Bless your word to our hearts.
Please, father, we ask you Lord that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see hearts.
Lord to incline your truth to our lives.
And father, as we look at this amazing and awesome event, we pray, Lord that you would give us an appetite to take it in.
And then Lord to actually realize that the word of God has been given to us that we might live it, experience it and know its power.
Lord, we need that in our lives.
And father, if any of us are here this morning, that are apathetic or lazy toward the things of God, we pray that you’d stir our hearts.
Lord, that you would just cause us at this late hour of church history.
And as we looked at the world around us, pretty amazing everything happening just as your Bible said, so great.
But father, without knowing the Bible, people could panic over that and people get scared.
But Lord knowing your Bible tells us everything is right on time.
Father, we pray now that you’d bless understanding of this message with that truth in Jesus name and all God’s people said, Amen, grab your Bibles this morning and turn then if you would to Luke’s Gospel.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen 24. You know that program 24.
It always says previously on 24, I feel like saying previously in Luke eight.
I mean, it is just one action event after another that we’re seeing Jesus ministering and showing us the power of God.
And this morning in our message, as we just continue to go through this chapter, we are in chapter eight, as I said, and we are in verses 26 to 39 today.
And we’re looking at a message entitled when Jesus goes to work, maybe you roll up your sleeves to go to work or maybe you have to put on a tie to go to work or do whatever you do to go to work.
Jesus Christ, God’s word in living flesh come from heaven above, down to earth below to reveal to us the kingdom of God, the power of God, the message of God, the ways of God.
And I don’t know about you. Maybe you are an unbeliever this morning and maybe you’re a skeptic.
I don’t know where you’re at. But will you read the Gospels?
Will you just take time to read them and find out if Jesus Christ isn’t for you?
I think you’ll find out He is. You may be thinking he’s not.
But when you begin to find out about what he did and what he said, and the power that he brought into this world to show us what his father’s heart was all about.
I think you are going to say, I want Jesus Christ.
There’s no greater pursuit in all of this world than to know God and the love of God, which is represented in Christ.
And this morning is interesting because as you know, from last week, Jesus confronted the storm that was about to destroy the disciples in the boat.
We know from last time that it was a satanically commandeered storm when Jesus stood up and rebuked and he used that word in the great to be muzzled and that storm instantly stopped and they arrived at the shore.
Do you remember that? They immediately arrived on the other side of the lake and that would have been Tiberius on the western side of the Galilee this morning, you’re going to see something kind of interesting.
And in some ways though, it’s pretty terrifying, you’re going to see his awesome power.
But as a disciple being in the boat, you got to wonder what they were thinking during the last 48 hours in your bible.
It has been amazing when Jesus goes to work, we’re going to see a lot about confrontation and we’re going to see how Jesus does that.
You might see. Well, Pastor Jake, I don’t like confrontation.
Well, first of all, if anybody likes confrontation, they’re a weirdo ok.
Confrontation is not, you know, you don’t want, you don’t sign up for that confrontation yet.
When you read the Bible, when you live life, you realize that there’s a confrontation that you never want to go look for, but there’s some confrontation that you never want to avoid either.
That interesting. That’s true.
For example, if there’s something going on that is wrong, you want to confront it.
If there’s something that is going on, that is dangerous.
If somebody is being abused by someone on the street corner, a coward or an apathetic person or someone who is extremely self centered would look the opposite way and drive away or walk away from that situation where someone is being terribly taken.
Advantage of what you ought to do is confront the situation.
Even if it’s calling 911 you are confronting the situation, even though we don’t sign up for confrontation.
There is a confrontation that must take place regarding light and dark between righteousness and evil.
And Jesus will show us his timing and his terms and his way of doing things.
You know, I taught yesterday up in Santa Barbara at a conference and the topic that was given to me was Islam in America.
And one of the things I had to do was study the Koran and quote the Koran and give arguments from the Koran as to why someone would believe what they believe.
And one of the things I was reading.
There was quite interesting where there’s a mandate to follow exactly to the detail of what Muhammad did.
And so a faithful Muslim is serious about that to do exactly what Mohammed did.
And as, as I was teaching on that, I had to quickly insert as I being a Christian.
I’m so glad that I’m called to mimic exactly what Jesus did. I’m supposed to do what the Lord did.
I’m supposed to say what the Lord said.
I’m supposed to live in this world as the Lord would still be living in this world.
And what is that? Loving, caring and confronting evil, not in some totalitarian way.
Jesus was never like that, but rescuing those who are wrapped up and bound by evil, bound by that which the Bible says is darkness.
So as we look to our study this morning, it’s a huge section of scripture. Verses 26 to 39.
Let’s just dive right in to the message and dissect it accordingly.
Uh Verse 26 starting there down to verse 27. We’ll take the two right there at the start.
It says this in the scriptures to us. Then they sailed.
I wanna add carefully after last night’s events, then they sailed to the country of the Gaines which is opposite Galilee.
And when he stepped out onto the land that is Jesus there, met him, a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time and he wore no clothes.
He did not live in a house but in the tombs.
The first thing I want you to see this morning church is when Jesus goes to work.
Number one, is this, the Lord picks the time and the place can you jot this down in your notes?
Jesus is never late. He’s never early. He’s always right on time now.
You and I may disagree with that, but it doesn’t matter what we think God is always right on time.
God’s timing is perfect and what we’ll see right here.
First of all that, there is a man who is demon possessed.
Now, you got to follow this in your mind’s thinking when we consider Jesus going to work and that it’s the Lord who picks the time and the place in verses 26-27, we begin to understand something very important that we just saw him last time in our study.
Still the great storm. And now there’s a great storm going on inside of a human being.
You say, well, Jack, it has to deal with a demon and a man being possessed, didn’t the Bible?
Maybe say that the guy was insane or somehow whacked out on something or maybe he had some sort of a mental disorder that’s not what the Bible teaches.
And it’s very interesting that Dr Luke, who’s the author of this gospel here could have used a word in the Greek language that would meant that he was insane or had a split personality or use whatever terminology you want.
He didn’t do that. He used a term that literally means that this man was occupied by visitors, demonic powers.
It’s kind of eerie. It’s kind of hair raising, but that’s the truth.
Now, you might be sitting in this morning saying I don’t want to hear this.
Well, wait a minute. I like to quote here, CS Lewis who writes the devil is just as delighted in the man who thinks that there is no devil as he is delighted in the woman who sees too much of him.
Think about that. There’s a man who says, I don’t believe in the devil and then demons.
Well, what a dope. You are poor guy.
Satan’s got you exactly where he wants you not believing that he exists.
And man, he can just jerk you around like a fish on a hook.
Then there’s the lady on the other side and she sees a demon behind every door and everything is old spooky all the time giving too much honor to the power of darkness.
What does the Bible say? The Bible says there is a Satan and there are demons who serve him.
The Bible says also that there’s a host of fallen angels.
We don’t know how many but a lot of them.
The Bible makes it very clear throughout from genesis to revelation that there’s demonic activity and powers the Bible tells us, for example, in the book of Ephesians Chapter six, that we as Christians wrestle in our lives against forces that are invisible that are behind the scenes and they are demonic entities.
But listen before you freak out and run out of the church terrified.
The Bible says greater is he that’s in us than he that is in the world.
That is a reference to the demonic powers of this world. You’re not be afraid of that.
And in fact, when you, I love that, that old song, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saints upon their knees, man, I tell you, there’s nothing worse than, than a little kid turning and running, you know, back to home and saying, I’m gonna tell my daddy on you when a Christian prays, that’s exactly what happens when we pray.
We are saying daddy, Father Abba, papa, I’m getting bugged right now and I don’t like it. I feel scared.
Satan trembles when he sees the weakest of saints upon their knees, demonic activity and power found in the Old Testament, found in the New Testament and found in many parts of the world, even in America.
Demonic activity. So we want to look at this number one there are demons, there is a Satan and he’s personal.
He’s for real. But listen to this, all of those entities and powers operate under the watchful eye of God.
And there is a day coming when there will be no more they will be dealt with for now.
And I don’t understand it, but for now, God is using all these things to his glory and in the end, it will be exactly that.
So number one in our study, the Lord picks the time and the place and he does that, picking the time and the place on his terms.
Will you jot that down? He does it on his terms. I’m so glad about that Christian.
You can be bold in this life.
But Jack, I heard a door slam in the back of my room and my hair stood up could have been, the wind, could have been, you know, something but you know what there is this thing and I saw this and I thought maybe you know what come on calm down.
Number one, all of this is on the terms of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is in control.
My friend read your Bible. He rules and reigns.
Even though there are dark powers in this world, nothing can come to the believer’s life without first those dark entities having the permission, so to speak of God’s hand or God’s eye to watch over.
You saw the Apostle Paul throughout his ministry being buffeted and being attacked by demonic forces.
Why ultimately to the furtherance of the gospel?
And one of the greatest things that we need to be careful about in our modern day life is, are these dark sinister forces still at work do they really exist?
And so there’s a temptation in our emotions to say no, they don’t exist or they exist too big and too strong.
Both of those views are wrong.
Jesus himself said that these powers are real, but the great thing is, is to remember his terms. Verse 26.
It’s almost funny here. I’ll explain this in a moment.
Then they sail to the country of the Gaines which is opposite Galilee church. Watch my hands for a moment.
Watch this. Here’s the sea of Galilee right here. Ok.
They were in and they sailed to Tiberius in the Great storm.
They immediately arrived at the shore and now you read verse 26 where they’re leaving again and they’re going back almost just a mile and a half from where they started Kapers here and God is here.
Tiberius is here. Why didn’t he just go over here to deal with this demoniac? Why not?
Because they had to take a boat ride? Remember what happened to the boat ride? They had a big storm.
Jesus rebuked the waves. What did the disciples do? Wow. Even the waves obey him.
Ah, but will devil devils and demons obey him.
It makes no human sense that God would take us from this part of the lake over to here for a moment and then turn right around.
Get back in the boat and go to the, almost the same place we left.
Has that ever happened in your life?
Why did we move to Nashville to get to Chino Hills or how did we move to Chino Hills to get to New York?
Where was God in that? I’ve given up trying to figure it out.
I just know He does stuff like that. It doesn’t make sense. We even lost money on the house.
I don’t see. Listen, God’s working a bigger plan. I don’t get it either. But listen, he’s in control.
You can second guess God all your life and never get an answer.
He is in control. He deals with things on his terms and it’s most effective.
He knows what he’s doing unless the Lord is in control and he is as he is in control and he is in control here.
He has a divine, divine purpose to all this.
Now we’re going to put a graphic up on the wall up on the screen here concerning the area that we’re looking at.
Uh this is the north end of the sea of Galilee.
Gara would be the area to the right hand side of your screen, right where the lake meets the screen, where it ends that area right there is where Gara is.
They would have gone just across about five miles across. Ok.
That area is a region that is very hilly as you’ll hear more about in a moment.
And there’s several areas that it’s very, very steep.
And so as you look to that just understand that in that region, Jews didn’t. Ok.
On this picture to the far left of your screen, do you see those cliffs that’s white faced?
That’s the area of Gara in the distance.
That is an area where during the time of Jesus, the Jews did not want to go to.
You want to know why there were those who had departed, so to speak from Jewish social life and they were involved in all kinds of illegal conduct.
They were doing things that were, that were not kosher.
One of them is you might be asking the question, how is it in the land of Israel?
There’s a bunch of people growing what you’re going to see here in a moment, a bunch of pigs raising pigs, what is going on?
I want you to keep that in your mind. We’ll cover that in a moment.
This area though was, was where not a good Kosher obedient? Jew would go.
But Jesus will, Jesus has got an interest there and he’s going to deal with the situation on his terms.
In Romans chapter 11 verse 33 the Bible says, oh, the depth and the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments church, that means you and I cannot know his ways.
They’re past finding out for who has known the mind of the Lord.
Have you have I the answer is no, I know you think you have haven’t you?
You didn’t know how to answer that question a moment ago. Did, did you?
Because you think, you know, I think I know the mind of the Lord.
The Bible says, no, you don’t. And it says here who has become his counselor?
Well, I can name one person for sure.
Me, God, here’s what I want you to do or God. How about doing this?
Instead, the answer is no. His ways are past finding out.
Remember that would you and I get in a car right now and drive across the state to go reach and help one person in need.
Well, we should be willing to and we should be obedient to do that if God calls us to do it, Jesus is not afraid of the dark.
He’s not afraid of any demonic activity that he’s going to be heading into.
He confronts it head on, he’ll go right into it and whatever is going on in your life and my life, even if it is demonic, the Lord is there, boy, I wish we had the time to get into things that go on in life that the Bible clearly suggests that could be very much demonic, but we write them off as natural things.
We can’t do that time doesn’t allow it.
But know this be comforted that the Lord deals with things on his terms.
And regarding his time, look at verse 27 the time and the place is on his timing or on his clock, it says here verse 27 when the word means instantly when Jesus stepped out onto the land, getting out of the boat there, met him, a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time.
This is an amazing word because here when or instantly in Greek, Jesus is in the boat with the guys heading towards this destination and you got to wonder, these are good Jewish boys in the boat.
They’re heading toward this location that everybody knew about.
Could they have said maybe Jesus don’t you want to turn left or turn right?
Anything but straight, you’re going to, you’re heading to the wrong area.
It’s not recorded, but maybe they counseled him. Jesus, don’t you want us to turn left?
Maybe we should tack left or tack, right. No, straight ahead is fine.
It’s Gara, nobody goes to Gara.
There’s a big graveyard in Gara and there’s demons in Gara, lunatics, demon possess people.
Jesus says, just keep the compass right straight ahead. Would God do that? Oh God does that.
God goes right into it. He’s not afraid of it. He conquers the darkness with the lights.
My friend. Listen, how did, where and how did Jesus meet you? Where was that place?
Were you in a bar? Were you in a hotel room? Where were you?
It’s absolutely interesting. I met Jesus Christ.
I did not wake up that day and say I’m going to meet the Lord tonight.
It was a Monday night. It was June 20, 1977.
I was going to a party. I don’t remember that day because I was going to a party.
I had gone to a bunch of parties. What was different about that day?
I never made it to the party.
God had a party in store that I was not aware that I was invited to.
I was driving down the street, saw two really cute girls pull into a parking lot and I thought, wow, they’re worth following.
I pulled into the parking lot. Little did I know they were walking into a church?
I didn’t know, I didn’t know what that Maranatha Dove. What does that mean? What does that dove mean?
You ever seen the GVA dove? What does that mean? It’s a bird and barely looks like a bird.
What is that thing? I didn’t care. Hey, what’s going on?
I walk in there and there’s, you know, wow, a bunch of people my age. What’s happening, man?
That music loud. Well, this is great.
And then this guy comes out looking like a full blown hippie, long, incredible hair.
It was Greg Lori and he starts giving the message.
I’d never heard the Bible before. I was so convicted and I accepted Christ that night.
I didn’t understand exactly what he was saying. I knew that it was true though.
I knew it was true and I was in deep trouble.
I knew that nobody had to convince me of that.
He does it that as the Lord reaches out, even to this man that’s possessed, as you shall see in a moment on his terms and is in his timing and God reached out to you in your timing and maybe for some of you today, it is your time today to hear that Jesus Christ died for you, that he died for all the world.
But listen, it only benefits those who trust him to that take up that gift of offering that he provides to you and you apply it to your life.
Jesus Christ. Well, not only that, when we look at this man who is demon possessed, the Bible makes it very clear to us that regarding demonic activity, there are regions, there are locations, there are territories that have demonic powers and influences over them.
That is a biblical fact. In fact, you can study the book of Daniel and there you will find that there is a demonic persuasion during the book of Daniel over.
Imagine gee I wonder if he’s left a demon that controlled the region of Iran, the prince of Persia.
I think that demon is awake and doing very fine today.
The way the news is happening, the Bible says, imagine the Bible teaches that there are domains and realms that demonic and heavenly angelic forces work and play and argue in war throughout this world.
Invisible host of powers. Does America have a protecting angel? I can assume.
So from what Daniel Records, does America have an attacking demon or, or demonic angel of some sort?
So you can understand that perhaps from the Bible, wow, see what’s in our lives.
Church is not what we can touch and feel and see there are things happening behind this physical world scene that the Bible says are heavenly or demonically energized pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life radio with his message called when Jesus goes to work, thanks for taking the time to be with us today.
You know, our message called when Jesus goes to work is part of Pastor Jack’s series called the Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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