The Warrior King, Pt. 2

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Despite our prosperity, there are people today who are living on the fringes of society. Pastor Nick Gatzke introduces us to man whose life was beyond anyone’s ability to help. Yet Jesus meets him in the midst of his struggle and offers him hope

In Mark chapter five, starting at verse one, follow with me as we read. It says that “they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day, among the tombs and on the mountain, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him and crying out with a loud voice, he said, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus? Son of the Most High God, I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ For he was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many.’ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now, a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, ‘Send us into the pigs. Let us enter into them.’ And so he gave them permission.

And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. And the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country, and the people came to see, what had happened. And they came to Jesus, and they saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had the legion sitting there, clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened, and the demon-possessed man, and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from the region. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with the demons begged him that he might be with him, and he did not permit him, but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled.” This is a battle about clean versus unclean. The Jewish Messiah going to the unclean people, he meets the most unclean of the unclean people. He’s in a town with people who are unclean. He’s there intentionally. He went to them. He’s now in a graveyard, which would quite obviously be considered unclean according to Jewish custom. And he comes to a man who is physically unclean, ceremonially unclean, and he has an unclean spirit, but not just one unclean spirit, 6,000 of them.

And Jesus went to him. He went to the one who is the most filthy physically and the most filthy spiritually among the most filthy people. And he is going to wage a spiritual war on the uncleanliness against God. But not wage war on those who are unclean. He’s waging the war on uncleanliness itself, on impurity itself, on the one who makes people unclean, Satan himself, the desire of every person. It’s actually the requirement of every person because God will not tolerate those who are unclean in his presence. Some time ago, a survey of Japanese and American parents revealed much about the values that people in various cultures hold dear. The question was submitted to these parents, what do you wish the most for your children? And the leading response among the Japanese parents at the time was that they wanted their children to be successful. And this was a reflection, of course, of the high value that the Japanese place on marketplace success. The most frequent wish among American parents for their children was happiness, a reflection of a feel-good culture. And it’s interesting, that God states repeatedly through his scripture that his desire for his children is neither success nor happiness, but instead his desire is that we be like him.

His desire for his children is that they be holy. And one of the fascinating progressions of the internal nature of this story is the movement from being unclean to being evil. The spirit is referred to as an unclean spirit and then referred to as a legion of demons, unclean to demonic, unclean to evil. The place that Jesus is in goes from an unclean people at large to an evil person in the cemetery, unclean to evil. Our cleanliness, uncleanliness, My uncleanliness, your uncleanliness is not just slightly dirty. It’s not just a unpleasant position to hold. It’s actually completely opposed to God. Uncleanliness before God results is a result of evil.

And Jesus comes and he achieves victory over both uncleanliness and evil. So listen, at the peak of their interaction, the legion negotiates their surrender. Says, please don’t send us out of the country. Send us into this herd of pigs, they cried. Pigs, consequently, pork, as you know, were considered to be unclean in the Jewish law. So the unclean spirits are now allowed to go into unclean beasts and immediately they run off the edge of the cliff and they die. It’s unclear why Jesus allowed them to do it. I mean, some scholars think that perhaps it’s because those who were the swine herders were unfaithful Jews, and this big loss of business was judgment upon them. Others postulate that the swine were a food source for the Roman legion, and others detached in Jerusalem, and that was judgment upon them. Still others believe that Knowing the swine would plunge to their death, that is actually a judgment on the demons themselves as they would become disembodied and therefore go into the place of judgment. Still others think that the word for sea that they plunged into the sea is… same word as abyss. The only other time that word is used in the Bible is to refer to hell. Maybe Jesus was casting the demons into hell.

Could be one of those last two options. But regardless, that’s not the real point. The point is this. Jesus is victorious over the spiritual realm, and he is able to rescue those who are unclean. The warrior king has come to rescue those who are unclean, even the most unclean, even the most evil. Maybe you’re here today and you feel unclean. Or maybe you don’t feel unclean, but you know that you are. You need someone who can conquer the evil in your life because you’ve been unable to do it.

You need someone to cleanse you. No matter how hard you try, you can’t do it. Maybe it’s your internal anger. It’s growing. You know that it won’t lead you to a good place. You used to be able to control it, but now it seems to be slipping out of your control. And when you regain your wits, you experience the guilt of those angry outbursts. You need to be cleansed. Your drinking started as casual or fun and it progressed to regular and now it’s dependence. Maybe you worry that you’re an alcoholic but you’re scared to admit it to yourself or to anybody else. And you go to bed at night and you wake up in the morning and you say, I can’t believe I did it again.

But Jesus is able to rescue those who are unclean. Maybe you’re quite self-centered. And you think about your comfort and your ease and your well-being before anybody else’s. And most of the time, that doesn’t bother you because you’re self-centered. But your relationships are starting to break down because of it. And the tension that it’s creating is causing you to realize that in some instances, maybe, and maybe many instances, that the priority of self is not only unfulfilling, but it’s actually unclean. But Jesus is able to rescue those who are unclean.

Perhaps you have a hard time controlling your sexual desires. Your lust has moved to regular pornography usage or even pursuing multiple partners. And no matter how good those things feel in the moment, sexual immorality always leaves you feeling dirty and you need to be cleaned. Or maybe you are regularly battling greed. Or your desire for more and more and more. And even though you buy the next thing and it does it for you for a very short amount of time, it’s not long before your gaze is brought to something else. And you fixate on that thing until you can buy that. And you’re left with a bunch of stuff. You begin to feel unclean because of all the waste. And the emptiness and the focus on things is profound because these things have so little consequence to your happiness. But Jesus is able to rescue those who are unclean. And you know, there’s a difference. There’s a difference between being good in a general sense and being clean or pure before God.

Hugh Gough was the Bishop of Barking in England. And he told a charming story at Keswick about his dog. Some years ago, he owned a Highland Terrier that was pure white. The dog was wonderfully cared for, bathed and clipped and was clean. It was a clean white joy as it bounced around the house. And one morning, the bishop awoke and he looked out his window to find that snow had fallen during the night. And then across his lawn scurried a dog, a gray and dirty dog against the white snow.

When the bishop inquired to find out how such a stray had wandered into their yard, he discovered that it was none other than his own beloved white terrier. You see, the perception, our perception of being good or pure is so often relative to what we see in the stained world around us. But Jesus didn’t come to make you relatively good. He came to make us holy and pure, as pure as himself. Leonard Ravenhill once wrote that the greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make that man holy and then put him back in an unholy world and keep him that way. And that’s what Jesus does. Look at the way the story concludes.

In Mark 5:14, it says, “The herdsmen fled and they told the city and they went through the country and the people came to see what was it that had happened. And then Jesus, they came to Jesus and they saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had the legion sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid,” which is so fascinating. They were afraid to see the naked, screaming, infected guy now clothed and sitting in his right mind. That made them afraid. “And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from the region. And he was getting into the boat. And the man who had been possessed with the demons begged him that he might be with them. And he did not permit him, but he said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.’ And he went away and he began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much the Lord had done for him. And everyone marveled.”

A couple of observations. Verse 15, upon seeing the man in his right mind, the herdsmen and the people of the town were afraid, presumably afraid of Jesus. The power of the warrior was greater than an entire legion of demons. The man that they had been afraid of was now cured, and they were afraid of somebody else, somebody with even greater power. Verse 17, as a result of this fear, they begged Jesus to leave. The financial loss was great, 2,000 swine. They didn’t want to experience any more loss, under the power of this warrior, their livelihood was more important at this moment than the restored life of this man. Another observation, verse 18, the man who was possessed begged to go with Jesus.

The people wanted Jesus to leave. He wanted to go with him. He wanted to follow the one who had just battled for him, the one who had just rescued him, and the one who had just cleansed him. And there’s something. there. Because when you see Jesus for who he really is and you witness his power made manifest in the lives of people around you, you either want to follow him or you want him to go away. It’s pretty hard to remain indifferent when you see that type of great warrior in front of you. But the warrior king has come to rescue those who are unclean.

And so Jesus in verse 19 and 20, last observation says, go home and tell your friends how much the Lord has done for you and how he’s had mercy on you. And the man went away and began to proclaim. It’s so interesting, the difference between Jesus and the Pharisees, the rulers of the day, the holiness ethic of the Pharisees, they refuse to touch anything unclean. And the son of God aims to make the unclean, clean. And so the demoniac becomes one of the first commissioned evangelists and missionaries. He’s a missionary for the king to tell them just how much the Lord has done. You know, that idea of telling what the Lord has done is all over the scriptures. It’s the natural response of God’s people when they experience his goodness. In 1 Chronicles 16:8, it says, “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known among the nations what he’s done.”

Luke 12, “I tell you,” Jesus says, “whoever acknowledges me before men, the son of man will also acknowledge him before God, before the angels of God. But whoever disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.” Acts 1:8, Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” 2 Corinthians 4:13, “I believed, therefore I have spoken.” Paul writes, “With the same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore we speak. Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us up with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.” Do you do that? Do you tell them just how much the Lord has done for you and how he’s had mercy on you? Some of you don’t know how to start a spiritual conversation. How about this? Let me tell you about how God has changed my life.

That’s a great intro. to the two ways to live. I want to see people around me come to know the king, how the king can conquer evil and rescue them and cleanse them. I want that for them because that has happened to me. I know where my life would be without it and it would not be good. I know the joy and the purpose I have as a result of it.

I love being cleansed by Jesus. and enjoying God throughout my life. He’s had mercy on me. And so I tell others just what he’s done. Do you want him to have mercy on you? He will. The warrior king has come for the unclean. Has he had mercy on you?

If he has, then tell them about it. Tell them just how much he’s done for you. Let’s pray. Lord in heaven, we are so thankful for a king who purifies us. We’re so thankful that in the depths of our despair, a rescuer comes who is stronger than a legion. We’re so thankful that in the midst of evil, that purity is given and that healing is granted and that forgiveness becomes ours because of Christ. Lord, help us to revel in it, to enjoy it, to tell others about it, and lift up this warrior king. In his name we pray. Amen.

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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.