The Realms of The King - Part 1

Guest (Male): There is a spiritual world. Daniel was telling us so many years prior to this that there is this parallel universe, that what is happening in the spiritual world is waging war between God and his servants and Satan and his, and what they are doing is wrestling for our souls, and we are being fought for in the heavenly realms. We don't wrestle, says the Apostle Paul, against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places. So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's lesson, Pastor Bryan shares from Mark Chapter 5, in which we see, by way of miracle, the power that Jesus has over both the physical world and the spiritual realm as well. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for Pastor Bryan's book, *Unlimited Grace*. Dr. Chapell reminds us of the power and mercy of God's grace that motivates and inspires us to serve our Heavenly Father. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson, "The Realms of the King."
Bryan Chapell: Look in your Bibles at Mark Chapter 5. At this point, Jesus' ministry is in full throttle as he's moving more and more public, and he goes from mountain—the Sermon on the Mount—to sea—stilling the storm—to a cemetery. Now, that may be a strange place to conduct a public ministry, but you'll see why. Just after he lands on the shore from stilling the storm, there's another storm brewing, but it's in the heart and mind of a man. Mark 5, verse 3: "That man 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 mountains, 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, beg you by God, do not torment me.' For he was saying to him, that is, Jesus, '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, that is, Legion, 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 to the pigs; let us enter them.' 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 people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the Legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid." Why afraid? Jesus came to enable us to serve him without fear. Why afraid at this great evidence of the power of God? It seems ancient, seems not dealing with modern realities, but deep down we know something about the physical and spiritual realities of our world. They are mixed in ways more profound than we can just make sense with our math and our test tubes.
Guest (Male): Think of a much more modern experience. Marie McCready was just 13 years old when she had a bronchitis attack and, as a consequence, lost her speech. But when the bronchitis left, she could not speak. For a while, it was kind of fun. I mean, she went back to school but couldn't speak, and so she and her friends developed other ways of communicating: sign language and passing notes in the classroom. This brought the suspicion of the teachers. "You're faking it." No. Then because it was a parochial school, "Something evil is possessing you. You are a witch." No. One of the pastors with the school actually said, "This is the work of the devil." She herself even began—maybe it was? Is that what was happening? And as the anxiety filled her, they ultimately put her in an insane asylum under the designation of hysteria. So much anxiety she cannot even speak anymore.
Bryan Chapell: They couldn't cure it. And so ultimately, when they determined she was not crazy, she took up a job that fit somebody who could not speak. She became a typist until age 25. Another bout of bronchitis, and as she began coughing up blood in terror, went to the doctor, and there was a lump in her throat. And when they extracted it, they found that it was a penny that she had swallowed 12 years prior, wedged between her vocal cords so they could not resonate. How it got there, no one knew. Was it a friend that put a coin in a cup as a prank? Was there a soda can that somehow got a penny? They don't know. All we know is that 12 years later, after a physical reality had led to a spiritual concern, had led to just such a confusion of thought, that the reality of the physical world and spiritual concerns began to conflate in such a way that any reasonable person would be saying, "How do these worlds fit together?" The physical and the spiritual, and the impact on what we think about relationships eternally. And believe it or not, that is exactly what Jesus addresses in this passage that seems so strange to us. As Jesus, who has just said to the wind and the waves and the men in the boat, "Peace, be still," is making it clear he is not just in charge of the created order, but of matters physical for individuals and spiritual, so that the relationships that ultimately become eternal are all the realms in which Jesus is saying, "I'm in control of that too."
Guest (Male): The famous statement of Abraham Kuyper: "There is not one square inch of this earth over which Jesus does not stand and say, 'This is mine! This is mine!'" And that is not just physical; that is spiritual. It's ultimately eternal, as Christ is demonstrating who he is. This preacher on the mount, he is the King of all realms. And he begins just in that spiritual world that we have so many questions about. Picture the scene. Jesus has crossed the Sea of Galilee. He has stilled the storm. And when he's doing it, remember the disciples wake up and say, "Teacher, don't you care about us?" Well, he does care, and he rises and he rebukes the wind and the waves and says, "Peace, be still." And they were terrified. "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him?" And he is about to say what manner of man he is. He gets right out of that boat on the far shore, steps out, and a man from the tombs comes to him. He's insane. But it's not just insanity. Whatever fills him spiritually gives him superhuman strength along with the insanity. He can't be bound by many men or chains or shackles; he can break them all because the spiritual evil that is in him, the demons that are in him—2,000 go into pigs—are so controlling him that he can't do anything but rage in body and mind in the cemeteries.
Bryan Chapell: It's real. I mean, I know it's the Halloween time of year, so we think of it if you were seeing it on a movie—Boris Karloff is right around the scene somewhere, or Vincent Price, or somebody named Brunhilde must be. But it's not Halloween silliness. It's right where we live. He is so out of control that just to be able to control something, he inflicts pain on himself. It's the cutting we still understand in our culture. "I'm totally out of control. Nobody cares about me. I have no control. Well, at least I can control pain. I can control something and feel something when the world has rejected me." And so he begins to self-harm himself. And when he approaches Jesus, the demons in him speak for him. Verse 7: "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you by God, do not torment me." Amazing that even a legion of demons—this composite called Legion—is speaking to Jesus in the name of God. It's heavy awareness for us when we have friends or relatives who say they are living a very different, dishonoring to God life, and they say, "Don't worry about me. I believe in God." What did James the brother of Jesus say? "You say you believe in God, and you do well, but even the devils believe." You believe in a God? Believe me, Satan believes in a God. What is your belief? That you are in desperate need of a Savior and that Jesus, by his death and resurrection, paid the price for your sin, and in gratitude, you are living for him now? "My faith is in him, his ways, his provision." That's what I believe about the God who provided a Savior for me. That's my faith.
Guest (Male): And in the remarkable things that happen next, you understand that mere faith is not enough. You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. Change, real change, is hard. In fact, some people would claim that no change is really possible. But the truth is, it is possible. You can be different. You can overcome your struggle with sin or that addiction, but it won't be happening simply by turning over a new leaf or trying a little harder. The real power of change is ignited when we take hold of God's amazing grace. In the book *Unlimited Grace* by Pastor Bryan Chapell, he shows you how *Unlimited Grace* takes you on a journey to discover how grace not only frees you from the guilt and shame of a sinful life, but also provides the daily fuel needed for joy and strength in your Christian life. Take hold of God's grace, and it is the key to finding true life change. Request your copy of *Unlimited Grace*—that's the title of the book—when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com. And the web address again: unlimitedgrace.com. And now more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.
Bryan Chapell: What is your belief? That you are in desperate need of a Savior and that Jesus, by his death and resurrection, paid the price for your sin, and in gratitude, you are living for him now? "My faith is in him, his ways, his provision." That's what I believe about the God who provided a Savior for me. That's my faith. And in the remarkable things that happen next, you understand that mere faith is not enough because this composite of Satan, this Legion, is thrown into pigs. Some of you who have been with me in the Holy Land probably know where this is, right beside the Sermon on the Mount, a little further on the Sea of Galilee. There is this sloping pasture that goes down to a cliff over the Sea of Galilee. The speculation is it could have happened there, just as the scriptures say. The physical dynamics fit the count. Okay, but what's your takeaway from such a strange story? One is simply, "I'm a modern. I'm scientific, astute in the ways of the world. No such thing as demons inside a man." Come on, we live in a modern world. We have test tubes and mathematical formulas and computers. But something deep in us knows that just what our eyes can observe and what the test tubes can test is not the full reality. There is a spiritual world. Daniel was telling us so many years prior to this that there is this parallel universe. What is happening in the spiritual world is waging war between God and his servants and Satan and his, and what they are doing is wrestling for our souls, and we are being fought for in the heavenly realms. "We don't wrestle," says the Apostle Paul, "against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places." And that reality is to be faced. Now that brings up all kinds of questions. Well, if that's true, if there really are demons and evil forces, can a Christian be demon-possessed? I'll just tell you, I don't think so. Now, can we be deceived by Satan? Can we be confused in our thinking in ways? Well, of course. But remember what the scriptures say. Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." So says John: "Greater is he that's in you than he that is in the world." And Jesus is not indwelling you and then at some point says, "Oh, Satan wants in? Okay, well, I'll just move aside so Satan can enter." No, he is King. He is the ruler of our eternal destinies. He has loved us from time immemorial, and he claims us for all eternity. And we recognize can we be deranged in our thought? Can we be deceived by Satan? But he is not in control. This is my Father's world. This is the soul that belongs to Jesus Christ, and I believe him. My faith is in his provision. Can other people be demon-filled? Jesus answers that. Luke 11: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through voids seeking rest, and finding none it says, 'I'll return to the house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, so the last state of the person is worse than the former." We can live in a world where people say, "You know what? I don't need God, I don't need Jesus, but my world still makes sense. I'll just get things ordered in a way that makes sense to me, and I just kind of get all the taboos and all the superstition swept out, and I'll get my life all ordered by the way that I can think about it, and things will just be fine." And you think of the mass shootings of our era. Not every one of them mean the psychologist or people who are insane. That often young men who just have their minds all in order as they think of it, feeding hatred and bitterness on the internet and then responding to the bullying that they have experienced—it makes perfect sense to them. "I'm just going to go kill a bunch of people. Won't that be a good thing? Won't they respect me then?" And you kind of think, what sort of deranged thinking is that? And you recognize that even as they think they have swept out all wrong thought, what is coming is more evil than what was ever there before. Just as Jesus has said, believe me, unbelievers can make room for Satan. Now, the fact that Christians are not possessed by the devil does not mean that we don't have things to think about. When we talk about the reality of a spiritual world as Christians, you recognize that you can kind of fall off both sides of a cliff. One cliff says, "Oh, you know, there just aren't such things; that's just ancient people and ancient perspectives. I just don't believe in these devil things." That's one mistake. But the other mistake, more common in the church, is to believe that there's a devil behind every bush that we have to be afraid of. And so we live in fear that God never meant us to have. What did Jesus say when he stilled the storm? He said, "Peace, be still." And when this man is healed, he's sitting down. He's at rest. He's calmed. God has done something in heart and mind and life, and he's at peace. What does the Apostle Paul say? "God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind." We serve a God who even in his nativity was saying to us, "I came to enable you to serve me without fear." Greater is he that's in you than he that is in the world. And everything that Paul is saying, as he's recounting the truths of Jesus, are being reflected in this passage. Power, love, sound mind are yours. Verse 14: "The herdsmen of the pigs fled and told it in the city and in the country, and the people came to see what had happened." Verse 15: "They came to Jesus and they saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the Legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind." The power of God has brought peace, rest into his life where there was a man cutting himself and screaming at night. Now he's at rest. There is peace. And more than that, I love it, he is clothed. There's dignity again. There had been awfulness, but now there's dignity again, clothed in the provision of Jesus. Spiritually, we are reminded over and over again that we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I'm in him. I'm united to Christ. He surrounds me; it's his identity that is mine now. And so we go through awful things in life. I think of those who have experienced the awful pain of divorce, and they know that in the church, there are those who will blame them and there are those who will gossip about them. And we get to say, "But you are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Your identity is in him. The past does not define you. The reality of your spiritual union with Christ is what calls you his precious child. You are as loved by God as Jesus himself." And we raise children that disappoint us, and we know people will point their finger and talk about our affairs. I am clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. My identity before him is the one of a perfectly loved child. People may accuse my parenting, and of course, everything they say is true to some extent. I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I'm embarrassed that I've been dismissed from my job. I've been rejected by loved ones. Maybe there's mental illness in my family; maybe there's mental illness in me. Maybe there's the loss of my former capacities of mind or body. Maybe I'm facing depression in cycles I don't know how to get out of. And everybody is blaming me, and I say, "But you are robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ." Hi, friend. This is Pastor Bryan. I'm glad you decided to tune in and listen, and I would consider it a privilege to pray over you today. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, what a privilege we have to come to you in prayer. Your word says that we can come to you about anything, not just the big things and not just the things that we think we have figured out. Instead, you love us so much that you say, "Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving for your certain care, we can offer our requests to you." And then because we know that the God who controls all the outcomes of things on earth and for eternity cares this much for us, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds for whatever we face with Jesus. We do not expect our prayers to end all our trials before Jesus comes, but we know that you will use our prayers, Father, to make all things work together for good until Jesus returns. Thank you for this promise and assurance. Give us the peace and the strength we need through these promises and assurances we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. And when you do so, you can sign up for Pastor Bryan's daily devotional sent right to your inbox. While you're there, also be sure to request a copy of the book from Dr. Bryan Chapell called *Unlimited Grace*. We'll send you a copy right away as our way of saying thanks for your most generous financial support. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.