Overcoming the power of darkness; Luke 8: 26-39

When I was a little kid, I was afraid of the dark.  I had to sleep with the door open a crack.  I was afraid that there was something under the bed.  And maybe it was because of my fundamental, fire and brimstone preaching dad, but I had a deathly fear of demons.  I can remember actually sweating in fear in my bed, convinced that somehow the devil was in the room.  Maybe he was, I don’t know.  But anyhow, perhaps due to an inordinate number of traumatic childhood sleepless nights, I have always had a hard time understanding our culture’s fascination with the occult.

I think when I was a kid, they came out with a TV show called Dark Shadows.  And I only saw about 10 minutes of one episode, but that was enough to last a lifetime.  I can’t understand the thrill that some people seem to find in demons.

As we approach Halloween, I see a lot of what I think is an unwholesome interest in demons and witches and the occult.  I don’t have a problem with dressing up in a costume and getting candy from your neighbors.  But I think that glorifying demons or the devil is a dangerous thing.  However, I think the real danger is that the common picture we see of demons and the devil is a misconception.  The danger is that they actually look nothing like the way they are depicted.

Isaiah 14 tells us, for instance, that Lucifer was the star of the morning. Ezekiel 28 tells us that Satan was the most beautiful, most adorned cherub in the heavens.  He was the chief musician of heaven.  The Bible tells us that even now, he appears to be an angel of light.  The deceitfulness of Satan is that he is well content to be cartooned as some horrible looking, vile creature, when actually he is an extremely powerful, even beautiful fallen angel who is able to disguise his true intentions.  The danger of these fallen creatures is that they can operate in virtual obscurity and anonymity, because we don’t really understand how they operate.

But in spite of how appealing and attractive Satan and his angels may appear, their goal is that of bringing death and destruction.  Their strategy is deceit, and by this simple strategy of making a lie seem like the truth, they are able to steal, kill and destroy.  Jesus said in John 10:10, speaking of the devil, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  Satan promises life, but the end result is death.  He promised Eve a better, more fulfilled life if she listened to him, but in fact, it resulted in eternal death.

Jesus on the other hand, came to destroy the work of the devil, which is death, by atoning for sin, which is the cause of death.  1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”  So Jesus Christ has come to earth to render powerless the power of Satan to condemn men to eternal death by enslavement to sin.  That’s what Hebrews 2: 14 is saying;  “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,  and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

This  rendering of Satan to be powerless is the fulfillment of what was prophesied in Genesis 3:15 by God to Satan after the fall, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”  Jesus would crush the power of Satan to kill, and Satan would bite Jesus on the heel, referring to the crucifixion.

So if we should believe that Jesus was indeed the promised seed that would bruise Satan on the head, then we should see evidence of that when He walked the Earth.  And that is exactly why Luke records for us this extraordinary miracle.  Luke is illustrating Jesus power over Satan and his demons, and in the process he is going to illustrate some vital principles concerning the kingdom of heaven.

Let’s look at this story which we pick up right after the calming of the storm on the Sea of Galilee.  The disciples are so stunned by Jesus ability to calm the storm that they ask the question, ““Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”  The disciples do not yet understand what we will find that the demons already believe and fear.  As James said, “the devils believe and tremble.”  They know who Jesus is.

So as the storm is calmed, the disciples and Jesus continue to sail their boats to a region on the other side of the lake which was part of an area known as Decapolis.  In the synoptic gospels, it is referred to as either Gerasenes or Gadarenes, both cities near this region where they landed.  But what is interesting about this location is that it is a predominately Gentile influenced region where a mixed race of Jews and Gentiles lived.  Decapolis was noted for it’s Hellenistic influence, and by the time the Romans came into power, it’s 10 cities operated as Roman outposts.  Consequently, most of the Jews that lived there were not really practicing Jews, they had been subverted by the culture of the people that they lived among.  And that is important, as we will see later.

So as Jesus and the disciples disembark, this man came out to meet them who was demon possessed.  Now if you aren’t careful in your study of scripture, you might get the idea from looking at the gospels that demon possession is a very common thing.  But I think that the Bible actually shows us that the recognition of demon possession is actually a rare occurrence.  Demon possession is not really described in the Old Testament at all.  There are obviously some people in the Old Testament that are under the influence or have the power of Satan, but not in the sense that we see it during the time of Christ.  And even after Christ’s resurrection, there are only a couple of instances in Acts, and then virtually no mention in the Epistles at all of demon possession.  Why is that?  Well, I believe that it is due to the divine nature of Christ.  He was born of the Spirit of God, and consequently, the demons as spirit beings recognized Him as deity, as their Sovereign, and though they are in rebellion against Him, yet they are still subject to Him.  So I believe that as Jesus traveled around, the demons reacted violently in fear of Him and often revealed themselves in the process.   But as I said earlier, their preferred modus operandi today is to  operate in anonymity without people really recognizing them.

But let’s look at the characteristics of this demoniac.  He was naked and living in the tombs.  It says He had been seized by the demons many times.  That may mean that there were times of seeming normalcy, and then suddenly he would go wild and break free of his shackles and go screaming into the desert and wind up in the tombs again.  This guy was tormented beyond comprehension.

So the demoniac comes out of the tombs to meet Jesus and his disciples, perhaps to attack them, and he sees who Jesus is and says, ““What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”  He basically is saying to Jesus, “Let’s not have any trouble between us, Jesus.”  Or “I don’t want any trouble with you Jesus.”   “I beg you, don’t torment me.”

First of all note that he recognized that Jesus was the Son of God.  And that is always a pattern when Jesus heals a demon possessed person. They recognize Him, because they are an eternal spirit, created by Him, they are ageless creatures that fell from heaven, and being spirits, they have the spiritual ability to discern spirits.  And so they recognize the Son of God in His earthly body.

You know, I was thinking how as a person living in that time, it might have been more difficult to recognize Jesus as the Son of God than it is for us living today to believe that He is the Son of God.  And the reason is that by all accounts, Jesus wasn’t much to look at.  Contrary to many period sacred paintings you see in some churches today, Jesus didn’t have a halo over His head to identify Him.  Rather,  Isaiah 53 says that “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

Secondly, notice the effects that the demons had upon this man.  He was naked.  Nakedness in the Bible always confers the idea of shame.  He would have been cold and bruised and scratched and dirty and disheveled.  He was really someone to be pitied.  He was living in the tombs.  Tombs were generally in caves in that region of the world.  He was living in caves with the bones and rotting flesh of dead people.  Death and uncleanness is another characteristic of the works of the devil.  He was often bound and in chains.  The verse from Hebrews we looked at awhile ago told us that is a characteristic of what Satan does to his victims. He enslaves them.  And finally, he was tormented by the demons who attacked him and drove him insane.

We see in this poor man a picture of the terrible effects of sin.  I was in San Diego a couple of months ago and I was really upset while I was there by the homeless population I saw everywhere on the streets.  I have been in many large cities around the world, and I have never seen so many homeless people in one place before.  And it is particularly striking because of the contrast.  San Diego is one of the most beautiful cities in America.  And yet everywhere I went, I was accosted by the spectacle of the homeless.  But most of them were not just normal people who happened to be out of a job and lost their home.  By far, most of them seemed to be mentally disturbed.   Some of them acted irrationally angry.  A few of them seemed dangerous.  I remember this one young homeless guy with a steel pipe walking down the sidewalk hitting signal poles with a look on his face like he wanted to kill someone.  And I could not help but think that a great majority of those folks that I saw seemed to be victims of drugs or alcohol.  Things that the world touts as being attractive, to helping you to  have a good time, to enjoy life to the fullest.  But they are just lies that lead to enslavement, alcohol addiction, drug addiction which lead to a type of insanity, and will eventually lead to an untimely death.

In Revelation, it says that one of the characteristics of the end times will be an unwillingness to repent of drug use which in the Greek is called pharmakeia, but which is interpreted in our Bibles as sorceries. Rev 9:21, “Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”  So by that definition, we find that there is a link between demon influence and drug use, and consequently I believe we will continue to see an escalation in demonic activity as we go forward to the end of the age.  The bottom line is I think that though we don’t see many extreme cases such as this demoniac running around in our graveyards today, yet Satan is still in the business of enslaving people.  People still find themselves chained, tormented and enslaved by the devil.  We just don’t often give the devil his due.

Vs. 30, “And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.”   Please understand the significance of Jesus asking him his name is not so that we can form some exorcism ritual whereby we ask their name and then bind the demons.  The Bible does not tell us to bind demons. The demon’s name is not significant other than it gives insight into the complexity of this man’s problem and let’s us see what Jesus already knew.  A Roman legion could have as many as 6000 soldiers.  So this man was possessed by thousands of demons, which would be unusual, to say the least.  One demon is more than sufficient to do the work of the devil.  But it would seem that Jesus comes expressly to this area in order to meet this man and deliver him from the power of darkness.  And one possible reason may be that by this man’s condition of being tormented by thousands of demons,  Jesus is  able to demonstrate most dramatically his power over demons.  We see that thousands of demons are no match for the one Son of God.

These demons then implored Jesus not to cast them into the abyss.  That is the bottomless pit that is called the Lake of Fire.  The Bible says it is reserved for the devil and his angels.  And somehow, the demons know that this is the judgment reserved for them.  I think that the devil and his demons know the Bible better than most Christians.  So they are begging Jesus not to cast them into the abyss but to let them go into the swine feeding on the hillside.

Now Mark tells us that there were 2000 pigs.  And pigs were declared unclean in the Jewish law.  So it is very likely that these pigs which were unclean were being raised by non practicing Jews for Gentile consumption.  And 2000 pigs is a large herd of pigs, even by today’s standards.  They probably were the property for the entire village and represented their livelihood.  So these swine reveal that the people living in this region had been corrupted by their culture, and had excused themselves for breaking God’s law because they found it lucrative.

So Jesus grants them their request.  Vs. 33, “And the demons came out of the man and entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.”  One thing we do seem to be able to discern from this story is that demons desire a host body.  They don’t want to be bodiless.  Jesus said in Luke 11:24 “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’  And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. “Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”  That’s evidence that social programs that purport to free men and women from their problems without offering the solution to their soul don’t really work.  But what I want to draw your attention to specifically is that the spirit goes about seeking a place to rest.  They consider a body to be a place of rest, a house in which they can live.

But the 6000 demons are too much for 2000 swine, and they rush to their death.  I read in the Surfer’s Journal once about a couple of guys in Indonesia out surfing and this pig came running out of the jungle and started swimming out to sea.  He swam straight to the horizon and didn’t come back.  So I guess pigs can swim.  But I guess they are also smart enough to prefer to commit suicide than to hang out with the devil. Pigs may be smarter than a lot of people who think that they can play with fire and not be burned.  That they can hang out around the devil’s influences and not be destroyed.

So we have seen in these verses the destructive power of the devil, now starting in vs. 34 we see the transforming power of Jesus. “When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country. (35) The people went out to see what had happened; and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they became frightened. (36) Those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon-possessed had been made well.”

Notice the transforming power of Jesus.  Before the demoniac was running around naked, screaming, driven insane by these thousands of demons.  Now he is clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus. Listen, the point that Luke is illustrating here very vividly is that transformation is the hallmark or fruit of Christianity. Transformation is the hallmark of a Christian.  Naked, now clothed.  Insane, now in his right mind.  Running around screaming, now sitting at the feet of Jesus.  Don’t be deceived, if you don’t see a transformation like darkness to light, from storm to calm, from turbulent waves to a still waters, then chances are you aren’t really seeing an individual that is truly saved.  Because transformation is the fruit of the kingdom of God.

I read a story once about a hippie nudist colony back in the early 70’s that supposedly became saved.  And a couple of days later they showed up to be baptized and they were all in the nude.  Well, I don’t think that showed a true conversion.  When Adam and Eve sinned and God came walking to them in the garden they hid because they were ashamed of their nakedness.  No one had to tell them they were naked.  They knew it, and were ashamed.  And so God killed an animal to cover their nakedness with it’s skin which was the first sacrifice portraying the sacrifice that Jesus would make for our sin, to cover our nakedness and shame before God.

Listen, if you claim to be a Christian and you are happy living like the devil, then you better question your salvation.  There can be no fellowship of light with darkness.
2Cor. 6:14 says, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord.
“AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you.  And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.” The demoniac is a picture of salvation, a hopeless, helpless sinner who is transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

Next, notice the damning power of sin.  We have already spoken of this somewhat, so I will be brief.  But when the townspeople come out to see what has happened, they were gripped with a great fear, and they ask Jesus to leave their country.  And so once again Jesus grants a request that day, and leaves their coast.  It’s an amazing thing that these people aren’t asking Jesus to stay, to visit their town, to teach them the word of God.  But instead, they are gripped by fear, and tell Him to leave.  We can only surmise why they would ask Jesus to leave.  And I would suppose that it had to do with the fact that they recognized that following Jesus required a complete capitulation.  It required being willing to give up a lucrative occupation.  It would require a transformation that they were not willing to accept.  And I think that even Jesus acknowledged that it is better to flat out reject Christ than to pretend to come but only come part way.  Jesus said in Revelation 3, “I would that you were either hot or cold.  But because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

This mixed up group of Jews living amongst the Gentiles were unwilling to concede that full conversion that Jesus required.  And that was their damnation.  Jesus left their town.  Jesus would take his message to those who would accept it.  And I think that is very often the damnation of the church today as well.  We claim a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.  That is, we deny the power of transformation.  We come to Christ dragging all the world’s garbage, all our secret sins, our favorite passions, and we expect to be accepted by God, but we have never really been converted.  We live an untransformed life, and we are surprised that we have no power of God in our lives.

And that brings us to the last point, the testimony of a transformed life.  The demoniac begs Jesus to go away with Him.  I don’t blame Him, do you?  I wouldn’t want to live in a town where the people had chased Jesus off.   But Jesus doesn’t grant that request.  He denies this man’s petition to leave his home town.  Vs. 39, “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”

Jesus had a job for this man.  And that job was to stay among the people that he grew up around, that had seen him at his worst, and to be a testimony to the transforming power of Jesus Christ.  Listen, it’s a hard thing sometimes to humble yourself and go back home to your community and apologize for things that you have done.  It’s a hard thing to witness to people that know you best.  It’s easy sometimes to go to a far away place and put on a religious front and pass out tracks or whatever it is that you do, but it’s another thing to go to your work and be a witness for Jesus Christ.

And let me tell you something else.  The reason that it is hard is that it’s not what you say to those people at home that is going to make a difference.  What is going to make a difference is the testimony of a transformed life.  You no longer talk like you used to talk.  You no longer do the things that you used to do.  You no longer have an interest in the things you used to.   That kind of transformation has an impact.  But if you aren’t really transformed, then you aren’t going to be much of a witness, no matter where you go.

Rom 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

I will close with this simple question.  Have you been transformed by the power of Christ?  Have old things passed away and all things become new?  If not, come to Jesus today in faith and repentance and be transformed from light to darkness.  And if you have been saved, but you have to admit that your light has dimmed, that you are not what God would have you to be in your home and community, then confess your sins to God and let go of whatever it is that is holding you back and ask God to renew a right spirit within you.  Let’s pray.