Year 2 Day 112

Year 2 Day 112

Pray (AC-ts)

Read Mark 5:1-5

Message Alan Burke

A dry change of clothes, a few hours sleep, maybe a pot of coffee and a good ulster fry. That’s what would be on my mind if I had been buffeted by the waves and been soaked to the skin. The disciples didn’t get any of that. Remember how they had cried out in fear because of the wind and the waves, they had witnessed Jesus rebuke them and they were terrified for they had come before the Lord himself. Well now on the other side before they have a chance to process what had happened as soon as Jesus stepped out of the boat Jesus was immediacy confronted with a man with an evil spirit. 

Look at what we are told; this man came from the tombs (2). There are many graveyards and cemeteries across this land but in Jesus day they would have had tombs. What’s significant is this man is living there because he’s an outcast, his life is effective gone, living in the shadows away from community, he is dead but not dead. People had tried to bind him but they couldn’t do it, no matter what they tried, their efforts was futile, for he had the power to brake the chains and the irons on his feet. The picture of this man that we are given is how he is beyond the help of anyone, no matter what others have tried to do they are helpless to help him. This is a vidid picture of a man living among the dead crying out night and day, harming himself, he’s wild, naked, covered in sores and scars, howling, this is awful. 

This is a man whose life had been consumed by the power of Satan. For all evil in this world stems from him and what happened in fall. This demon possessed man experienced that evil in a way than we can’t even begin to imagine, his life was so overcome, that he was living among the dead, desperate and hopeless, as if awaiting his inevitable fate. Everything we are told about the man is horrendous. Here’s the thing, we may try to dismiss demon possession and true we might not be confronted with it or see it today but we all have seen the power of Satan at work in peoples lives. Think about, watch the news, recall things that have happened to you, then there are those who you have know and love whose lives have been consumed and destroyed by Satan’s power even though we may not want to explain it in that way. That’s what Satan does, he prowls like a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8). 

For the believer thought, if you know and love the Lord you can take solace even in the midst of knowing this, you should have confidence for even though Satan is there prowling like a lion looking for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8), neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor thing present nor things to come, now powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38). There is nothing in all creation, nor any evil or being within it, that can end the active love of God towards us in Christ. Today, tomorrow, the next, Satan may do his all, but for you in Christ Jesus you are secure. 

Pray (ac-TS)

Sing

WSC 
Q5 Are there more Gods than one?
There is but One only, the living and true God. (Deut. 6:4, Jer. 10:10)
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