Legion: A Demon's Testimony
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We live in a world that is obsessed with evil and death. I’m not trying to sound judgmental here; I’m just stating what I observe. Zombies, whether Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days, Resident Evil, World War Z, The Walking Dead, or The Last of Us, have been the rage for decades. But it isn’t just zombies. There are other franchises. In the 80s and 90s it was Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th movies. Since the 70s, it seems like there are an endless amount of Halloween movies about Michael Myers. But beyond that: exorcism movies are a huge genre. Just this weekend, there’s a movie that has come out staring Russel Crowe called The Pope’s Exorcist. I’m not a huge horror fan, but I have to admit, that one looked interesting.
But it isn’t even just the world that seems to be interested in evil and death. The church has been obsessed in many ways itself. The church tends to get obsessed with it in a different manner. We like our Frank Perettis and Ted Dekkers who write on spiritual warfare. We’ve got books on how to bind demons and cast out demons and general books on demonology. There are instruction manuals on how to pray hedges of protection around people or places and prayer walk to stop demonic work. And they are exciting and intriguing and convincing.
But this morning, we get a glimpse at an actual demon-possessed man. But Luke isn’t writing this to be a manual on how to exorcise or control a demon. Remember Luke was writing to Theophilus (whether a real person, or just people who were lovers of God) in order to show an orderly account of who Jesus is. And as we look at this, we see four emphases that are in this account—the main being the demon’s testimony. And that is the first emphasis: The demonic testimony. The second is the demonic timetable. The third emphasis is the man’s exorcism and lastly the man’s excitement.
The Demonic Testimony
The Demonic Timetable
The Man’s Exorcism
The Man’s Excitement
Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)
Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him.
And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission.
Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.
Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.
Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.
The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
The Demonic Testimony
The Demonic Testimony
The first emphasis that we come to in this text is that of the demonic testimony. Luke takes us to this testimony immediately. There is very little introduction to the scene. We go from reading about Jesus calming the storm to the fact that they sailed to a town mostly likely called Gergesa. Now it is important to understand that this land was filled with Gentiles. Very few Jews lived in the area. So in a rare occasion, Jesus is going to minister to Gentiles.
And we read that the moment Jesus stepped out onto the land, a demoniac met him. Jesus hasn’t gone there to teach. He isn’t visiting any synagogues there or teaching on any plains or mountains. He hasn’t even had the chance to do any of that. Instead, the first and last thing that happens in Gerasene is that he is confronted by a demoniac and as it turns out, this demoniac has multiple demons.
Now, there are a few specifics about this man that Luke shares with us to show that he is indeed demon-possessed. He is naked. Now, typically people don’t go around naked. Public nudity, from the time of the fall, has been seen as shameful and obscene. For this man to constantly be going around without clothes would have been a testimony that there was something wrong with him. But he was also living in the tombs. There are lots of places a person can live. Jesus said of himself that he did not have a place to lay his head. Being homeless would not have been a sign of demon-possession, but the choice of places—among the tombs—to live among death would again be a sign of darkness and uncleanness within the person. Then, of course, there is the supernatural strength of breaking chains and bonds and erratic behavior. When you put all of these aspects together, you have a man who lives among death and uncleanness, and is completely naked at all times, acting erratically and able to break chains, it certainly gives credibility to something being seriously wrong with the guy. It’s a pretty good guess that this man is demon-possessed.
But the first thing he does though is give testimony about Jesus’s identity.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
Luke is giving witness to firsthand testimony as to who Jesus is. This is not the man speaking and giving testimony to Jesus, though we’ll see that in a moment. This is the demon speaking from his own knowledge. He was created by Jesus. He rebelled against Jesus. He was cast out by Jesus. There is no way that he would have mistaken anyone for the Son of the Most High God. He knew him and he knew him well. In fact, he knew him in some ways better than the disciples knew him.
Do you remember the last thing the disciples are recorded as saying? The last thing Luke records the disciples saying is, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” Who is this, the disciples wonder. And her is this demon giving testimony, “Jesus, the Son of the Most High God.”
Firsthand testimony that Jesus is the Son of the Most High. This demon had no doubt as to the reality of Jesus’s identity. You may recall what James wrote about the demon’s understanding of the divine.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Here is this demon who testifies to Jesus’s divinity and shudders before him, knowing he has the ability and authority to torment him. The interesting thing though is the response that both the disciples and the demons have. Both actually shudder. Both are afraid of Jesus’s authority and power. However, the disciples’ fear, as we saw last week is a an awe-filled fear while this demon’s fear is an awful fear. The same power and authority that Jesus possesses can bring awe of terror depending on which side you’re on.
Those who believe in surrender to Jesus see and know his power in awe. Those who believe but are in defiance see and know his power in dread. And there is a day that will come when we shall stand before him and hear his words of authority to us: “Well done, my good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your master,” or “depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, for I never knew you.” And we shall see and know him in his power; the only question is which side we will be on.
The Demonic Timing
The Demonic Timing
Which leads us to our next emphasis. The first was on the demonic testimony, and now we move into the demonic timing. Because there will not only be a time in which we stand before Jesus in judgment, but the demons will as well. Humanity is too distracted to realize that their time is coming. But here is a demon, or a set of demons represented by one, who knows the end is coming. And so he asks not to be tormented. And in case, we misunderstand what the demon meant, we read
And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
Once again, as we saw with the passage of the centurion’s servant, we see that Jesus did not even have to do anything to prove his authority over the situation at hand. With the centurion, you will recall Jesus was on his way when the centurion sent out friends to stop him, saying he was unworthy to have Jesus come into his house. Jesus need only say the word and his servant would be healed. In this case, without Jesus having even said a word, the demon is testifying to Jesus’s authority, when he asks him not to torment him.
And it isn’t as if the demon says this one time. This word “beg” is in the imperfect tense, which gives the idea that the demon was asking again and again. “Please don’t command us to the abyss. Please don’t command us to the abyss. Please, please, please...” There is no doubt that Jesus has the authority and the power to back that authority up.
They know their destiny. They know where they will eventually end up. They are terrified to go there. Their time is short. And they don’t want to go one moment sooner than is necessary and so they beg not to be sent into the abyss.
And you need to understand that this is the same place that all who are outside of Christ will go. There is no purgatory. Jesus has either forgiven your sins and received God’s wrath on your behalf or he has not. There’s no middle ground. And if your faith is not in the work of Jesus, then this terrifying abyss is where you end up as well. Even the demons don’t want to go there one second before it’s their time. But Jesus has said,
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Now, we need to understand this about the demonic. While they are under Satan’s authority, they are ultimately under God’s authority. They can do nothing without God’s providential timing. That not only included Jesus’s day but also the time before and sense Jesus walked the earth.
In the New Testament we see lots of demonic activity. And there is some of it happening in the early church, but most happens in the New Testament. And that isn’t because the people of the first century were more superstitious than people in the 21st century. Instead, we see it most likely because of Jesus’s time on earth and the church being in its infancy stage.
Satan has certainly wanted to destroy any work of God. From the time there was a prophecy of Jesus’s birth back in Genesis 3:15 all the way until Jesus comes finally to defeat Satan for good, the devil and his demons have sought to combat and frustrate God’s plan. But there was a concerted effort to do so while Jesus walked upon the earth.
Paul tells us that idols in themselves are nothing, but that there are demons behind the idols. The idols are representations of the demonic and those idols have gone back thousands of years. So it isn’t that there weren’t demons in the Old Testament, but they were much more subtle than what we find in the New Testament.
And we know that the church has had to deal with the demonic as Jesus even said that the gates of hades would not be able to stand against the church. What we find in Luke 10 and again in Revelation 9 is that Satan has fallen to earth and opened up an abyss releasing all these demons. And so they were released for a time.
Apparently, this set did not want Jesus to send them back. But they understood that their time was short. They would return to the pit. And we see that this is what happens in the church age. Here we see an angel being spoke of,
And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
This doesn’t mean that there is no demonic activity, but that it is severely limited. It will not be like the days when Jesus walked, when these demons were released. But there is coming another time in which demons shall be released, and then the final judgment. When that release will be, we don’t know. But it will be evident when it happens. Until then, we need not see demons under every rock, but rather rest in knowing that just as before so it shall ever be that ever single one trembles before Jesus knowing his authority and power.
The Man’s Exorcism
The Man’s Exorcism
Which leads us to the third emphasis in this passage. The first two dealt with the demons themselves and the the last two deal with the man who was possessed. So we had the demonic’s testimony of Jesus and the demonic’s timing as to his and other demonic’s activities and judgment. We come now to the man and his exorcism.
What we see in Luke 8:29, is Jesus beginning to call on the demon to come out and as if he gets interrupted, the demon begs him not to torment him by sending him to the abyss. So then we see Jesus ask his name and we find out that he is Legion because there are many demons within him.
Now it must be said here that this is not a manual on how to exorcise demons. Demonic possession is rare and when it happens you’ll know. But we are not to utilize this narrative or any other narrative as if they are lessons in how to exorcise demons. This isn’t about demons or demonology; it’s about Jesus! Jesus didn’t always ask for its name. Paul at one time just ordered the demon out of the girl’s life by the power of Jesus. He couldn’t have cared less about the name.
In this case, Jesus asked for his name and it was Legion. Why? Because many had entered into the man. It was as if an army had infiltrated the man’s body. And knowing that Jesus had the power to send them to the abyss, requested instead to be sent into a herd of pigs. One way or another, they knew their time was up in this man. What happened next would ultimately be up to Jesus.
And Jesus complied with the request. He sent them into the pigs. Now, it seems strange as to why Jesus would comply with such a request. And we aren’t told as to the reasoning. But what we find is that having complied the pigs then rush to the sea. Better to have an entire herd of pigs killed than one man be possessed.
But if Hebrew lore is correct, the sea was connected to the abyss; this could be why the demons would take the man into the desert, to get as far away from the sea as possible. Who really knows? It could have been that Jesus had the last laugh. Send them into a filthy bunch of pigs as they asked and yet put them in the abyss anyway. Who knows? What we do know is that when the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.
Many a Christian, though not possessed by one demon, let alone many, still finds himself entangled with sin or a legion of sins. Yet rather than seeing Jesus as the one who can set him/her free, seeks instead to free himself/herself and their motto is, “This is my life and I have to fix it myself. Or he/she believes that he/she is trapped and there is no hope—not even for the Son of the Most High God—to deliver them from whatever it is that has befallen them. The motto this time is that “this is my life and its the way it is and will always be; I just have to live with it.” Rather than flee to Jesus in faith, we flee from Jesus in frustration or fear.
The Man’s Excitement
The Man’s Excitement
Which brings us to the last emphasis in the story. After the man’s exorcism, we find him excited. And why shouldn’t he be!? He’s been demon-possessed for how long? Constantly shaming himself, being driven into desert places, and who know what all? Then along comes Jesus and he releases him from a legion of demons.
But of course, not everyone is happy. In fact, it seems as if only the man healed is excited about what has just happened. The pig-herder isn’t happy. He runs and tattles on Jesus to the townspeople and they come and are afraid and ask him to leave. Like last week, the real issue arises. What is more scary, a man who has been possessed by demons his entire life and is strong enough to break chains, or the man who can, in a moment, release the man from every form of evil, being stronger than the strong man?
So in a matter of minutes, Jesus’s ministry in Gergesa is over. But here is the thing about Jesus; no one seems to have ever met him without some sort of extreme reaction. The townspeople, the pig-herder are both full of fear. But this one man who has been released from demonic possession is full of excitement.
And we see that he begged Jesus to let him come with him. Again, this is imperfect and so implies that he was doing it again and again. While the demons were begging Jesus over and over again not to torment them by sending them to the abyss, the once demon-possessed man was begging Jesus over and over again to bring him with him. But Jesus says no.
Why? Why would Jesus turn down a follower? Didn’t Jesus say that if anyone came to him, he would in now way cast them out? Of course he did. So why is he not allowing this man who is begging to follow him to do so? It is not that Jesus was casting him out; it is that he was sending him out.
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
The people would not stand for Jesus to stay. Jesus would not be able to give testimony. He would not be able to teach. He would not be able to do any more miracles. But that did not mean he would not have a voice. This man would be Jesus’s voice to a people who would not listen because of fear. But in time this man, who had been healed by the Son of the Most High God, could exclaim the name of Jesus to them.
In essence, this man was sent in the same way the apostles were sent and the same way we are sent. Jesus, in his humanity would not be able to go to all places, but could send his followers who would take his message and bear witness to his identity to all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues.
Notice what Jesus commands and what the man does. “Declare how much God has done for you.” But he “proclaimed throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” Mark used the word “Lord,” but Luke wanting it to be explicitly clear, used the word “God.”
In one short narrative, we have three testimonies as to who this man is who commands even the wind and water? Legion tells us that he is the Son of the Most High. The man by his testimony equates Jesus with God himself. And Luke, using this narrative ensures Theophilus and us today that indeed Jesus and God are one!
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish up this narrative of what Jesus has done, but even more importantly who Jesus is, we have also uncovered a lot more. We have uncovered not only the demonic testimony that was firsthand testimony about Jesus, but we’ve also seen that the demonic were under time-constraints as well and that they are currently restrained in the abyss. We’ve seen that Jesus indeed have the power to set the man free and has the power to do the same for us. And we saw that the man, excited for what Jesus did for him was sent to be a witness to his people.
Most of us in here have been delivered from our sins. We have been saved from the wrath of God to come. And there was a time in which we were excited even as this man was excited. But over time, that outward excitement was drawn inward so that our testimony began to soften and lessen. Its’ not that the excitement is gone; it can return if we were to sit and think about what Jesus has done for us, but it isn’t new.
Let me encourage you to do something today or tomorrow. First take a few moments to think of what Jesus has done for you. Think about his salvation in your life. But don’t leave it at that. After all, Jesus told the man to declare how much God had done for him. How has God, how has Jesus, changed your life. Sit and think for a moment. Maybe on the way home think about it and then over lunch give testimony to someone. Call someone on the phone, text them, email them, but let that excitement overflow in a testimony.