Christ Church Washington D.C.

The sermon text is taken from the Gospel of Mark chapter 5. These are the words of the living God. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces,
neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And so the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. There were about two thousand and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country, and they went out to see what was done.
And they that saw it told them how it befell him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
And he began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live. And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him and thronged him.
And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was nothing better, but grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said,
Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked around about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. And while he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master any further?
And as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept, and wailed greatly. And when he was come in, he said unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entered in,
and the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha kumi, which is being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, rise. And straightway the damsel arose and walked, for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. And he charged them straightly, that no man should know it, and commanded that something should be given her to eat. Let’s pray together.
You may be seated.
Bring a greetings from the saints in Moscow. It’s good to be with you all again. We pray for you all all the time. And it gives a whole new meaning to worshiping in the presence of your enemies. To stand here with you and to hear them. And we love you and we’re cheering you on. The reason why you hear that is because you’re right over the target.
And thank you. Thank you for being here week after week worshiping the Lord. Thank you. We’re cheering you on. We’re praying. We’re with you. And God gave us this chapter. Which is fantastic. I didn’t plan this. Joe Rigney planned this months ago. And we have three scenes in this chapter that present three fundamental problems
face faces. We face the madness of sin. We face the uncleanness of sin. And we face the consequences of death because of sin. Those are the three scenes we have in this story. The madness of sin. The insanity of sin. The uncleanness of sin. And the consequences of sin. Which is death. Sin always brings a kind of insanity. We try to justify our angry outbursts. We try to justify drinking too much.
Why you told, there was a reason. There was never a reason. But you say those crazy things in your head. You try to defend sin in your head, but if you’re honest, you know it never made sense. Sin is always, even the littlest sin, is a little insanity. It’s madness. And that madness grows up into great madness. That madness left unchecked goes into significant insanity. Sin is always uncleanness.
Hardhearted unbelief can build up calluses. But guilt is real and sin always feels awful. It’s a stain that cannot come out. It’s a stain that we cannot remove on our own. And if you have the Holy Spirit, one of the signs that you have the Holy Spirit is it feels particularly filthy. It feels particularly awful when you have sinned and when you’ve not made it right. You feel that because the Holy Spirit is inside of you.
And the Holy Spirit is at war with that sin. And the wages of sin is death. The fear of death is directly connected to knowing you deserve it. I distinctly remember trying to hide from my grandfather as a little boy before getting a spank for sassing my grandmother. There I was hiding behind the couch and then it all goes dark. I don’t know what happened after that. But you hide. Your instinct is to hide because you’re afraid of the consequences. You know you deserve the consequences.
And just like Adam and Eve in the garden, trying to cover up nakedness with a few leaves, we all try to hide from their consequences. Ultimately, we’re hiding from death itself. So sin is insanity. Sin is uncleanness. Sin deserves death. And these problems do not have human solutions. These problems do not have human solutions. Sin cannot be solved by legislation or by economic progress. You cannot grow GDP to beat this. It cannot be solved by medication.
Or therapy or some sexual relationship or identity.
Identity politics are a desperate search for justification and cleansing. This time we’ve got it. We’ve found the pure people. We’ve found the stained people. Now we will get it. Now we will have justice. And more people lose their lives. The message of the entire Bible is that only God can deal with our insanity.
And our uncleanness. And these scenes declare to us that God has come in his only son, Jesus Christ. Only Christ can save us from these problems. He heals our insanity. He clothes us with his righteousness. He restores our minds. And he takes away our uncleanness and promises to deal with death itself. So let’s walk through this text together. It’s a longer selection.
Chapter 5, Jesus has just calmed the storm on the sea. That’s the previous scene in chapter 4. He’s just calmed the storm. He just spoke to the wind and the waves. And they obeyed him. And he comes ashore to the country of the Gadarenes. And he faces another storm. He faces a storm of demons. Right? He faces a storm of demons tormenting a man who cannot be tamed. Just like you can’t tame the storm.
You can’t tame a hurricane. But Jesus does and can. So too he faces a storm of demons with this man who cannot be bound. He lives in the tombs. And he’s constantly cutting himself and breaking the chains. That’s verses 1 to 5. This is a perfect picture of the madness of sin. The insanity of sin. So Jesus commands the legion to leave the man. And he sends them into an enormous herd of pigs. It says about 2,000.
And they immediately rush down a cliff and drown in the sea, just like Pharaoh’s armies. We’ve got legions, which are Roman armies. They fill a bunch of pigs. Those are Roman animals as well, pagan animals. And then they drowned in the sea. There’s a little mini exodus going on right here. Verses 6 to 13. Of course, news spreads quickly.
They’re terrified, it says. And they send Jesus away. And Jesus sends the man to tell his friends what happened to him. That’s verses 14 to 20. Now Jesus crosses the sea again. And there, Jesus meets the ruler of the synagogue who falls down and begs him to come heal his sick daughter. That’s verses 21 to 23.
That’s verses 24 to 27. Of course, this would have made her ceremonially unclean in the old covenant system. And Jesus senses this healing. And he, I think somewhat humorously says in the midst of a bustling crowd, wait, who touched me? Right? My son and I went to an Orioles game yesterday while visiting the area. And we were in a couple of very packed crowds. We’ll put it that way.
And you just think to yourself, you’re crammed into a tiny elevator or you’re in a crowd. And Jesus says, wait, wait, I think somebody touched me. The disciples are a little bit like, that’s ridiculous. Everybody touched you, Jesus. And he says, no, but no, I’m talking about something different. He says, who touched my garment? And the woman comes and kneels down before him. And he assures her of her salvation and healing and of his peace.
That’s verses 28 to 34. Right after that, right after that moment, as the woman has been healed and assured of that healing, the messengers bring word that the ruler of the synagogue’s daughter has died and to let Jesus go. There’s no sense in bringing him to your house. She’s died. But Jesus, undeterred, says, do not be afraid, only believe, I’m going. He goes, he arrives at the house. Of course, there’s many people there. They’re gathered.
Mourning, great sorrow for the death of this little girl, but he urges them not to be afraid. He says, in fact, again, asks a question that’s a little bit ridiculous if you think about it. Why are you crying? It’s a little bit, Jesus is not in his most sensitive moment here, right? I mean, at least recognize they think she’s dead. I mean, you know, be gentle.
It’s such a fuss. She’s only asleep. Of course, they quickly turn on him and mock him. Verses 35 to 39, Jesus takes the immediate disciples, mom and dad, up to the upper room where the young girl is lying. And there it says that he took her by the hand and he calls to her, to Letha, which means little girl, Kumi, rise up, rise.
That there be something given to her to eat. That’s verses 40 to 43. Humanism is fundamentally the belief that the problems humans face can be solved by human solutions. Humanism is fundamentally the belief that the problems we face as human beings and as a human race can be solved by human solutions. But this is to radically misunderstand the nature of the problem.
It’s to radically misunderstand the depth of the problem. The depth of the problem, the problem itself is sin. The problem is sin and sin has no human solution. Sin is a metaphysical stain on your soul. Sin is something that goes deeper than all human attempts to fix it. It’s guilt that always torments human souls.
They’re ultimately worthless, like trying to chain this demon-possessed man. Good luck. He’s going to break the chain. He’s going to break it again. He’s going to cut himself again. He’s going to be free again in five minutes. Or like the physicians trying to help the woman, only making her case worse and worse and worse. Or like death itself. Whatever the next transhumanist solution is, we’re going to live forever.
This has always been the lie of humanism. That we can somehow cheat death. That we can beat death. The problems that humans face, the insanity of sin, the uncleanness of sin, and the consequences of sin, death itself, cannot be solved by human solutions. We live in a culture that’s inundated with these humanistic solutions, only making things worse. We’ve medicated our kids, and they’re more confused and depressed than ever.
We’ve given ourselves over to sexual depravity. We listened to Freud and all of his friends that said, the problem is that we are all being sexually repressed. We don’t feel free. Everybody feels really bad about these sexual desires, so you need to let them not feel bad about them. Celebrate them. Let them act on them. Then everybody will feel better, and they’ll ease up, and they’ll calm down, and we’ll have a normal society. No. You let it out, and it only got worse. We’re more lonely and childless than ever.
We’ve asked the government to fix us, and we’re more enslaved than ever. We are a culture that is increasingly tormented by our sins, increasingly naked, and cutting ourselves in all kinds of ways. And we’re living among the tombs of our aborted babies, our abandoned grandparents, and those who have destroyed themselves with drugs and booze. But the real solution is terrifying.
The reason why human beings do not turn to the solution. It’s terrifying. It’s disruptive. It even seems embarrassing. Even kind of ridiculous. When Jesus healed the demon-possessed man, a local economy crashed. 2,000 pigs. That’s a lot of money that just went down the drain. Not to mention the ecological environmental issues that they might have had in that part of the Sea of Galilee for a while.
I mean, how bad did that smell? 2,000 dead pigs. Remember, pigs are unclean animals for Jews. What are those pigs doing there? There’s likely some kind of bustling pagan shrine somewhere in the region. And so the men of the region say, no thanks. You need to go. No thanks. They’d rather have the ravings of a naked madman in the cemetery and a bustling economy
that Jesus brings. We got money, we got a bustling economy, we got tourism, we got all this stuff going. No, no, we can deal with one crazy guy. Maybe a couple. Jesus disrupts idolatrous economies. Of course, the peace and the freedom of Christ creates truly thriving economies as well, but the idols will have to come down and that will bring disruption.
Jesus healed the woman with the flow of blood. He created a fairly awkward public scene. Just think about it. He’s asked a woman to confess in public. She’s been bleeding for 12 years. It’s awkward. It’s embarrassing. And so it is that Jesus requires all his disciples to publicly own him. There are no anonymous Christians.
Only public Christians. This is why having a Christian testimony has always been important. You’ve heard no doubt many times from us and from preachers in the CREC that we love a boring testimony. Especially as we’re talking to covenant kids, we love boring testimonies. What do we mean by boring testimonies? We mean we love covenant kids growing up in the faith, never remembering a day they didn’t know Jesus. That’s what we mean.
We don’t remember when they first were converted. They don’t remember when they first believed in Jesus. It was sometime back there early on when mom and dad were teaching them, bringing them to church, and they believed. That’s my testimony. I grew up in a Christian home. My dad’s a pastor. I don’t remember when I first believed in Jesus. All my early memories are loving to sing and worship the Lord. Those are my early memories. So we love boring testimonies like that. But there’s always a danger in saying that, because
I don’t want anyone ever to think that your testimony is actually boring. Because you know what? Even if you don’t remember the moment you first believed, even if you don’t remember the moment that God came and gave you a new heart, maybe it happened when you were six months old. Maybe it happened like John the Baptist in his mother’s womb. Maybe it happened when you were five or seven. But you know what? When that happened, you came from death to life.
The man of Satan to the dominion of Jesus Christ. That’s not boring. You may say, well, I didn’t join any biker gangs and I didn’t do drugs and I don’t even have any tattoos to show for it. Well, great. Glorious. But you know what? You were brought from death to life. You were raised from the dead of sin to life and that’s not boring. It’s not boring at all. I said a little while ago that one of the ways a Christian knows they have a Holy Spirit is because when you sin,
you feel awful. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t let you get away with that. That’s a central part of my testimony because I don’t remember the first time that I first believed in Jesus, but you know what I remember? Feeling disgusting for my sins and trying to get away with it. I remember as a little boy, no, I’m not going to confess. No, I’m not going to confess. And I just get sicker and sicker and sicker and then eventually it’s like, you know, trying to not puke, you know. And that’s how I know.
The Holy Spirit lives in me. Because that’s my testimony. And every single one of you must have a testimony. Maybe you remember when you were in the dark. Maybe it’s like a saw on the way to Damascus. Maybe you hated Jesus. Maybe you hated the gospel. Maybe you mocked the Christians and maybe Jesus knocked you down and said, why are you persecuting me? Maybe you were at the end of your rope and you cried out. Maybe you remember. Glory be to God. Glory to God for that.
Maybe you don’t remember. But you ought to remember times in which God has demonstrated his presence in your life. That’s the kind of testimony everyone in this room needs to have. Everyone in this room must know that Jesus is alive because of the way that he has dealt with you. You need to know that. You must know the glory of being forgotten. Of not forgotten, of being forgiven. Your sin being forgotten. Forgiveness means you know and you remember.
The burning hot shame of sin. It means you remember the uncleanness of your guilt. Even if it was for moments and God in his mercy, you did something, you said something and all of a sudden you think, ah, I got to get rid of that. I got to confess that. I got to make that right. That’s the Holy Spirit. And you need to know the glory of his peace. That’s a glorious word that Jesus speaks to that woman. Go in peace.
You have that? You must have that. It’s that peace that guards and protects your hearts and minds when you’re being accused of all kinds of evil. It’s that peace of the forgiveness of sins that can smile in the face of insane accusations. You’re an evil dad or you’re an evil mom
or a horrible kid or your parents are horrible people. Jesus says go in peace. Notice that. That’s not you saying somehow I’m sinless, I’m pure. No, it’s the peace of knowing you’ve been forgiven. It’s the peace of knowing the declaration there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You know the glory of his peace.
The young girl who had died, he insisted that even death is not too strong for him. And the people who were there weeping laughed at him. Thought it was ridiculous. But Jesus requires his disciples to live like that. Jesus requires his disciples to live like that in the face of death. We believe in the resurrection of the body. We just stood a few minutes ago. We recited the Apostles’ Creed.
We believe that just as Jesus rose from the dead, he will call everyone who trusts in him to rise, just like that little girl. He will say to every one of us, I say to you, arise. This means that we do not live according to the mantra of you only live once. No. No, we’re just getting started. We get, you know,
50, 70, 100 years maybe if we’re God’s kind, but that’s just the beginning. That’s just the preface. You think about eternity. I mean, how’s that gonna measure? That’s gonna be the blink and eternity is forever. We live in the light of eternity. We live in the light of the reality of the resurrection. That means we have plenty of time. We have plenty of time, which incidentally is why Sabbath is so important to Christians, right? We have a lot of work to do
and make sure once a week you rest. You say, well, you know, if we worked one more day, Lord, that would be, you know, do the math. God says, yeah, I did. And you’ll be dead a lot faster. This is one of the places, and you’re doing it right now, right? What do we do on the Lord’s day? What do we do? Well, we come and we sit down and we sing psalms and we hear the word and we sit at his table and we eat bread and we share wine, right?
But fundamentally, what you’re doing in that, what you’re confessing in that is that Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth, of life and death, history, time, all of it, and he has it in hand. And we’re willing and happy to return with grateful hearts everything we can. All that we are, life, death, all of it, we’ll give it back to him, lay it out to him out of gratitude. But fundamentally, he doesn’t need us. Fundamentally, it’s not like Jesus is desperate.
We’re a few more converts this year. No, Jesus is not. Jesus is not at all. Now, he is determined to win. He’s determined to fill this earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That’s what he’s doing, right? When he rose from the dead, he said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them everything I’ve commanded you. We do that because, therefore, why? Because he has all authority in heaven and earth.
He already has the keys of death and Hades. He already has struck the fatal blow to Satan. He already has confirmed our forgiveness of sins and our eternal life. But he wants to do it this way. He’s determined to do it this way. He says, it’s more fun this way? I don’t know. It’s more glorious this way? He’s like, Lord, you could just be done with this. It could all be over. Jesus says, no. I like the thousands of years plan. With all of you.
With all of you. That’s what Jesus is determined to do. But we have to remember that. We have to remember that. We live in the light of eternity. We live with the one who says to death, no, all done. Every cemetery you drive by, another D.C. story for you. We drove by the Arlington for a moment on Friday night. Every one of those stones. It’s like a post-it note.
Right? Jesus, God created the world and it was full of life. And death was not the way it was supposed to be. Death is not the way it was supposed to be. But everyone, reason why we mark them, reason why we mark them as Christians is we’re saying, God’s not done. The story’s not over. Every one of those tombs, every one of those grave sites is our declaration that we live and know that Jesus has risen from the dead.
God’s not done here. He has promised to come. We have plenty of time because Jesus is Lord. We want to work hard for the king every day, but we’ve got to work hard in a way that is constantly acknowledging that the king has everything in hand. The king has everything in hand. So sin is insanity, but it is an insane response to a real problem. Sin is insanity, but it’s an insane response to a real problem.
The stain of guilt and looming death. And in the grip of that reality, in the grip of that madness, moderns seek justification. I said earlier that’s what identity politics is all about. It’s the latest version of this. It’s the search for victims and their perpetrators. It’s the search for victims and their perpetrators. This is why people are screaming obscenities. Why are they screaming obscenities? Well, because they’re guilty.
Penance and indulgences. How do you get justification according to modern identity politics? Well, you identify with the victim groups and you scream obscenities at the perpetrators, so-called. They’re just doing penance. They’re doing indulgences. Scream five obscenities and you’re more righteous. Why? Well, because the guilty party are whites and males and heterosexuals, et cetera, and Christians.
Those are the guilty parties. They’re the perpetrators. They’re the colonizers. They’re the abusers. And so they scream obscenities to get clean, to get justification. Of course, it doesn’t work, and so they have to keep screaming. It doesn’t work, and so they have to keep screaming. They’re trying to get clean by political activism. They’re trying to get clean by protests. They’re trying to get clean by condemning so-called perpetrators. But you can’t chain this rage with human action.
Cleanse this stain with meds or booze or more screaming. Only the blood of the truly innocent victim can cleanse. Only the blood of the truly innocent victim can cleanse. Only Christ crucified can make you right with the Father. Only Christ crucified gives you peace that no one can take away. Only his resurrection can deliver you from the grave. And only his justice can establish justice and make any room at all for mercy.
So that’s the message we preach here week after week. Christ crucified for sinners. Christ crucified for sinners. Which is still folly to the PhDs and the policy wonks. And it’s still a stumbling block to do-gooders and social justice warriors. It’s not good enough. Sick of your prayers, why don’t you do something? But we are doing something. We’re doing the most effective thing. We’re crying out to the one who can do something about it. We’re going to the one who has done something about it.
And who is entrusting us with that ministry. There’s no other way out of this mess except by the authoritative voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no other way out of the mess except for Jesus Christ saying, peace. That’s it. There’s no other way. But for the last 2,000 years, he has been doing that. That’s the thing. Don’t miss this.
Jesus has been speaking peace and they calm. He’s been cleansing the unclean. He’s been taking away the fear of death. And so, do not be afraid. Only believe. Listen.
Do not be afraid. Only believe. You are with the one who calmed the storms. You are with the one who casts out demons. You are with the one who is not afraid. He is not afraid of death. He’s not afraid of crazies. He’s not afraid of sin. He’s not afraid of any of it. And he speaks to you just as he spoke to these people 2,000 years ago. Do not be afraid. Only believe. We have met the Lord.
I know we’re Presbyterians, but you can say amen. We’ve met the Lord. He’s with us in the boat. He’s with us on this shore. He’s with us, and he has risen from the dead. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him, and he’s called you to disciple here. Disciple your family. Disciple your business. Disciple whatever he’s called there. You are an ambassador for Jesus Christ there, and the Lord is with you.
And the Lord does all things well. So let’s pray. Father, I ask that your authoritative peace would guard our hearts and our minds right this minute. I pray that the peace of Jesus Christ would remind us of your great mercy in our lives, that we would remember distinct moments in our lives where you have granted us that peace, and I pray that you renew it in our hearts now. I pray, Father, that this peace would allow us to think clearly about the challenges we face,
I pray that we would walk boldly before you clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ without any fear, knowing that there is no condemnation because we are in Jesus Christ. And I ask that you would send forth ministers of this gospel with great boldness so that there would be a great reformation and revival in our land. We pray that you would drive back the darkness. We pray that you would awaken the light of your gospel and that it would shine bright on this land. And we ask for this in the strong name of Jesus who taught us to pray.
Sing him. Our Father who art in heaven.
Sing.