Luke 8:26-39
"And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.
Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again. Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him," Luke 8:26-39.
There is much to learn from this passage of Scripture. We will start out by continuing to look at the disciples from last week. Our days do not always go as we plan them. We learned last time about the disciple's boat trip. The storm, the Saviour, then the silence. What they went through is not what they were expecting; nor were they expecting Jesus to be able to calm the storm. We know this by what they said in Luke 8:25, "And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him." The disciples were still learning about Jesus, as all of us are. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes," Job 42:5-6. It is easy for us to think we know more about our God than we really do. When we get here we are not looking to learn more of Him. We plateau in our spiritual walk, and we dwell a lot in what we used to do. "Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day," Psalm 25:4-5. "There are two ways of learning Divine things. The one is to acquire a letter knowledge of them from the Bible, the other is to be given an actual experience of them in the soul, under the Spirit's teaching. Many suppose that by spending a few minutes in a concordance, they can discover what humility is; that by studying certain passages of Scriptures, they may obtain an increase in faith; or that by reading and re-reading a certain chapter, they may secure more love. But that is not the way those graces are experimentally developed. HUMILITY is learned by a daily smarting under the plague of the heart, and having its innumerable abominations exposed to our view. REPENTANCE is learned by feeling the load of guilt, and the heavy burden of conscious defilement, bowing down the soul. FAITH is learned by increasing discoveries of unbelief and infidelity. LOVE is learned by a personal sense of the underserved goodness of God to the vilest of the vile. PATIENCE cannot be learned from books-it is acquired in the furnace of affliction! It is thus with all the spiritual graces of the Christian. Ah, my reader, we beg the Lord to teach us-but the fact is, that we do not like His method of teaching us! Fiery trials, storms of afflictions, the dashing of our carnal hopes-are indeed painful to flesh and blood; yet it is by them that the heart is purified. We say that we wish to live to God's glory-but fail to remember that we can do so only as SELF is denied and the Cross be taken up. God's ways of teaching His children are, like all His ways, entirely different from ours!" A. W. Pink.
As a result of the storm the disciples went through, they were able to experience Jesus like they had not before. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, really is Immanuel, God in the flesh. They have seen Him do many wonderful works, and now they have seen Him tame that which no man can tame. They have learned about the works of God, and now they are experiencing them. They have seen Christ heal all manner of diseases, cast out devils, calm the storm; what will be next? We have a group of men who are physically worn out, but they are headed for a divine appointment. There is a man on the other side of the Sea of Galilee who is in desperate need of the Saviour. The disciples are learning about Jesus, and to trust Jesus, and they are also learning that ministry doesn't stop. Even when our bodies are in need of rest, ministry doesn't stop. We may physically take a break, but our minds are always on ministering for Christ. We who minister for Christ in America have luxury's that most of the world have never and will never experience. Turn to II Corinthians 11:16-28; 12:10. Are we ready to sign up for this? Turn again to Luke 14:25-33. No matter what particular ministry we may be involved in, ultimately we are ministering for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Knowing Him and making Him known fuels us. "But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of," John 4:32.
The disciples are learning intellectually as Jesus teaches them, and they are learning experientially as they walk with Jesus. The more we learn about Jesus and the more we walk with Jesus our desire should be like that of John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease," John 3:30. The work of ministry doesn't have a clock to punch, nor is it confined just to people who love the Lord. There are times you have to deal with people who are in the depths of sin. How will we view these people? We will even have to deal with people who have vehemently stood against us, how will we treat these people? We will have to deal with people who have gone astray. Turn to Jude 1:17-25. When they repent, have compassion on them. This is not what our flesh wants to do. Is the ministry truly about Jesus, or about us? The disciples are about to see Jesus deal with a man who most people do not even want to touch. Lord help us. Send questions and comments to richardsonbaptistchurch@gmail.com.
