24.24 Don't Make A Pig Of Yourself Series

As Christians we often make one of two mistake, either we ignore Satan and demons and pretend that they have no power and are nothing more then myths or past problems, or we dwell on them and give them credit for every misfortune, illness or trouble that enters our lives. Two things you need to know 1) the Devil and Demons are real and 2) I’ve read the back of the book and we win.

These two men were possessed, or oppressed or something by the enemy. I don’t know a lot about demons, haven’t spent a lot of time studying them and don’t intend to. “But Denn” you say “It’s important.” This is what I know. The word Demon is mentioned 89 times in the bible, the first being in Deuteronomy 32:17 They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared. And the last being in Revelation 18:2 He gave a mighty shout: “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a hideout for every foul spirit, a hideout for every foul vulture and every foul and dreadful animal.

The term evil spirits is used 38 times, Devil 41 times and Satan 67 times. If you combine them you get a total of 235 time that demons, evil spirits, the Devil or Satan are mentioned in the Bible.

The Name Jesus is mentioned 1552 times, Christ is mentioned 560 times, Holy Spirit 138 times and God 5271 times. For a total of 7,521 times. 235 times 7,521 times. So who do you think we should be focused on? The bad guys or the good guys. And again I know we can’t ignore the reality of spiritual warfare and demons and evil spirits, they are there, but let’s not obsess over them.

His Trip Was Intentional there appears to be no other reason why he went other then to deliver these men and speak to the people of the area. Gadarenes wasn’t a popular tourist spot, as far as we know none of the disciples came from there so they probably weren’t just going for a visit. Early in his Ministry Jesus defined his ministry this way Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,”

He was in Gadarenes to free the oppressed and release the captives. During his brief visit there he completely turned the world of these two men up side down. They had been isolated from their community and their family. Their lives weren’t their own instead they were at the mercy of these demons and Jesus sent them free.

You see sometimes we get focused on reaching communities and miss the fact that happens by reaching people. With an entire world to reach Jesus sailed across Galilee, through a storm to make a difference in the lives of these two men.

We will change this community one person and one family at a time. So who is there in your life that needs you to reach out to them that they may be set free?

Jesus Did What He Went to Do I understand that there is a battle to be fought but the reality is the war has been won. The demons knew that, Jesus knew that and you need to know that Here is your promise for today. Romans 8:38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.