A Day at the Beach, The End

And so it ends where  it began.  It seems fitting that the Jesus initiated Peter’s call on a beach, confirmed his call on a beach and now is finalizing his call on the beach.  And not just any beach, the same beach.

But before we start today’s message, a story.

It was the year after we had moved into the building and I was having a conversation with A.J. Thomas who was then the assistant pastor at Hillside Wesleyan. And we were talking about the growth we had seen over the previous year since we had moved into the building.  And AJ made the comment, “It’s incredible, all you did was move to the other side of the Bedford Hammonds Plains sign, you just went to the other side.”  And being a professional communicator I responded by saying “Wow, the other side.” 

And then I told AJ this story.  Two years previous when Franklin Graham came to Halifax I had been asked to organize a pastor’s prayer time for Bedford Sackville.  So every couple of weeks a group of us gathered at the Pentecostal Church on Stokil Drive in Sackville. 

Well this one occasion I arrived and it was just me and the pastor, who told me he had another meeting to attend and asked me to lock the doors when I left.  And then there was just me.  Normally there would have been four or five of us.  And then another guy showed up and introduced himself as the Pastor of the Victory Church in Fall River.  I had never met the man before and haven’t seen him since.  Just a one-time meeting, I can’t even remember his name. 

But as we chatted he told me that he had a Word from The Lord for me. 

Now to be truthful, I am thinking “You’ve never met me before and you have a word for The Lord for me.”   But being polite I said, Ok, go ahead. 

And he said “This morning I was having my quiet time with God and was reading from John chapter 21 and when I got to the part where Jesus told Peter to cast his net on the other side God told me that he wanted me to come to this meeting and to give that message to a pastor that I would meet here.  So I asked him, ‘how will I know which pastor?’ to which he replied ‘Oh, you’ll know.’  and here we are.  So I am supposed to tell you, ‘Cast your net on the other side’.”  And so I asked “What is that supposed to mean?”  and he said “I have no idea, I’m just doing what was told to do.”

And that was it, we had prayer and I’ve never seen him again.  Now it would be really cool to say that I immediately realized the significance of what he was saying, that I focused my attention on this side of the sign and here we are today.  But seriously I didn’t have a clue.  That evening at supper I told Angela the story, we bounced around some ideas, did it mean we should redefine the style of Cornerstone? That didn’t seem right.   Did it mean we should resign and go somewhere else?   That didn’t seem to be the answer either.  And eventually I stopped thinking about it until AJ mentioned about how we had simply moved to the other side.  Wild!

And has nothing to do with today’s message, but it’s a cool story. 

This is week five of our ‘A Day at the Beach’ series.  We have taken the past few weeks to look at parts of the Jesus story that have happened in and around the Sea of Galilee.

It was at the Sea of Galilee that Jesus first called Peter and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John.  It was at the Sea of Galilee that Jesus found the guys fishing again and reaffirmed his call on their lives.  It was on the Sea of Galilee that Jesus calmed the storm and walked on the water.

And here he meets with his closest friends once again.  In the account that was read for us earlier John wrote that Jesus met with seven of his remaining eleven apostles on the beach of the Sea of Galilee. 

Now some of you might be looking in your bible and you are saying “Oh no Pastor in my Bible it says it was the Sea of Tiberias.”

Simple reason, an old name and a new name. Recognize this?  It’s Ayers Rock, well actually it used to be called Ayers Rock now it’s called Uluru, well actually it used to be called Uluru, then it was called Ayers Rock and now it’s called Uluru again.  And if you were to go to Australia you would hear some people call it Ayers Rock, and some would call it Uluru and some people just refer to it as the “Red Centre”.  

Kind of like what used to be Hammonds Plains became a part of Halifax County and then just a part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, and now it’s just Halifax, but let’s not go there.  To really confuse the issue the name Gennesaret was used at another point in history to describe the same body of water.    And it isn’t actually a sea it’s just a big lake. 

It wasn’t all of the disciples who were there but it was most of them; we are told that there were John 21:2 Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.   If we wanted to speculate on who the other two disciples were one good guess would be Andrew, cause he was Peter’s brother and fishing partner and maybe Phillip because he had been listed alongside of Andrew before.  And they were kind of hanging out, talking, today if they were doing that in a church we’d say they were “Fellowshipping”.  It seems like today Christians get guilt feelings if they aren’t doing something churchy, so they don’t just hang out and have fun they fellowship. 

And it was at that point that John 21:3 Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said.

It Started When Peter Looked Back 

So there it was, Jesus had risen from the dead, appeared to the disciples, had commissioned them to his service and given them a vital task but nothing was happening, for whatever reason Christ didn’t have them doing anything and it was getting on Peter’s nerves.  From everything we know about Peter we’d have to say he was a type “A” personality.  I was in traffic with a friend of mine one day and I mentioned that in relation to the traffic that I was a type “A” personality.  So my friend asked what other types there were and the response was that in the eyes of a type “A” there were Type “A’s” and the people who are in the way.  Well that was definitely Peter, and if there wasn’t something to do then he was going to make something to do

And so there they were, doing nothing, watching the boats getting ready, the sails going up, the nets being prepared and I can almost hear Peter say, “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of sitting around here twiddling my thumbs, I’m going fishing.”  And it was just the spark they needed.  “You’re right, count me in Peter” “I’m coming to, what are we waiting for?”

Now I don’t know what it is about fishing, have never been able to figure it out.  I came out of High School with fairly high marks, I’d been accepted at Kings, could have stepped into management training with Tip Top, instead I joined a rag tag collection of would be adventurers on the Rali 2, a mid-water trawler based out of Paspebeac Quebec.  I mean we all had experience in selling clothes, and advertising, running hotels and renting cars, managing restaurants, driving dump truck, being policeman and digging graves.  We weren’t short on experience we were just short on fishing experience. 

But fishing we went.  At the end of our first summer the boat went to dry dock for some modifications, and we all went back to some semi respectable professions.

But whenever you saw one of the boys they had a gleam in their eyes and they would talk about sailing in the spring.  I’d occasionally catch Dad muttering, “Just sitting here a wishing, I could go a fishing.”  We were all making as good, if not better money, we weren’t seasick, we were home, we weren’t cold and wet, and yet when the call came in the spring we all gave up what we were doing to go a fishing.  How come, I don’t know, maybe the independence, or the sense of conquering nature, I really don’t know, but there was some type of hold. And so the story continues

John 21:3 Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.

There are a couple of things that strike me about this scripture.  The first thing is that spiritual decision seldom affect only us.  Peter said “I’m going fishing.”  And the rest of them joined him. 

When you make the decision to not go to church or to go deeper in your faith you will take others with you.

The second thing that struck me was that it says They went out in their boat  The New King James version is a little different because it says “They went out and immediately got into their boat.”  There hasn’t been any mention of them fishing now for a couple of years and the boat was already to sail, whata you know about that.

Whenever we went back to go fishing it took the ten of us 2-3 days to get the equipment ready to use, and these guys go down jump in the boat and sail away.  To me, it tells me only one thing, this wasn’t spontaneous.  He was no longer just looking back,  Peter Went Back.

During the days while Peter was waiting he must have been mending twine, fixing equipment, getting the boat ready for the water. But he wasn’t just thinking about doing it, now he was doing it.   I’m sure that he thought it was harmless, he was just passing time, it was just giving him something to do.  Billy Sunday was the Billy Graham in the early years of the 1900s, and he made this statement, “When a man, after starting to be a Christian looks back, it’s only a question of time until he goes back.”  Kind of remind you of what Jesus said in Luke 9:62 But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

The day that Peter dug out his boat, he stated that he wasn’t happy with the present.  The day that Peter began getting his gear ready, was the day that he showed his intentions that he planned on returning to yesterday.  Whether he knew it or not, it was only a matter of time until he sailed.  And the day that Peter sailed he stepped back into yesterday, and stated that he couldn’t or wouldn’t accept what today had to offer.

People do that today, maybe not in the physical sense, but they do it in the emotional sense and a spiritual sense.  Why I remember back in ’04, why back then Rev. So and So was the Pastor here and we used to have hundreds of people, things sure aren’t the way they used to be.  We don’t have that problem yet, but someday the temptation will be there.

Yes the Holy Spirit moved yesterday, and yes wonderful things happened yesterday, but this is now and we need to stay focused on that.  In the book of 1 John we read 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  Not sit in the light or stand in the light, or meditate on the light, but walk.  Movement, progression, going forward.  You ever hear “Still water runs deep”?  Not always, sometimes still water is just plain stagnant, and so are immovable Christians.

Yesterday is gone, it’s done, you can’t change even one aspect of it by replaying it over and over in your mind, and it will not come back. As Lee Iacocca said “Yesterday ended at midnight.”  I’m not saying that we have to give up our memories; I’m just saying we ought not live there.

The story continues, John 21:3-6 Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night. At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?” “No,” they replied. Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.

And Then Peter Came Back 

They didn’t catch a thing, man, as a former commercial fisherman let me try to put this as eloquent as possible; There ain’t nothing more depressing than catching nothing.  Now a lot of things happen all of a sudden, Jesus is standing on the shore looking out at them, nothing miraculous here, the fisherman of that area often fished close to the shore and so Jesus would have no problem hollering out to them. 

Why didn’t they recognize him?  Maybe it wasn’t fully light yet, or  maybe there was a mist in the air or maybe they were just tired but regardless of the why they didn’t recognize him, they didn’t.  And he hollers out to them, “Let your net down on the other side”.  You have to wonder, “Did he see the fish?”  It’s possible, there is nothing here to indicate that it was a miracle, but then again maybe it was, maybe Christ created these fish just for the disciples to catch.  It really isn’t all that important or that relevant.

What is relevant is that he provided for them, wheter through a natural means or a supernatural means the end result was still the same.  At this point I don’t know if it was catching all the fish and John remembered that it happen before, maybe he looked at his friends and said, “Hey guys this is like Déjà vu all over again.  This is just like back in Luke chapter 5 verse 7.” And that made him realize that it was Jesus.  Or maybe the fog lifted or the dawn began to break through, whatever it was John turned to Peter and said “It’s the Lord!”  Well that was all Peter needed to hear, he grabbed his tunic, pulled it on and jumped overboard, and swam the hundred yards to shore.

Now it may seem a little strange to us that he put on his outer garment before he jumped over the side, but it was a show of respect.  He had probably been working in just a loincloth and that wasn’t enough to wear when you approach a teacher.  This was so like Peter, good old impetuous Peter, leaving the other six to do all the work.  But when Jesus commanded him to bring some fish he rushed down to the beach to drag the net in all by himself.

Now if we were to have kept reading in the story we would have discovered , John 21:11 So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn. If you’ve ever read this passage did you ever wonder about the significance of the 153 fish?  No, well others have. 

Through the centuries there have been all kinds of theories about why that specific number of fish was mentioned, but it doesn’t matter. 

You see we can get so caught up in really trivial stuff and miss the fact that we need to be obedient to Christ, today.  When Peter saw Jesus he was willing to come back to the present and to leave the past behind him.  We need to recognize that Jesus is here today, February 9, 2014.  Not yesterday, or last month or last year but here today.  And today is when he wants you to serve him.

And here comes the question, everyone has finished their breakfast and Jesus looked at Peter and this is what he said, John 21:15 After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

I've talked about this before, do you know who I think Jesus meant when he said "Do you love me more than these?"    Nobody, I don’t think he was talking about a “who” I think he was talking about a what.  He wasn’t asking Peter if he loved him more than he loved John or Andrew, that’s a little juvenile.  And I don’t think he was asking Peter if he loved him more than the other guys loved him. 

I think that what Jesus was saying to Peter was, “Once I called you from a scene very much like this, way back in Mark chapter 1 and then again in Luke chapter 5 verse 3 and you followed me.  But here you are back in your old life.  So Peter are you going to abandon me?  Are you leaving the adventure, do the old ties still tug at your heart?  Peter, why are you here?  Do you want to stay fishing, or is your love for me greater than your love for your boat, and your net, and your independence?  Is your love for me greater than these, greater than yesterday, greater then all of these things that represent your past, greater than your boat and all your gear, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” And Peter looked at Jesus and said “Yes, Lord, you know I do!” and Jesus said “Peter is that your final answer?”  You say no he didn’t, oh yes he did, maybe not in those words, but he asked Peter the question 2 more times.

Peter had denied Jesus three times and here Jesus is allowing him the chance to confess his love three times.  Aren’t you glad we serve a God of the second chance?

Jesus is asking you the very same question today “Will you serve me today?”  Not “Did you serve me yesterday?” or “Will you serve me tomorrow?”  But “Will you serve me today?”  

Remember we learn from yesterday and we can dream for tomorrow but we need to live for today.  Isaiah 43:19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Pigs on the Beach

It wasn't your typical day at the beach.  Instead of beach umbrellas, lounge chairs and a sandcastle, we have a cemetery, a violent man, the supernatural, outraged citizens and pigs.  And I'm pretty flexible, especially about beaches, but I draw the line at pigs on the beach.

This is week four of our Day at the Beach series.  We have been looking at events from the Gospels that have happened on and around the Sea of Galilee, which as we have already explained wasn't actually a sea but simply a lake. And we are picking up where we left off last week.

It had been a pretty full day, what with all the teaching, healings and all. Then Jesus and the apostles had gotten into a boat and headed across the lake.  When dark came a violent storm suddenly developed and the apostles figured that was the end and woke Jesus up, didn't want him to miss anything.  But instead of joining in the panic Jesus commanded the wind and waves to stop, and they did.  Amazing, not only was he in control of the physical he was in control of the natural as well.  And now morning had come and he was about to show his control over the supernatural.

The group landed at a point identified here as Gerasenes  which if we pull up our trusty map was here on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  It’s interesting as you study the New Testament and read how scholars try to identify communities by the descriptions given them 2000 years ago. 

The first church Angela and I pastored together was outside of Sussex New Brunswick in a hamlet called Hammondvale. To even call it a hamlet was being charitable.  There was nothing there, zip, nada zero.  Maybe 40 homes and a chapel that had been built a hundred years before.  But if you were to read the history of Hammondvale from the 1800’s there was some mining going on, there were a couple of stores and a hotel, a lawyer’s office and several other businesses.  And yet 90 years later you would be hard pressed to believe that any of that had ever existed. 

That being said, it has been by guess and by golly that we say with great authority that this is the location.  Gerasenes  hardly existed 2000 years ago and doesn’t exist today, but this is where they figure it was.

And as Jesus and the group landed and came ashore they were confronted with a most unusual greeting committee.   I’ll let Mark tell you more.  Mark 5:1-2 So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him.

I would suspect that this man had not been selected by the chamber of commerce to greet newcomers to town, he probably wasn't part of the official Welcome Wagon.  But listen to how he greeted Jesus and the apostles. Mark 5:6-7 When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!”

Did you catch it?  There was something very important in what he said.  Let’s read it again.  Mark 5:6-7 When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!”

Right there, do you see what he calls Jesus?  Son of the most high God.  This is one of the first people to recognize and identify Jesus’ true identity and divinity.  Up to now we heard him referred to as “Lord” or “Teacher” but this is the first time he is referred to as God’s Son.   Interesting. 

Some times when I talk to folks and try to get a handle on where they are spiritually they will say “Well I believe.”  Well sure, everyone believes something, even if it’s that they believe there is no God.  Or they will say “I believe in believe in God” or “I believe in Jesus”  Listen to what the Bible, God’s word says James 2:19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

And it would appear that this guy knew his fate, and he understood the truth of  Matthew 25:41 “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.’”  So he knew that he was destined for an eternity of punishment and torment and yet he still chose to follow Satan.  Wow, good thing people aren’t like that.  Oh, I guess they are.

If we keep reading the story we see Jesus questions the man, only to discover that there isn't a demon, but many demons.  And they beg Jesus to not send them to some distant place, wherever that distant place might have been. 

Instead the demons immediately go on the defensive and looking around they see a herd of pigs, so let’s go back to the story.  Mark 5:11-12 There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. “Send us into those pigs,” the spirits begged. “Let us enter them.”

You catch that?  The demons had to ask Jesus permission to enter the pigs. And if we keep reading the Bible tell us that Jesus granted them permission and the demons entered the pigs, the pigs charge down the hill into the lake and drown.   End of story, right?  Well not quite because the pig herders go into town with their story and tell everyone and the entire town turns out to see this Jesus for themselves. 

Now before we continue with this story there was another time that an entire community turned out to see the one called Jesus.  Maybe you remember it from John 4:39-41 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe.

Not here though, here the reaction is completely different.  Mark 5:17 And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone. The people of one community begged Jesus to stay and the people of the other community begged Jesus to leave.  Interesting.

So what do we learn from the story? 

The Reality of Demons

We live in a time and culture that the supernatural seems more like fantasy or fiction then reality.  And we are quick to dismiss rather than accept that they may be things that we can’t understand and explain.  One commentator that I read espoused the view that the man wasn't actually demon possessed that he just thought he was demon possessed, and his loud screaming startled the herd of pigs who ran down the hill into Galilee.  And then Jesus used the death of the pigs to convince the man that the demons had left him and gone into the pigs.

Ok.  Guess he never heard that we don’t debate the book.  We are reminded by Paul in Ephesians 6:11-12 Put on all of God’s armour so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

In Luke 10:19 Jesus called Satan “Our Enemy” and that is echoed by his friend Peter who wrote 1 Peter 5:8 Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. 

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 than 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.

This man was 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 vs.  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 than to deliver this man and speak to the people of the area.   Gerasenes 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 on 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 Gerasenes to free the oppressed and release the captives.  During his brief visit there he completely turned the world of this man upside down.  He  had been isolated from his community and his family.  His life wasn’t even his own instead he were at the mercy of these demons and Jesus sent him 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 life of this one man.

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.

Let’s personalize it and read it together Romans 8:38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate me from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither my fears for today nor my worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate me from God’s love.

Do you believe that promise today?  Do you want it to be a reality in your life?  God is in control and he wants to be in control of your life.  We can get into all kinds of discussions about who can be oppressed or possessed by demons and who can’t be but I really think a lot of it comes down to a personal choice. 

If you are one hundred percent committed to God there will be no room for demons in your life.   They can’t be in his presence.  Jesus had just landed in Gerasenes and the demons knew they couldn’t stay.  That’s why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:21 You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.

And why James tells us in James 3:10-11 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?

And so the demons chose to go into the pigs but notice what happened the pigs didn’t want them either, they would rather drown then have a bunch of demons in them. So what happened to the demons, don’t know but from what I understand water wasn’t what they were looking for.  Check out Matthew 12:43 “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none.  Now I’m thinking that if the desert is where a demon would prefer to go then a lake wouldn’t even be a close second.

So that battle was won, and here is the good news for you today, the battle for your soul has already been won.  Jesus fought it and won it two thousand years ago when Satan tried to nail righteousness to a cross, but Jesus defeated him with his resurrection and won the battle right then and there and all we have to do is accept what he has done for us. 

Not Everyone Was Happy  We kind of figure that the demons weren’t happy, that’s kind of the nature of the beast, what with being demons and all. Probably weren’t the life of the party and that doesn’t even take into account the entire pig thing.  We alluded to this earlier but the last verse of this passage says Mark 5:17 And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone.

So what was up with that? Some people feel that they were upset because of the loss of their pigs, others contend that the people were afraid of Jesus and his power.  But if it was the first reason they weren’t the only people to put material possessions over a relationship with Christ. 

Some people will never come to the point of accepting the Lordship of Jesus because they are afraid what they will have to give up in order to do that.  Whether it’s their possessions, or their money or their will and desires.  But they don’t understand what they are losing.  Jesus warned us in Matthew 16:26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

There is no evidence that Jesus ever returned to Gerasenes in the remainder of his ministry.  They rejected Christ and sent him away and he left.  Do you ever stop and wonder what would happen if God respected your wishes and just left you alone?  

And I know that at this point some of you are wondering What About the Pigs?  The pigs?  Oh right the pigs, they drowned.  Oh you’re upset because this pigs drowned?  You’re supposed to be happy because this man got his life back.

You understand that the pigs should not have even been there right?  Under Jewish law there was no reason to have pigs, you couldn’t eat them, you weren’t supposed to touch them.  Leviticus 11:7-8 The pig has evenly split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean. You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses. They are ceremonially unclean for you.  In the Old Testament people that ate pigs were not considered the best folks to hang around with Isaiah 65:3-4 All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens. They burn incense on pagan altars. At night they go out among the graves, worshiping the dead. They eat the flesh of pigs and make stews with other forbidden foods.

It was a shame what happened to the pigs, ok I have nothing against pigs,  especially wrapped around scallops,   but let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture.  And don’t even get me started on how so many of the people who are so vocal about protecting baby seals are just as vocal about allowing unborn children to be destroyed.  You don’t want to go there.

Forget the pigs and understand that this story reveals that there is a supernatural battle that is being waged for the souls of people and if you want to be on the winning side then you have to choose.  And with that I leave you with the challenge of Joshua who stood before the people of Israel and said  Joshua 24:15 “. . . choose today whom you will serve. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”