01/26/20 - None Too Far - Mark 5:1-20

One of my mentors would often say, “The most misbelieved verse in the Bible is Ephesians 6:12.” 

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

I think he might be right. Very often the Christian community seeks to fight the battle in the natural and ignore the spiritual. Our ignorance is not bliss. C.S. Lewis rightly says, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

In other words, if you believe demons don’t exist then they are happy because they can do their work unnoticed and without resistance. If you believe there is a demon behind every rock they are fine with this too because they will keep you in a constant state of fear. The balanced and informed approach comes to us in the Bible. The confrontation between the powers of heaven and hell are nowhere seen in better perspective than in Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac. Several observations can be made...

1. Spiritual warfare is real. 
2. Demons worship Jesus. (Yes, you read that correctly.) 
3. None is too far gone to be reached by the strong arm and compassionate heart of God.

The story ends with a dramatic turn around. The demoniac came naked and bleeding and crying out but he leaves clothed, healed and sane. At the end of Mark’s account of the life of Jesus he says that Jesus was on the cross naked, bleeding and crying out. It’s as if this man and Jesus exchange places. Jesus absorbed all our evil and injustice into himself. He took our wrongs and didn’t place them on an animal, he placed them on himself. He did this for you. Jesus defeated the evil in your life. So now you can overcome evil with good. I don’t care how messed up you think you are. Jesus will restore you and send you on a mission of restoring others.