“As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with Him. 19. Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how much He has had mercy on you. 20. So the man went away and began to tell in Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”
I am assuming that you know something about the incident that took place between Jesus and the Gadarene demoniac. I will share a little background that led up to the three verses of our text. Jesus was in a place called Gadara, where He saw a man literally running around necked among the tombs. He was possessed by at least one-thousand demons. Obviously the man was a social outcast. In fact, he was dangerous. The gist of the incident is that Jesus cast the demons out of the man and he was immediately sane. This incident tells us some things about Jesus that we need to know Jesus saw the man and immediately went to him in order to help him. Keep in mind that everyone else passed by the demon-possessed man . Let’s not be too hard on them, because the man was dangerous. The point is that the man whom everyone else shunned, ignored or simply ran away from was loved by Jesus, and Jesus did something to change him. This is how Jesus was in His earthly life, and this is how He is today as He reaches out to us from the right hand of the throne of the Father. Jesus is intensely interested in every aspect of our lives, and He will not pass by us. When we reach out to Jesus, we find Him reaching out to us. When we call out to Jesus, we find that He is ready to hear us and to help us. We are His representatives on earth, and we are to love people as He did. We need to love the “down and out” as much as we do the “up and in.” Through Faith in Jesus, we can have a lot of good things happen in our lives, and through that same faith, we can help other people to have good things happen in their lives. I’m not suggesting that you go out looking demoniacs, I am telling you to love people enough to reach out to them with your faith and love. Jesus knew what the man’s problem was before He encountered him. He did not go to the tombs by accident. In the first place, a naked man running around among the tombs would be well-known. That is not to say that the man was popular, but he would have inevitably been well-known. In fact, if you will read the text, you will find the demons that possessed the man knew who Jesus was. They knew what Jesus could do and begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss (the pit of hell) but into the pigs that were nearby. The point is that the problem that the man had was demon-possession and Jesus rid him of the demons. Jesus will do the same in our lives. Whatever our besetting sins and problems are, Jesus knows about them and He can rid of us them. We must want to be as tired of our besetting sins as much as the demoniac must have wanted to get rid of the demons. We do not have one problem, whether caused by sin or not, that Jesus does not know about and that He cannot help is with. We need to surrender to Jesus and reach out to Him in faith. Jesus did not heal the man of his demons and then just walk off and leave him. Instead, Jesus gave the man a challenge. The demoniac wanted to become a follower of Jesus, but Jesus had another plan for his life. Jesus told him to go home and tell the people who had known him as a demoniac about what Jesus had done for him. He did this and the people were in wonder over what Jesus did for the man. Just as Jesus did for the demoniac, He will do for us. He will give us a greater purpose than we have ever known. He wants us to go out and tell people about what He has done for us. It is quite possible that people will be in wonder over what Jesus has done for you. Keep this in mind: Jesus has a purpose for your life. Put your faith in Jesus, release yourself to His will, and see what He will use you to do. The same Jesus that we saw in this text is alive and at work today. I pray that Jesus is alive and at work in your life. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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