Fighting the Right Enemy

6 · Establishes the historical and cultural context of first-century Jewish expectations

Now, this is the first in Mark of Jesus' encounters with the Gentiles. And that's significant because if you'd grown up in the first century and you were Jewish, you would be sure who the real enemy was: the Gentiles. They were the Roman occupiers. They were the Roman oppressors. They were so hated by the Jewish people, they were often called dogs.

The people of Jesus' day, the Jewish people around his day, would have seen their struggle, the defining struggle of their people as being the Jews versus the Gentiles, an ethnic struggle, a political struggle, a cultural struggle. And their great hope was that one day somebody like the Maccabees would rise up and throw off the Roman oppression. Somebody, the Messiah, the warrior king, would finally show up and finally smash the legions of soldiers all around them and free the people and raise the Jewish flag again.

7 · Reconstructs the disciples' perspective as they encounter the demon-possessed man, showing how all their cultural conditioning would have identified him as the enemy

Now, in light of that, here's what would have happened as the disciples stepped off the boat. They would have seen an unclean murderous Gentile coming toward them.

This side of the sea that Jesus has led them to is the Gentile side of the sea. And so, they've got a murderous unclean Gentile approaching them, about to attack them, they saw the enemy. But Jesus saw past the man's bruised and battered body, beyond his ethnicity, beyond where he came from. He saw the real need and the real spiritual situation of this man, which is that this man was oppressed by a legion of demons.

8 · Unpacks the theological significance of the demons' self-identification as 'Legion

Now, legion, that word refers to a group of 3,000 to 6,000 Roman soldiers.

Soldiers in a group, right? And this man was not possessed, you know, oppressed by just 1 or 2 or 3 demons. This is an army. This is nothing less than a demonic army inhabiting a single man. And as the man approached Jesus, Jesus knew immediately the real enemy.

9 · Transitions from the specific case in the text to a universal claim about demonic activity

Now, this man may be a uniquely terrible expression of demonic activity, but demonic opposition to all the things of God is present throughout the world.

10 · Establishes the biblical-theological framework for spiritual warfare, citing Ephesians 6:12 to define the true nature of the enemy

Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Now, demonic activity seems to be in the ministry of Jesus unusually high. There are Lots of demons in the Gospels. And that's probably because there was a unique concerted effort by Satan, by demons, by the spiritual forces arrayed against God. There was a unique effort to oppose the work of God in the person of Jesus.

And that activity runs through the whole Bible. It begins with the voice of the serpent in Genesis 3. It continues through the gods of Egypt and the oppression of Egypt. It continues into the surrounding gods and idolatry of Israel's day. It goes all the way to the end of Revelation where you see all the earthly and demonic forces arrayed in opposition against the Lord.

That opposition exists today.

11 · Establishes the relationship between human sin and demonic influence, carefully balancing personal moral responsibility with spiritual reality

Now, we don't know exactly how this man came to be so oppressed, so possessed, but there is always a connection in the scripture between sin and demonic influence, right? The Bible lays out three great enemies of God's people. The flesh, which is the enemy within us, our sin nature. The world, which is humans getting together in opposition to God, seen like in the Tower of Babel.

And the devil. And that's something we must never forget as we look and seek to find the enemy around us. Now, the Bible is clear that our sin is our sin. "The devil made me do it" isn't a valid excuse when you stand before the judgment seat, right? Because what we see in God's word is that our sin exerts its own influence on us, but our sin also opens us up in a sense to be given over to demonic influence.

So listen to this in Ephesians chapter 2. You'll see these three things clearly. He says in Ephesians 2:1, "And you were dead in the trespasses, in sins, in which you once walked." What is that? That's the flesh, right? That's our own flesh.

We're dead, we're walking in that deadness, "following the course of this world." So when we sin, we also align ourselves with the world, the sinful humanity aligned against God. "Also following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience." So you see, when you sin, not only does it have effects personally, it also essentially means that you are raising the flag of sinful rebellion. You're raising the flag of the army of darkness with Satan as its head.

12 · Establishes Satan's fundamental posture toward humanity—active hatred and predatory intent

Now, our sin brings us under God's just judgment, but it also brings us under the increased influence and oppression of Satan himself. And Satan, friends, Satan hates the things of God.

1 Peter 5 says this: Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So what does this mean for us? It means that we must paint the right targets in the world around us. Otherwise, we will be guilty of friendly fire.

13 · Returns to the primary text's detail of self-harm to explain Satan's fundamental motivation—hatred of God expressed through defacing humanity made in God's image

Now, look, the nature of Satan's opposition is that Satan always opposes the things of God, and he hates humanity because humanity is made in the image of God. You see this man cutting himself with stones. Why is that happening? Because Satan and the demonic forces there are defacing the image of God itself. Satan hates— he may whisper to people and say, "Oh, I'm on your side." No, he's not on your side.

He wants to destroy you. He hates God and he hates where he sees his image, which is why Satan hates the church. What is the church but the renewed image of God gathered by God with Christ as the head? Therefore, Satan hates it with all of his might, with all of his power.

14 · Issues the first direct application of the sermon's thesis to the congregation

Church, we must be clear-eyed.

And I fear this year we may, at some points, have been duped by Satan as we have turned our fire on each other.

15 · Develops two concrete hypothetical scenarios showing how legitimate differences in pandemic response (based on military health vs

One of the most satanic parts of this year, I think, has been the division Satan has encouraged between Christians in churches, Christians who love each other, coupled with the isolation from one another. So you have division, you have isolation, which breeds suspicion and distrust and division, right? I'm gonna give two examples of two kinds of people we have in our church and what this could look like, okay? Say you're in the military in the middle of this pandemic. Say you're healthy, And when the people in your platoon maybe get sick, they tend to just get better, right?

Nobody's gotten really disabled. And you're looking at like the less than 1% morbidity rate of coronavirus and you're thinking, come on, man. And maybe you're even concerned that maybe some of the freedoms that you have fought for are being undermined and feeling like, oh, and then Satan takes that and begins to cultivate a suspicion and a judgment toward other Christians. If people stay home or cling to masks, you think, "Oh, they're just fearful. They're just duped by the media.

They're not courageous. They don't love freedom." And that separation begins to grow. Or maybe, say, you're caring for an aging parent and that parent has significant health issues. And when you look at the health issues of that parent, with that morbidity rate, you think that 1% suddenly starts to get bigger and bigger, right? Or maybe you're looking at, okay, you know, 18%, 19% asymptomatic.

I could have it and somebody, you know, somebody could give it to me and I not know it and I pass it on to my mom and this could be the end of my time with her. And therefore, you may start to judge others as well. You see people pushing back on some of the regulations or shutdown stuff and you begin to see them as uncaring. Or they're callous, or they don't care about their neighbors. And church, Satan delights when we begin to judge one another in the church of God.

He delights when the body takes stones and cuts itself because he hates the image of God in us. We begin to assume we know what you're thinking, we know what you're doing, I see it better than you, I know you better than you know yourself, and Satan applauds.

16 · Extends the application beyond internal church division to how Christians view those outside the church

Or maybe Satan has affected our view of those outside of the church, convincing us that the real enemies of this world are the Democrats. The real enemies of this world are the Republicans. The great threat to our world is the maskers. No, the anti-maskers. No, it's the rich.

No, it's the lazy welfare poor. No, it's the protesters. No, it's the corrupt police, right? Behind all of that, church, we must see that there is an enemy who longs for nothing more than the church of Jesus Christ to open up fire on each other and deface the renewed image of God that Christ has built.

We must see that there is an enemy greater than people who did not vote like us.

17 · Marks the structural shift from the first major section (redefining the enemy) to the second (redefining the victor)

That's point number 1. Second, redefining the victor.

18 · Reconstructs the villagers' repeated failed attempts to bind the demon-possessed man, emphasizing the complete futility of human strength against demonic power

Did you catch that in the text itself, it said he had often been bound with shackles and chains? So, I mean, I'm— listen, I'm sympathetic to the villagers here because there is a howling, crazy, super-strength guy literally living in a graveyard. And then at night when you put your kids to bed, you say, "Good night, little Timmy." You hear in the distance, "Rah!" Just rage.

And you're thinking, "Is he gonna come into the village tonight? Is he coming into my house?" So they would band together and they would go try to bind him with chains. And imagine this, they get to the point where he is literally bound and they're thinking, "Okay, okay, we're good, we're good." Literally Hulk moment, breaks the chains, screams in rage, and everybody runs. And it says, "No one had the strength to subdue him." And I think Mark says that with a wink, knowing what's about to come.

19 · Unpacks the spiritual dynamics of the confrontation, explaining first-century spiritual warfare practices to show the demons are using every available tactic against Jesus

Make no mistake that the demons in this legion, they do their worst.

They resist Jesus. I was reading some commentaries that oftentimes the spiritual warfare kind of stuff of this this day, what people thought worked was, okay, well, we're going to take— we're going to— if you know the secret name of your opponent and if you know another power greater than your opponent, then you can sort of use that to control them in some weird way. And that may be what the demon is doing. He knows the secret name of Jesus and he knows God himself is there as well. And so he's using these things, but it's in vain.

This army of 6,000 demons has nothing on Jesus. This is not a fair fight. This isn't Star Wars where there's the light and the dark and the sabers are clashing and you're like, "Who's gonna win?" No, the demon falls at Jesus' feet and even while resisting is reduced to a begging, blubbering mess. Do you know why? Because just as Jesus can see these demons clearer than his disciples can, the demons can see Jesus clearer than his disciples can.

And in Revelation, we get the true picture of the warrior King Jesus who comes riding in on a white horse, his eyes flames of fire, his very words a sword to cut down and lay waste to armies. And this legion may be towering over this whole village, over all the disciples, but there is one who towers over him and And at his feet, the demon begs for mercy.

20 · Establishes Jesus as the 'stronger man' who can and does bind Satan, drawing on Mark 3 preached earlier in the series to show this is a consistent theme in Jesus' ministry

There is one greater than this legion of demons. Remember what Jesus said in Mark 3 that Vince preached well a few weeks ago. Jesus makes this oblique reference, it seems like, to, "No one can enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman. Then he may indeed plunder his house." referring to Satan as the strongman. In other words, Satan is this king of darkness and he's, you know, he's in charge of the house.

Like, "I call the shots around here." Jesus says, "Oh yeah? Well, what if a stronger man kicks down the door, puts his boot on Satan's neck, robs the place, and doesn't give a second look over his shoulder?" Right? That's who Jesus is. Part of Jesus' ministry is restraining and binding demonic forces. Satan may be strong.

Let's make no mistake, church, Satan is stronger than you or me, right? I love Tom. Tom's been a pastor for 20 years, Christian for longer. Satan's stronger than Tom. Satan's stronger than me, stronger than you.

But there is one that Satan trembles before, and that is the risen Son of God himself.

21 · Connects Mark 5 to the Exodus typologically, showing that just as Israel saw enemy forces drown after God commanded the sea, so here the legion drowns after Jesus commands the sea to bring them to this place

Look, this encounter is full of spiritual significance. The NIV Study Bible makes this reference that I just found absolutely fascinating. It says this, "Only once has Israel seen somebody command the sea and then immediately after that, witnessed the drowning of a powerful hostile force." That is in the Exodus. It comments this simply, these are like dynamite words, "Jesus, in this new Exodus, has repeated the iconic moment but now it involves Israel's true enemies, not nations.

You know what the Exodus was about? It wasn't about the Jews struggling against the Egyptians. There was a much bigger battle going on. The real enemy is not political Egypt or ethnic Gentiles. The real enemy is Satan himself.

And Jesus, is the only one who is victorious over him.

22 · Addresses the theodicy question—why Jesus doesn't immediately eliminate Satan—by establishing the connection between human sin and satanic bondage

Now, we may wonder, why doesn't Jesus just wipe away Satan now? Why doesn't he just wipe away all the evildoers now? Just take all the evil out of the world, Jesus. Well, remember, the thing that keeps us in bondage to Satan is our sin. Our sin keeps us chained in the kingdom of darkness.

Our sin not only puts us under God's just judgment and and puts us under his judgment for eternity to come. It also puts us under Satan's rule here and now in this life. But Jesus, friends, Jesus knows that he is doing something in his ministry even greater than overcoming Satan, which is going to the cross and paying for the sins of his people to therefore break the chains of sin and the world and the devil himself. That is why Jesus is on the road to the cross.

23 · Direct evangelistic appeal to non-Christians in the congregation

And listen, friend, if you're here and you don't know Jesus and you are not a Christian, I just want to tell you this: you have an enemy that hates you, that wants with all of his power to deface the image of God with you.

And apart from Christ, there is no getting away from him. But in Christ, the chain breaker, the freedom fighter, you can be free. Free today. The chains that Satan has wrapped around you, that sin has wrapped around you, that the world has wrapped around you, there's only one stronger than all that and his name is Jesus.

24 · Closes the second section with a christological affirmation (Jesus as victor) and signals the third major section's theme—redefining how the church engages in spiritual warfare

He is the victor we follow.

Point number 3, redefining the struggle.

25 · Contrasts the villagers' rejection of Jesus (fearful of his power) with the delivered man's desire to follow him

Now, there are two very different reactions to Jesus. First, you obviously have the herdsmen and you'd think that these guys would be excited, right? These are probably the same guys that kept trying to bind this guy. They know firsthand that this guy's like, I mean, you know, this is the first century Hulk here, man. This is not, nobody's going up against this guy. And all of a sudden this guy's sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And you'd think the villagers would be like lifting Jesus on their shoulders and parading around like, yeah, yeah, you know, nope. What's their reaction? Jesus killed our business.

Who knows what else he could do? He's scary. He's scarier than the guy with the demons. We're out! Please leave.

Right? Sometimes we can have that reaction to Jesus because Jesus is threatening because giving— listen, listen— giving up the rule of Satan involves making Jesus king of your life. And they're like, no, man, I don't want— you know, I might not like living in Satan's kingdom but you seem a more intimidating king. Jesus is a good king. And we see the appropriate reaction in this man, that this man just desires to be with Jesus.

He puts his whole life on the table and says, "Jesus, what do you want me to do? I just wanna be with you. I just wanna be close to you." And Jesus gives him the strangest instructions ever. Look, this man is basically saying, like, "Hey, World War II has started, December 7th, December 8th, I'm signing up for the armed services. Send me out there, I want at 'em." Right, this man is ready to join the spiritual struggle.

He's been freed, he's been restored, He's like, "Sign me up!" And Jesus says, "Great." Fighting the spiritual war looks like two things. First, it looks like living a radically normal life.

The man is sitting there clothed and in his right mind, which is a radical act. The most radical thing about him was how normal he was. Sinclair Ferguson says this: In a sense, Making people normal again was the essence of Jesus' ministry. Meaning this, that when the image of God has been torn and defaced and destroyed in a million ways, what Jesus does in his ministry is he works in our lives so that suddenly we seem radically, inexplicably normal.

26 · Applies the 'radically normal' concept to concrete Christian practices—loving enemies, serving others, giving thanks in all circumstances

As Christians, I really believe that in our current environment, living radically normal lives will stand out more and more as the world goes crazy around us. We're to be the people among which it is radically normal to love your enemies. We're to be people who, for whom it's radically normal to bend down and serve others rather than demand that they serve you. We're to be radically normal in that we give thanks always in every circumstance because of what the Lord has done for us, right? And you just think, well, that's just normal.

No, in our world, that's radical. That is how this man begins to fight the war before he even knows it.

27 · Identifies the second way Christians wage spiritual warfare, drawing from Jesus' instructions to the delivered man: go tell what the Lord has done

The second thing he does is witness to Jesus. Jesus tells him, you want to be part of this spiritual war, you want to, this great struggle? Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.

28 · States the sermon's central application with maximum force through repetition and direct address

Church, I want you to hear me when I say this. Preaching the gospel is the primary way the church wages spiritual war. Preaching the gospel is the primary way the church wages spiritual war. The Bible at this point does not tell us, okay, get distracted, go down the rabbit hole of weird demonology, websites and trying to figure out, you know, all this, "I'm going to do what's going on over here." No, no, no. How you fight the war is just dead simple.

You preach the gospel. Because what is the gospel? Romans 1 says this about the gospel, that it is the power of God for salvation. It means this, that when you proclaim the gospel, you are unleashing the power of God onto the battlefield around us.

That's how we wage war. When the gospel goes out, friends, here's what happens. It breaks chains. It frees people. It opens eyes.

It brings down enemies far too strong for us on our own.

29 · Uses Ephesians 6 to show that even Paul—the greatest warrior in the church's history—fought primarily through gospel proclamation

Like, maybe you're familiar with Ephesians 6 and the armor of God. And Paul is saying, hey, we're going to put on the armor of God, and we remember that part, but we forget what comes right after that. He's talking about this spiritual war. He's saying, you guys put on the armor of God.

I'm in the fight too. And this is what he says it looks like for him to be in the fight. Pray also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I might declare it boldly as I ought. To speak. Look, Paul's probably one of the greatest generals in this army of the church that has ever lived.

And you know how he went to war?

He opened his mouth and proclaimed the gospel.

30 · Addresses a specific temptation facing younger Christians: elevating justice reform over gospel proclamation

One of the things, church, I think has been a strategy for Satan is getting different Christians in different groups to begin to exalt something else over and above the proclamation of the gospel for the Christian. All right, hear me when I say this, okay? Is it important, especially if you're under 30, okay, hear me, is it important for us to seek to make our justice systems more just and to correct injustice when we find it? Yes, right? That's what it means to live a radically normal life.

That's one of the ways you live a radically normal life is like when the sphere that God's given you at your job, whatever, you don't put up with injustice because God is a God of justice. You don't wink and let things slide. You care about that. That's living a radically normal life. But hear me when I say this, will reforming the American justice system save anyone's eternal soul?

No, no. Should we care about people who maybe are unjustly behind bars? Yes. But the last thing I want is for them to be behind bars for eternity.

31 · Parallels the justice example with transgender issues, using the same rhetorical structure

Is it important for us to oppose destructive thinking and legislation around transgender issues? Yes. We're in a place where living out the image of God as designed by God and modeled in Scripture is It's radical to just say we believe in male and female because God created it that way. We live radically normal lives when we do that. But hear me when I say this: will stopping a pro-transgender law save anyone's soul?

No.

And I love, in Christ, I love those. Who are struggling with their gender and battling up inside. But, and I care about transgender issues, but I care far more about their eternal soul.

32 · States the sermon's final major theological claim about the church's fundamental mission

The church of Christ must exist to do good wherever it can, but it fundamentally exists to do one thing, to preach the chain-breaking, soul-saving, eternity-altering gospel gospel of Jesus Christ. Our church exists to do this.

We've said we long to see gospel renewal in the city of El Paso and through it the world. Do we long to see marriages restored and orphans cared for and people in need clothed? Do we long to do that as a witness of the gospel? Yes. But the gospel alone can restore souls and clothe people for eternity.

33 · Returns to the sermon's opening concern about division in 2020, now with the theological framework fully established

Let me, in closing, just say this. We have a diverse church and I love it. But having a diverse church in the year of our Lord 2020 has brought all kinds of temptation for us to get off mission.

Satan hates churches of diversity because it testifies even more boldly and powerfully to the image of God being renewed through the church. Satan wants nothing more than to carve us off into pro-Trump and anti-Trump and pro-mask and anti-mask and pro-shutdown and anti-shutdown groups. But we have a hope, church. Christ is far stronger. His power to unite is greater than Satan's power to divide.

His power to restore is greater than Satan's power to poison. His power to save is greater than Satan's power to keep in bondage. And we know the end of the story. As Andy Mineo says in a rap song I love, "When the devil brings up your past, you bring up his future." Christ reigns. He alone will be victorious.

34 · Closes the sermon by transitioning to pastoral prayer led by Tom Wilkins

We're going to end and Tom's going to lead us in a prayer. He has, I think, a good sense from the Lord of how to lead us as we close. So I'm going to invite Tom up to do that. And why don't we stand up as he comes to lead us in prayer.