Great Things
TEXT: Mark 5:1-20
TOPIC: Great Things
Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Center Point, “Soul-winning Commitment Sunday” October 16, 2005
(Read Mark 5:1-20)
The greatest reason I could ever give to the question "Should I reach others for Christ?" would probably be the response “what if no one had ever reached me for Christ?”
I can still remember standing outside my high school 27 years ago near those big oak trees when this pretty classmate invited me to attend the area crusade that was meeting there at the high school. I had no idea that was going to be the defining moment in my life. That night, March 14, 1973, I gave my life to Jesus Christ and things have never been the same.
I really do not know just how many people I have influenced or personally led to Christ. (I would think it numbers in the thousands literally). But I will tell you this, if had not been for the one who helped me to come to Christ, I never would have led anyone else to a saving knowledge of Jesus.
May I say this, Sunday School teacher, you never know how God may use that second grader you teach on Sundays. Mom and dad, God could touch the world through your child. Young people, you never know how God will use a simple invitation to a friend at school to change someone’s life. Church members, and I do mean, every church member here, we have the opportunity through this church of touching the lives of tens of thousands of people just through our ministry we offer.
What great things has the Lord done for you since you got saved? What great things might He do for someone you know who needs to know the Lord Jesus Christ?
The first great thing that Christ has done for you if you are truly saved, my dear friend is this, you have a changed life!
1. A CHANGED LIFE, Mark 5:2-3; 18-20
In the first part of this chapter we meet a man whose life was truly changed when he meet Jesus. Verse 2 tells us that Jesus met a man with an “unclean spirit.” That means he was demon-possessed.
Verse 2 also says Jesus met a man who dewlt among the dead. He lived in a cemetery!
Verses 3 through 5 indicate that he was also dangerous. He was a danger to himself and to others. (Read verse 5)
This demon-possessed man is a picture of all lost people. For they are just as much under the control of Satan, and they live among the dead, (“dead in trespasses and sins) and in just as much danger as was this Gaderene demoniac.
But I want you to see what happened to him when he met Jesus. Jesus changed his life! And Jesus can change your life. He can change the life of your friend or family member!
I want us to focus on verses 18-20. Look what happened to this ole boy when he met Jesus. He was changed. Back in verse 15 we are told that when the folks in town showed up to what all the fuss was about that they “saw the one who had been demon-possessed…sitting and clothed and in his right mind.”
This ole boy before he met Jesus had no rest. He had no peace. He had no hope. But look at him now! He’s changed! The Bible says he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
Watch this, Jesus changed his attitude, his appearance and his actions. He was sitting, that’s a new action. Before he couldn’t be still. Always running away, hurting himself. But now he’s at peace with himself. He was clothed. That’s a new appearance. Before his old nature stripped him naked. He lived shamefully before the whole world. But Jesus made a new man out of this old maniac.
He was in his right mind. He had a new attitude. This man was previously demented and feared by all. But Jesus gave him a new mind. That tells me that everyone who is without Jesus Christ is stunningly ignorant. You might have a PhD but without Jesus that stands for “Pathetic, Hopeless and Dumb!”
Wouldn’t you say Jesus had done great things for this man? Okay, look at verses 18-20. Verse 18 tells us that all this man wanted was to be with Jesus. Now we can understand that can’t we? When we get saved all we want to do is to be with Jesus.
But look at what Jesus did in verse 19. “Jesus would not permit him.” He wanted to get in the boat with Jesus and just stay in the boat with Jesus. He wanted to just sail along with Jesus. Oh, it’s so wonderful just being with Jesus isn’t it?
But Jesus wouldn’t let him. Instead, Jesus gave him a lifelong challenge.
So notice number 2, this man’s challenging life.
2. A CHALLENGING LIFE, Mark 5:19 *
*Jesus said in verse 19, and I love this verse, “Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you…” “Go home,…and tell.”
Tell who? Tell your friends. Do you have any friends who need to hear how Jesus can change their lives? Then go home and tell what great things the Lord has done for you!
I thought when I read this verse, “Lord, this man didn’t have any friends!” Everybody that new him kept their distance. They didn’t want anything to do with this crazed man. But Jesus is saying, remember those you know who need to know me.
In Luke 8, the parallel passage to this story, it reads slightly different. In Luke 8 Jesus tells the man to “go home to your family and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you!”
You say, well, which is it, friends or family? It’s both. Mark places the emphasis on friends but Luke focuses on family. Jesus said both. “Go home and tell your friends and your family what great things the Lord has done for you!”
We ought to tell it. We ought to tell our friends and we ought to tell our family about Jesus!
3. A COMMITTED LIFE, Mark 5:20
Finally, in verse 20, we see his response to Jesus’ challenge. What did he do? The Bible says he went and joined a Baptist Church, found his favorite pew and made it his life-long commitment to show others by going to church that was a changed man!
No, that’s not what verse 20 says. It says, “He departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him…” He “began to proclaim” is structured in such a way as to indicate that he never finished. He just got started talking about Jesus, telling others about Jesus, and he never stopped.
Wouldn’t you like to have more believers today who do what this man did? His whole life was committed to telling others about Jesus. By the way, the word “Decapolis” literally means “ten cities.” He didn’t just go to one town, but to town after town telling others about the great things Jesus had done for him.
CONCLUSION: What great thing has Jesus done for you that you ought to be telling others about? Has He changed your life? One reason I believe why more people don’t tell others about Jesus is because they haven’t been changed.
Listen to me closely. If your life hasn’t been changed, then you haven’t met Jesus! Everybody Jesus ever saved, He changed!
Do you understand that the challenge for your life and for mine is that we are to go home to our family and to our friends and tell them about Jesus? When’s the last time you talked to somebody about getting saved? When’s the last time you shared your testimony? When’s the last time you invited somebody to church?
On this Soul-winning Commitment Sunday, the challenge is for each of us to commit ourselves to doing what this man did. Go and tell others what great things the Lord has done for you.
One way we all can share with friends and family is by filling out the 5-Most Beloved Card you received when you came to church today. (Share how to use the5-Most Beloved cards.) Invitation:
1. Appeal to the lost to trust Christ today.
2. Appeal to the saved to commit to greater faithfulness to share Christ with others.