Jesus Heals the Demonized
Transcript
Good morning. Tell you what, I should have paced myself. I thought Sunday school this morning at Casey First. I need to show some really anthem banger songs. And I should have paced myself. All right.
My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We are walking through the Gospel of Matthew. We are finishing out chapter 8 today. So you go ahead and flip there in your Bibles.
We're going to be on page 475 in those blue Bibles. You'll want to follow along with us as we walk through it. I had a friend in college that the more I got to know his story, you know, I realized that we have different backgrounds and different upbringings. And the more I heard his, the more I realized, man, that is way foreign, way different than anything I'd ever heard before. He, his father is British. And the stereotype of British families is that they're, they can be a little cold, not as affectionate, not as warm.
We as Americans are more emotional. And in British families, the stereotype is that they're a little more cold. And his family really fit the stereotype pretty strongly. Because I'd talk to him and he would be like, I'd say, yeah, what was it like, you know, growing up? And he'd just say, you know, honestly, we just kind of passed, you know, family in the house. And we didn't really talk a whole lot.
We just kind of did our own thing. And so did y'all, did y'all reflect on? Did y'all hug? No, we didn't do any of that. We got, you know, we ate meals together, I guess every now and then. But we just kind of led our own lives.
And the more he talked, I just was like, that's not, that's not a normal reality. That, and he thought that that's how most families were. That that's, well, that's how, that's how he was raised. And that's why, did you really think a lot of families are raised the same way as we are? And I was like, man, that's not, I'm sorry, like, that's not the way family is supposed to be. It's not this cold, callous environment that you grew up in was not the norm.
And as he started to experience Jesus for the first time, he didn't grow up in a household that talked about the gospel. He didn't go to church growing up. And the more that he started to encounter the gospel and understanding where he came from, it began to clash. There was something that he'd been missing, a reality that he had missed out on growing up. And that was the love of Christ. For the first time in his life, he was in a community of Christians.
He was experiencing love that he'd never seen, never felt before. And finally, he became a Christian. And, and it changed his reality, opened up a new perspective for him of how things are supposed to be. And we as Americans love stories like that. We love hearing testimonies like that. That is an easy concept for us to wrap our minds around.
That you would be confronted by the love of Christ. And that would expand your, your view of reality. The reality is, is this story today is not easy for us to wrap our mind around. We're going to be talking about demons today. And as American Western Christians, this is something that we don't have strong categories for. When we get confronted by this reality, it's hard for us to really understand it.
Largely in Western culture, as they looked at stories like this in the Gospels, as we're walking through today, as Jesus is casting out demons. It's been rationalized and explained away that, well, actually, you know, they didn't have science back then. So a lot of what he was encountering was schizophrenia or epilepsy. And they just thought that as demons. And I'd say that there absolutely probably were physical realities to a lot of these situations. But I also say the Bible speaks truthfully when it says there was demonic influence involved.
That is exactly what is going on. If it's not rationalized, we'll just kind of move quickly. I guess we're uncomfortable with the story as it is. We're like, all right, let's get back to the healing stories. Let's get back to some of those because this is a little bit weird for us.
We don't have a strong view of this as Westerners. And it clashes with the reality of the Bible. But I would argue that many of us in this room, like my friend in college, live in a reality that you think is normal. And the Bible wants to blow that up and expand it. That there is a spiritual realm. That demons are an actual reality.
And as uncomfortable as it is to walk through a story like this and realize that it is a present reality, my hope today is that our view, our scope would be expanded. And we'd leave it with a better understanding of how the demonic actually works in the world today. And that God willing, for some of you, you would find some freedom. So let me pray. And then we'll jump into the story. God, I'm thankful that you've given us stories like this that challenge us.
God, I pray today that you would speak to us. And I pray in the name of Jesus that you would help us hear what you have to say clearly. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, verse 28. And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes. So this is some setting.
Last week we walked through the story. Jesus and the disciples are on the boat in Sea of Galilee. A storm comes and Jesus displays his miraculous power. And he rebukes the storm and it ceases. And it shows the creative power of God that is in him. This is Genesis 1, Genesis 2, authority over the cosmos.
That Jesus displays this magnificent power. They step off the boat into this region of the Gadarenes. This is a region of Galilee that is heavily Gentile. We're going to see in a moment how that shows up. But he's been ministering to mostly Jewish people.
And he's in a region where there are Gentiles. So he has this big miraculous event. They step off the boat in this region. Verse 28. When he came to the other side of the country of the Gadarenes. Two demon possessed men met him.
Coming out of the tomb. So fierce that no one could pass that way. So they're traveling in this region. And the text tells us two demon possessed men came. Now I'm going to get more into this later.
But I want to help remove I think some unhelpful pictures here. That word demon possessed in the Greek is demononza. It literally means demonized. We get demon possessed because this is in translation. The New Testament is written in Greek. And one of the earliest most popular translations in the English language was the King James Version.
The King James Version translated this back in the 1600s as demon possessed. And we've kind of inherited that word for the last few centuries of translations. And I think that word is a little bit unhelpful for two reasons. Firstly, it literally means demonized. To be affected by demons. But the real big reason I think that it's unhelpful for us when we hear that.
Is because we can't hear demon possessed. And not think a girl on a bed head spinning exorcist. We can't not think found footage demon possessed films. Like the whole Hollywood genre of demon possession has really confused that word. So when we hear that, I want you to hear affected by demons and stay with me.
These two men are affected by demons. They are coming out of the graveyard. And it looks like their go-to activity when they come out of the graveyard is to block the path that comes into the town. Now, they're going to get in the way. Which I would argue is a reason why when you block someone in an interception, that is literally of the devil. Can't prove it from this text.
It's just inherently true. So they block this path. And then they step in the way. And it says, verse 29, Behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? And I like to picture this scene.
This may not be helpful for you. But I'm going to say it anyways. Y'all remember one of the greatest shows from the 90s? Not Seinfeld. Not Friends. Y'all remember Hercules?
With the thespian Kevin Sorbo? The bad guys never just gradually showed up. They just jumped out of the trees. Like right in front of them. They jump out of the path right in front of them. They had their little call-out session and it would begin.
They jump into the path and they start shouting at Jesus. What are you up to, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? And the Gospel of Mark gives us some more. And the same story gives us a window-end, a little bit more of the details. That these are men that were bound with chains.
And they had been breaking these chains and getting free. That they are men that would cut themselves. So they think bloody, scarred up, wild, angry, screaming men. That are oppressed and affected by demons. And they cry out. There's a little bit of the demons speaking through them.
They cry out to Jesus. Because they recognize just how powerful He is. Just how much of a threat He is. And they try to cut a deal. Verse 30. It says, Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them.
And the demons begged Him, saying, If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs. And He said to them, Go. So they came out and went into the pigs. And behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea. And drowned into the waters. Now, admittedly, the pig part of this story is just odd.
It feels a little bit out of place. Have you all seen The Greatest Showman? We watched that movie like a hundred times in our family. Our kids love it. The movie begins with the, you probably heard the song, The Greatest Show. That's the opening track.
And it closes. The whole movie is bookended between that song. And it closes out at the very end. And Hugh Jackman is handing off the circus to Zac Efron. He wants to watch his kids grow up. And then he rides into the city, New York City, on an elephant in the snow.
And then he embraces his family. And it shows like they're going to live happily ever after. And it's this big crescendo, this big finish. And it ends. And you're like, wow. That elephant scene was weird.
That makes no sense. If you ride ten miles in the city in the snow on an elephant, that doesn't make sense. What happened to the elephant? Did they just leave it in New York City? It's confusing. And it feels a little bit out of place.
And that's a little bit when I read this story. It's like the pig's part is just, it's odd. It feels a little bit out of place. And as we try to understand a little bit what's going on here, understanding the scene that Mark's gospel says, this is a legion of demons. These are thousands of demons that are in these two men. And they're begging Jesus, don't, if you're going to cast us out, cast us into this herd of pigs.
And Jesus says, yes. Yes. And they go into the pigs. And the pigs go cliff jumping. And they die. It just, it feels a little bit out of place.
Why did he just destroy them? Why did he cast them out? Why did he grant their request? It feels a little bit odd. And to be honest, I don't have a very solid, firm, this is the reason why. I don't think the text gives us a firm reason as to why he does this.
We get a little bit of a window in of some possibilities when you read the last part of the passage. Verse 33, it says, The herdsmen fled, and going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. So it's possible that what Jesus is doing here is he's doing this big display of power that the pig herders see it, and they go in and spread this throughout the region.
It's possible. I've heard other people try to explain this and say, well, actually, this is 2,000 plus pigs that we learn from in Mark's gospel. This would have really decimated their local economy. This region would have been greatly hurt by this loss of pigs. So what Jesus is actually doing here is he's showing the value of human life over the material.
It's possible. This is also a Gentile region. We know this is a Gentile region. We can tell directly here because Jews, the pigs were unclean. They would never keep pigs like this. So it's possible that Jesus is showing up into a region.
He's been doing ministry mostly with Jewish people. But this prophet who's stirring up the land has come into the city or come into their region, and all of a sudden he's done this big event where he exercises some demons, and he throws them into some pigs, and it could be possible that by their response and saying we don't want you to be in, just leave this region, that they are scared. There's a few different reasons I'm sure that you could come up with. We don't really know for sure why. There are two clear things that we can see in how this passage ends. First, demons are harmful.
They are destructive. They have plagued these two men probably for years. And then when they leave, they enter a herd of pigs, and that herd of pigs dies. They are destructive. And the second thing we can tell is that they obey the voice of Jesus. Jesus has power.
I want you to imagine 3,000 of the baddest, scariest warriors. Think 300 Spartan-style warriors raging in to battle against one man. And they are yelling, and they are screaming, and they're getting ready to pull their swords, and they fall on their face and beg for mercy. If you saw that in a movie, you would say, what kind of power? How scary is that man? That is the power of Jesus on display here.
As the pigs jump into the waters, and the Mark's Gospel tells us that the men were freed of this oppression. At least one of them goes throughout the region declaring what had happened. And when you finish this story, you might think, this is a little bit weird. I want to just kind of back out of this and keep moving on, because our American Western view of this kind of reality doesn't make room for stories like this. But I want to take the rest of our time to actually lean into this reality.
That demons still exist. They still have a place in this world. I want to let that sink in. And when we do that, it will open up a new perspective. And like my friend in college, who when he encountered the love of Christ for the first time, it changed his perspective on everything. I want to press in a little bit here, as uncomfortable as it may be, and open our eyes to the reality that the demonic realm still exists.
And when you understand this, when you get this, it opens your mind up and you see the world in a completely different way. Alright, so, to do that, I want to give us a theology of demons. This is going to come out in three different sections. The first is the nature of demons. The second is their activity. And the third is our response.
Let's start off with the nature of the demonic, the nature of demons. I said this a few, you know, a month ago in the temptation narrative as we walk through Jesus being tempted by Satan. To understand demons, we've got to understand a little bit that it's said. There's a lot more said about Satan than there is the demonic. We have to have a proper understanding of who Satan is. Especially for those of us that are a little bit open to this reality.
Because we like to think, sometimes people say, oh, the devil did this, the devil did that, like he's under every rock, like he's listening in on every conversation. It is very helpful for you to understand Satan is not omnipresent. He is not in all places. He's not behind every single thing that happens that is bad. Now, a better way to see that is that he is the head of evil. He's the head of a network of demons that are seeking to destroy the good fabric of God's creation.
Now, somebody may have been up here preaching, I don't know, a month ago and said accidentally that Jesus is the head of all evil. He misspoke. And upon finding out that he said that was mortified. So, very clearly, definitively say today, no, no, Satan is the head of all evil and it's better to see the work of demons as a larger network that is accomplishing the purpose to destroy what is good in this world. Satan is called the, well, Satan means adversary. So, by nature, the demonic is adversarial.
It opposes what is good. Satan is also called the accuser that demons deal in accusations. It's called the murderer. He is, destroys things. He's called the father of lies that he deals, that demons deal in deception. It's called the enemy.
He is an enemy of God. He is called the tempter that demons lead us into temptation. He's called destroyer. He's called Beelzebub, which loosely means Lord of filth. They are the very embodiment of evil in this world and they seek to destroy what is good, especially those who are made in the image of God. That is their nature.
Second, I want to look at the activity of demons. I know at some point some of you still may be on the fence. You might think, okay, I'll concede. The Bible teaches that demons are reality, but still, like still, now, like I've heard this happening in other countries, but is it really happening here? I would argue that the majority of you, if not all of you, have had interactions with the demonic and you have been unaware. And I want to make you aware of this this morning so you actually see it in its activity.
It's kind of like when you have a friend that gets a car and they get a Ma, that's an interesting choice. I don't see a lot of those on the road. Then all of a sudden for the next three weeks you see that car everywhere. Either your friend and everyone else got the car at the same time or you are now cognizant of it. You are now aware of it and you are starting to see it. And the hope is as we walk through this that you'll be cognizant of how the activity of demons and how they work and you'll be able to see it.
Because in our rational western culture, we actually don't see many versions of what's on display in the story today. Like not many of you are going to walk in a target, on your way in a target, a crazy person jumps out in front of you who is being afflicted by demons and screams at you and won't let you in to target. That's just not, it can happen, it's not the norm. I'd argue that also this story is a more extreme version. In Matthew 4 he's healing, he's casting out demons, he's doing this and all of a sudden this big story happens. That isn't a normal version of what happens in our country, in our area.
I heard someone argue it this way. It's an argument largely based off of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters which is a book on the demonic. And he said in our rational, modern, post-modern western culture, how foolish would it be for the demonic who are by nature destructive and deceitful and want to pull us away from following Jesus. How foolish would it be for them in a culture that has largely rejected God? Largely rejected Jesus?
How foolish would it be for them to just reveal themselves, to peel the curtain back on the spiritual world? How foolish would that be? Because if you actually see what's going on in the spiritual realm, if you actually see the demonic face to face, it begs the question, if this is real, God must be real and the gospel must be real and I need to respond. You look at other cultures that are more animistic, you look at certain cultures in Africa and different parts of the world, their encounters with the demonic is a lot more like this story. And it makes sense because they already have a category for that and the goal is to keep them from believing in Jesus.
But in our culture, we're more rational, it would be foolish for them to reveal themselves in this way. So, if they don't reveal themselves in a way like this, then how do they? How do they have, if I'm making the argument that they have activity in our lives, that all of us have had run-ins, what does it look like? Since they are deceptive by nature, dealing in lies and accusations, I argue what Jesus argues in John 8, 44, he says, you are of the father of the devil and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him when he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.
I would argue that in our culture, this is how they are going to operate. This is how we see them operate. They deal in deception and accusation and lies. And we have seen this as we walk with people in our church. We have seen this kind of activity where it has come in and there is deception and there is lies and there are accusations. So I want to take a few minutes and walk through a few different examples of what this looks like and how we have seen some of this play out and how the forces of evil in this world are seeking to destroy us.
First example is discouragement. What we will see sometimes is that in the subject matter of discouragement, the demonic attack Christians, they attack people in our church. Let me give you an example of what this looks like. How many of you have been in a group? Everyone's friends, you're having fun, it's been a great night, you're gospeling one another and then you leave group and you have a thought that comes in. It's almost an external voice but it sounds a little bit like your own and it says they don't really like you.
They don't really care about you. They just have, they're friends, they just have to be friends with you. They don't actually think you are a part of this. How many of you have felt that when you've left a situation just discouraged feeling alone like no one cares? How many of you have heard some type of voice that says no one really loves you? No one really cares about you?
No one cares to want to get to know you? You don't have value. How many of you have heard a version of you are a fake? You are a fraud. Like we're talking about Jesus is better than everything else. We're a gospel-centered community on mission.
You hear this voice that comes and says you don't really believe that. You don't really, you're a fake. If they knew what was going on behind the curtain, if they knew what was going on underneath the surface, you'd be exposed. You'd be a fraud. You don't actually believe this gospel. How many of you have heard voices like that?
How many of you heard some version that is attached to your past or to your present, some version of you are dirty, you're gross, you're sick. And it's this persistent, sometimes subtle, sometimes overt discouragement that keeps you from believing and applying the gospel. Shows up in hiding, it's a different category. How many of you have been in a group where it's a night where everyone's confessing sin? People are confessing real struggles. And you're like, this is the night.
I've been carrying this burden for years. It has been heavy. I'm tired. I'm ready to actually practice what 1 John 1, 5-10 says. I'm ready to practice walking in the light. But then this voice comes in and says, but if you do that, you can't put that back in the box.
Once they know, they know, and they're going to look at you different from now on. In fact, the only thing they're going to see is your sin. And then you close up and you say, no, I just haven't been reading my Bible enough lately. It discourages us and keeps us in the hiding. And you hear a voice that says, you can't share that. You can't go there.
You're going to lose control of the situation if you don't actually open up. If you actually open up in this area, and it keeps us in hiding. Another way that it keeps us in hiding is maybe you're tempted by sin, and you hear this voice that comes in that says, I get away with this. You can get away with this. Do it. Nobody needs to know.
And it's subtle, and it comes in, it's like, maybe I could actually get away with this. Maybe I could commit this sin. Another area is prophetic, what I'll call prophetic failure. this was me in seminary. I had this persistent voice that as I'm preparing for ministry, as I'm preparing for what's next, this voice that would come in and would say, you're going to fail. This whole thing is going to fall apart. You're going to blow up your family.
You know those pastors that have real public meltdowns that blow up your ministry. All of this is going to fail. And for years, I heard this over and over and over again, attacking the weakest parts of my sinful nature, saying, it's all going to fall apart. You are going to fail. And finally, I'm talking with Chet one day, and he starts asking questions. He says, man, that's not normal.
It is not normal to hear that persistent over and over and over again. Maybe some of you have that kind of version that you are consistently hearing a voice that says, you are going to fail and everything is going to fall apart. Maybe it's in the area of sexual temptation that in the hardest fights against sexual temptation, the hardest, longest nights where you are fighting to believe the gospel, fighting to flee. There's a voice that comes in and says, just do it. Get it over with. Pull out your phone.
You're going to fail. Just give up. Get it over with. Maybe it's someone in your office, and she's cute, and you're hearing this voice that says, you know what, just enjoy yourself. Do it. Take a risk.
Nobody has to know. love you like no one else has loved you. You deserve this. It lures us into sexual temptation. How about self-harm? That's something we've seen in our churches. We walk through people that there is this voice that comes in that just says, kill yourself.
End it. End the pain of this life. Just get it over with. people hear that. It's a refrain that comes over and over and over again. Drive off the road, hit a tree, fill the tub, find a gun, do it. Another area is self-medication.
Some of you that drink, there's an encouragement to have another. No, you can do it, have another. Keep going. Numb the pain of this life. It's been a long week, you deserve this. Maybe it's prescription medication.
Take some more. It'll get you through the day. Maybe it's simply as eating. That in really stressful weeks, there's this encouragement. No, you deserve this. Keep eating.
Go. Order double. Fill yourself. Maybe it's the area of anxiety. For those who struggle with anxiety, there's a voice that comes in that sounds like you got to keep everything together. You got to maintain control.
If you don't maintain control, if you don't figure this out, everything is going to fall apart. And it stirs up more anxiety. And it's like, no, you got to grip harder. You got to figure this out. And it stirs up more anxiety. I'll give you one more example.
This is identity identity attacks. How many of you have heard a voice that comes and says, you are a bad mom. You're a terrible mother. You are failing your kids. Look at all the other moms on Facebook. They've got it together.
They're doing activities. They're going places. Their kids are going to love them. You're a terrible mom. father. How many of us have heard some version of, you can be just like your father. You're a terrible father.
Some version of, you're a terrible Christian. You're a bad Christian. You follow Jesus. You're a bad Christian. Some version of, you're a joke. No one respects you.
You're a terrible employee. You're a terrible boss. This happens over and over and over again. That is a sample of the things that we hear. And people think that's normal. That it's normal to have a persistent voice in your life that says these things.
Let me tell you something. If you struggle with depression and you are struggling to get out of bed in the morning, what if a real person, maybe a friend, comes into the house, sits on the bed beside you and says, don't get up. Just go back to sleep. Stay in bed. There's nothing for you out there. You know this is not worth it.
Stay in bed. Also, if you do get the energy to get up, why don't you go ahead and kill yourself? We've been playing about it. We've been talking about it for a while now. What if someone came into your house as you're raising your kids and everything that happened, every meltdown that happened with your kids, they just said, you are a bad mom. You're a terrible mom.
You're going to fail them. If a real actual person came into your house and did these things, you would say, get out. You don't, you're awful. You don't belong here. Get out of my life. I don't need that kind of negativity.
But that is an actual reality that we are unwilling to accept. That there is, there are demonic forces in our lives that are discouraging, that are accusing, that are bringing lies, and they don't have a place amongst the people of God. You might think, well, no, you really over planned this. You might try to rationalize this and think, no, that can't, some of this can't possibly be from the enemy. Well, let me give you four options for what it can be. It is either God saying these things to you, which we know is not true, based on the Bible.
He is loving, he is good, he is perfect, he is holy. He would never say these kind of things to you. So that option is off the table. It's either secondly, your flesh, which sometimes that is true. Sometimes that is a reality, that your flesh does terrible things to you. But let me tell you something.
For those of you that are hearing persistent things like this, your flesh isn't that good. It's not that crafty. You are overselling your ability to destroy yourself. So I would argue that for some of you who are receiving persistent lies like this, no, you're flesh isn't that good. The third option is it's the world, and that is also a possibility. There are things that have been said to you by friends, family, coaches, teachers, parents, teachers, stuff that you've heard over and over again for the last year, five years, ten years, that you've heard the last 20 years.
That is a reality. Let me tell you something. What they said 20 years ago, they probably don't even remember you. They certainly don't remember what they said. So that's not the world coming at you over and over again with that type of skill and persistence.
It's either one of the two I just mentioned, the flesh or the world, or it's the very real possibility that it is the enemy, that it is the demonic, that they deal in deception, they're called the father of lies, that Satan is like a lion that is seeking to devour someone, 1 Peter 5, 8, that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, cosmic powers of this present darkness, Ephesians 6, that we get example after example after example in the gospels of demons oppressing and afflicting people, that it is time to accept the reality that this is true. You need to understand that you are in a war and unless you wake up you will never learn to fight back and you will never find freedom. Half the battle is realizing that you're in it and that it's a reality. You might be thinking, but if I talk about this, they're going to think I'm crazy.
I'm a pastor who is telling you I have been there. thinking this persistent voice, that's got to be me, that's got to be something, that can't be, it's an actual reality and once you finally accept that you are in a world where the demonic is all around you and is whispering lies to discourage you, to keep you from following Jesus, that is half the battle. And once you understand you're in the battle, then you can actually respond. Last thing is our response. it is recognizing that the power for freedom from this type of oppression, the power resides in Jesus. It is found in Christ. Think, look at the story.
Thousands of demons come before the feet of Jesus begging, pleading. Jesus has that kind of power and there's so much power that is bound up in Christ. It's simply the mention of his name causes them to flee. In Mark's gospel chapter 9, this man starts following Jesus and it says John, the disciple said to him, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We tried to stop him because he was not following us. And Jesus, but Jesus said, do not stop him for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able to soon afterwards speak evil of me. for the one who is not against us is for us.
And there's a lot going on there, but there's one very clear application. There is power in his name. This guy starts following Jesus, starts going around and casting out demons in the name of Jesus. There is power bound up in his name. We see this in the book of Acts. Paul is traveling around in Acts 16.
There's a woman who's afflicted by a divination, demonic spirit. And Paul said, in verse 18 it says, and she kept doing this for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, in turn said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out of, it came out that very hour. And once you get past the kind of humorous part where he was just annoyed for a few days and finally took action, you see there is power in his name. It's not a formula that we use.
It's not a tag online that we use. It's a reality that that power comes from Jesus and what he has done for us. And the clearest, most powerful example that we have of that is found in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. One of my favorite passages in the Bible, one of the first scriptures I ever memorized was Colossians 2, 13 through 14, where he says, and you who were dead and your sins, your sinful nature, and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all of our trespasses, all of our sins, by canceling the record of debt that stood against you with its legal demand.
This he set aside, nailed it to the cross. That's the celebration of the gospel that we come and take from the table every week. That our sin is covered and paid for. It is a beautiful aspect of the gospel, but the next verse that follows really brings it home for this. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. The rulers and authorities are the cosmic powers over this present darkness.
It is the demonic. Because of the cross, He puts them to shame. He destroys their work in a way that nothing else can. There is power in His name because of what He has done for us. So how do we practically respond?
I'm going to leave you with four quick things and then we'll close out. First, you need to recognize that you're in the battle. You need to recognize the oppression. Some of you have been hearing stuff like this for years. And you've tried to explain it away. You've tried to ignore it and it has not left.
And you've got to understand you're in it. You are in the war. They are coming for you and they will not stop. Their goal is to destroy you. I want you to hear that. Their goal is to destroy you and keep you from following Jesus.
So you've got to recognize what you're in already. Second, you have to understand that you, if you are a Christian, if you've trusted in the finished work of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you. You have the God of the universe, the God in whom demons flee from and fear is living inside of you. You have power. You may be oppressed but you are not weak. Well, you are weak but He is strong within you.
We need to recognize the kind of power that is for us and nothing can actually stand against us. Third, oftentimes when we see this it is done together. We see in the Gospels over and over again someone is oppressed and then someone who has the light comes in and frees them from oppression. You can pray yourself in the name of Jesus and go to war but a lot of times it is hard in the midst of it to actually understand everything that is going on so we value doing this together. We have a process that we do in counseling and care in our church called Freedom in Christ where we walk people through this.
It is an extended prayer session sometimes anywhere from two to three hours where we are covering a whole bunch of different aspects in our lives and we do this together because all of us are going to face this at some point and we need someone to come in and preach the Gospel to preach truth to expose the reality that is before us and lastly we respond by praying in the name of Jesus. That is our hope. There is power bound up in His name. It is not a formula it is a reality. That when you pray in the name of Jesus we want you to pray boldly. It could be depression it could be anxiety it could be sexual temptation it could be any of the number of things that I just went through.
We want you to pray boldly in the name of Jesus that there is power in His name specifically addressing areas of sin and we also want you to pray continuously. The reality is is that some of you will experience freedom but sometimes it does not last.