for my sake, and for the sake of those who heard it. Jesus actually allows there to be a conversation between him and those demons. Demons cannot speak of their own choosing. They don’t have the volition to say, “I wish to complain to you, God.” Their mouths are shut. God gave them the ability to speak. And God carries on a conversation with them, the only one like it in all of the scriptures here in this text.
And do you know what he allows those demons to do? He allows those demons to testify to the truth about his identity, for the demons call Jesus “son of the most high God.” That’s a true confession of faith, isn’t it? Or rather than faith, a true confession of truth, is it not? Son of God the Most High.
Now, when Jesus goes to save this one man, there’s a lot of things that happen that forever change this man’s life, right? And changes that region and that city. Here the people who are the shepherds of these pigs. They watch all of this happen. And then they go and tell the people of the city. The people of the city believe what these herdsmen of pigs say. And they come out to see what has happened.
And when they come out, they see this man who was known to be a demonic, clothed in his right mind and assume the posture of a disciple. Sits at Jesus’ feet like Mary. You know Martha’s sister Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet while she, the busybody, hustled and bustled about. And what posture she took, Jesus praised. This demonic is in the same posture, learning from the teacher, Jesus.
But the people are afraid. When God visits, people are afraid if they don’t believe. For that’s the only response you can have to God in his visitation is either fear or faith. There is no third alternative. Fear or faith. They were afraid, and in a matter of weeks, they would look out across the Sea of Galilee and see 2,000 bodies of dead pigs bloated, floating on the Sea of Galilee.
And God’s message would be reminded to them again as they smelled the rotting flesh and as the vultures fed upon the carcasses that washed up on shore. For they had heard this interchange between God, that is Jesus, and the demons. They had heard what the demons called God, that is Jesus, the Son of the Most High God, and they had heard and seen what was done with this man.
But they judged not with faith but with fear, at least at that time they did. For it’s interesting, the only place in Scripture where a man wants to follow Jesus and Jesus tells him no. The only place in Scripture where a man wants to follow Jesus and Jesus tells him no. “Stay there.” He wants him to evangelize in that region.
He did not take a public speaking course. He did not take how to win and influence other people kind of a course, business leadership, salesmanship. He took none of those courses. He was just a man whom God found in a very unclean place, full of uncleanness, who was unclean himself and made him clean. That’s what qualified him. God made him clean. And he sends him to the people there in that region.
I don’t know about you, but can you imagine what this man must have thought? He knows he’s known by that region as the loco en la cabeza man, the one who’s a little fruity, the one who is demon-possessed, the one who lived among the tombs. And now God wants to use him as the poster child of Christianity to this unclean region. And the answer is yes. Yes. Just like he wishes to use you.
Now you and I love to classify ourselves as being in a different realm than that man. And yet, can you prove to me that we are different than that man? Because I can’t prove to me that I’m different than that man. I am an unclean man whom God has cleansed by his Holy Spirit in that baptism and through that word and in that supper. Amen.
And God is the one who has given me clean lips. And God is the one who uses me in spite of me and all of my fears and all of my anxieties and all of my pride. He chooses to use me just as he chooses to use you. And he doesn’t tell you, go hither and yon, which is what this man wanted to do. He tells you, you’ve been given people in your life. First and foremost, your family. Dad, your children. Right? Grandfathers, your grandchildren, men in general, the children of our parish.
God has given those people to you in your life to be an example as a forgiven, unclean person. Like that man in the text. He’s placed you in the job that he has placed you, not because of your skill or ability, because he chose you to go there at this time with those people. You’re not retired to be unplugged from the people around you. You’re retired to be plugged into different people than you were when you were working.
You’re not a graduate so that you can do as you wish to do. God wishes to do things through you where he places you as a graduate. This is what is so interesting about this text. And the beauty of it is that God, Jesus Christ, will not be thwarted by anything to make a believer. These 12 apostles would never have gone over there to preach. Jesus goes over there to preach and makes a believer.
So later when Peter is struggling about preaching to the Gentiles, he should have remembered this most important conversion. But he didn’t. Because he didn’t classify himself as being the same as this man. But that’s what you and I are. The same as that man. One who has been made clean. Who was unclean by the only one who is clean. Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ. One who has had driven from us demons that the Holy Spirit may dwell within us, just like that man. And one who wishes to go and proclaim the gospel, but God has said, here is where you will until I move you to someplace else. Thanks be to God.
Jesus’ preaching drives out demons and ushers in the kingdom of God. This we believe, this we confess, and this we trust in. His word cleanses that which is unclean, and his Holy Spirit comes in to that which would never have been able to house it until made clean by Jesus.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
