Mark 5:19
And he did not permit
him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord
has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
I.
Introduction
First, I want to say
welcome home to all of our visitors, friends, and family that have gathered
here today to celebrate our Homecoming today. Before we begin today, I came
across this from the copy of the Constitution and ByLaws of Mount Lebanon
Baptist Church, Suches, Ga, as adopted on June 11, 1980. It reads as such:
Mount Lebanon Church was
organized in 1870 by a small number of pioneer families. The first church
meetings were held in homes and were led by the Reverend Jim Waters. The
families decided that a church building was needed; therefore, the first Mount
Lebanon Church building was raised from American Chestnut logs. This structure
was constructed approximately 1/10th of a mile north-northeast of the present
Mount Lebanon Church building. The log building burned sometime during its
first 25 years of existence, and once again church members met in homes. Soon
the members began to meet in a county school house adjacent to the site where
the log church building had burned.
In the late 1890s
another church building was constructed near the Mount Lebanon Cemetery
entrance directly across GA State Highway 180 from the present Mount Lebanon
Church site. Church services were held in this plank building until 1922, when
the congregation moved back to the county school house. Eventually this old
plank structure fell into disrepair and was torn down.
In 1928 Sally
Abercrombie gave land to the church body for the purpose of constructing a new
church building. Men of the church worked together to build a large church
building ceiled with White Pine. This building was located only a few feet
northeast of the present church building. Many worship services and large
family gatherings were held in this building until the late 1950s. On May 11,
1958, ground was broken to erect the present church building, and the
dedication service was held in 1960. From 1961 until early 1975 Mount Lebanon
shared a pastor with Zion Baptist Church. Sunday morning services were held at
Mount Lebanon on the 1st and 2nd Sundays and at Zion on the 3rd and 4th
Sundays. Sunday night services were held at Zion on the 1st and 2nd Sundays and
at Mount Lebanon on the 3rd and 4th Sundays. Mount Lebanon began a full-time
ministry in May 1975.
Today the church
welcomes all to worship and prays that God will guide the church forward to do
his work.
I thought that it would
be interesting to hear the beginnings of our church today! I always find
history amazingly interesting, and our history is unique. It is a story of
people coming together to create a congregation, to serve God, and to glorify
Him.
I do think that it is important to note that our church is still the people in
it, and the mission of our church is still to glorify God through all we do.
Just as Jesus said in our verse I just read, we must go and tell people all
what God has done for us! We can look back on our history, and we can
remember the great things that God has done for us. But even better than that
is this: we can go and tell others about it, and look forward to seeing what
God will do for us in the future! I’ve said this before, when we wake up in the
morning, God has granted us another day to see what He will do in our lives,
and we can know that He gives us the ability to do even more for Him every
single day that we are on this planet. Let me tell you more about the verse we
read today.
II.
A story for home
This story of the
demon-possessed man in Gerasenes is a story that we see in the first three
Gospels. It is shown in Matthew 8, and also in Luke 8. For the first time in
Jesus’ earthly ministry he went to a place that was not particularly Jewish. He
was going to where the Gentiles usually lived, on the other side of the Sea of
Galilee. And it is interesting to me that in all three of the Gospels, all
three writers point this out! You have to imagine a little bit here. These
followers of Jesus, those that were his closest and most devoted students, were
going on a trip to a place that they had likely only heard about. It must have
been an odd thought to the disciples that Jesus would choose to go across the
sea to this place. Certainly there must be a reason for Him to go. They had
seen the miracles, they had followed Him through some sticky situations. And
the trusted Jesus. But Jesus was getting them out of their comfort zone, I
think. You know, it’s very easy to be at home, be that your home area, or even
your home country. But to step out of it, into an area where you may feel like
it is hostile towards you, or even an unclean area, you begin to feel a little
bit of pressure.
As they get there, they
are greeted, in a way, by men with impure spirits in them. Matthew states that
there are two of them, while Mark and Luke only talk about one who was speaking
to Jesus. I think that it is important to note that the three writers of these
Gospels had an idea of this demon-possessed man before they saw him. Was he a
boogeyman to Jews across the sea? I’m sure they had heard stories of this demon
possessed man. This was a unique man, though, and not in a good way. This man
had lived in the tombs, a place that robbers and thieves often lived. He was so
dangerous that many times, people had tried to bind him with ropes and then
chains, but nothing held him. As the Bible says, “no one was strong enough to
subdue him.” He would scream out day and night around the tombs, and cut
himself with stones. He must have been a true terror to the people of this
area. But something interesting happens: when he saw Jesus, he ran and fell
onto his knees in front of the Son of God. He called him that! He asks “what do
you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” You see, even the demons
knew and know who Jesus is, and what sort of power that he has over them. As
one commentary puts it, “although men do not recognize Jesus, the evil powers
know him. He is the Son of the Most High God, that One who rules in unequalled
sovereignty over all powers of the universe, both human and suprahuman.” He
cries out at the top of his lungs “In God’s name, don’t torture me!!” Jesus had
told him “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
He asks the evil spirit it’s name: Legion, for we are many. The armies of evil
powers were within this man, but the combined strength of these demons were not
match for the power of Jesus! The demons plead with Jesus not to send them into
the abyss, for they know that that is their ultimate destination as we know
from the book of Revelation! They beg for all of them to be sent into a herd of
pigs, which you know is the most unclean of animals for God’s people. But
here’s an ironic twist: the herd of pigs go wild, being possessed by these
demons, and they plunge off of a steep bank into the sea, and were all drowned.
Even though they did not want to be plunged into the abyss like God promised
that they would in the very end, they did anyway, because at that time, the
prevailing thought was that the sea was the same as the abyss.
And then something even
more amazing happens. The man is completely normal now. He is healed from these
demons. Can you imagine what joy this man had, to be within his own mind,
without anyone else there? To be clean and purified? Those around Jesus and
this man told the story of what had happened, and the people who came to see
were afraid! We don’t know if they were afraid of what had happened to their
pigs, but I think that they were much more afraid of the fact that Jesus had
healed this man! They actually begged Jesus to leave their midst. But there is
the man, and when Jesus and the disciples are departing, the man begs Jesus to
let him come with them. He had been healed, so it would be natural for this man
to want to follow and see what even greater things were in store. But Jesus
tells him no. It’s not a harsh no, it’s not a rebuke like he does with the rich
young ruler. It’s because Jesus knew that this man had to share his story at
home. Jesus says in Mark 5:19 “Go home to your friends, and tell them
how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” We
should note that the word “your friends” here is really translated better to
“your people”, in the same exact way that we would tell someone to tell ‘your
friends’ back home what’s been done. Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean this man’s
literal friends, but rather he is telling him to go back to his people. But
this man does even better than that. He does go back to his home, but he
doesn’t stop there. The Bible says that he goes to the Decopolis, which was a
collection of 10 cities that lie east of Galilee and the Jordan River. He goes
to places that are not fully controlled by Rome, and shares what God has done
for him. Can you imagine, the man who was a myth to people, there in the flesh
to tell the story of how he was saved? And I’m sure that this man continued to
share his story with those he met, even until the end of his life. Because this
man, this one who had thousands of demons inside of him, was never fully home
until he went to Heaven to be with Jesus for all time. Jesus told him to go and
tell the people of his home, but this man would never be truly home until he
went to his Eternal Home.
III.
A true home - Revelation 21-22
When I say that the man was not truly home yet, it is because none of us are.
None of us are truly home yet. When Mrs. Linda Stover had her funeral here
recently, we said that she was finally at home and at rest. Randy Alcorn’s book
on Heaven says this: “our love for home, our yearning for it, is a glimmer of
our longing for our true home.” The home that we are promised is shown in
Revelation 21 and 22. I won’t read all of this right now, but I urge you to go
home and read about our Eternal Home. We know that this is our home because the
Lord is in it. Revelation 21:22-27 says “And
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and
the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the
glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the
nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and
its gates shall never be shut by day—and there shall be no night there; they
shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean
shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only
those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Our new home will be filled with the Lord Most High,
and there will be no more war, no more suffering, no more pain, no more death.
Nothing unclean will be there, nor falsehoods. And who will be there? Only
those whose names are written in the book of life. Our home waits for those who
believe now, today! And how can we be certain of that? Because Jesus says to us
in Revelation 22:6 “These words are trustworthy and true.” He tells us
himself that what he says to us about our eternal home is true, and that we can
look forward to that great and true Homecoming one day.
IV.
Almost Home
I’ll finish with this
today: there is only one way to truly have the kind of Homecoming that Christ
talks about in Revelation, and it is to believe in the sacrifice that He made
for yours sins and for mine on the cross all those years ago, and to believe
that He rose again from the grave! I am reminded of a song by the group
MercyMe. It’s called “Almost Home”. This some came out of a conversation with
one of lead singer Bart Millard’s friends who is in ministry. The pastor had
been Millard’s youth minister ages ago, and confessed that he was feeling burnt
out. As the pastor put it, “I think I was ready for the short game when I was a
youth pastor dealing with issues, but this long game is wearing me out. I never
dreamed that I would outlive some of my dearest friends and mentors and do
their funerals.” Millard would later say, when talking about the inspiration of
this song that “It was heartbreaking to hear and I realized one thing that we
probably don’t address much is as we get older, we just get tired and exhausted
fighting the good fight.” This song is MercyMe’s rallying cry to remind us to
keep running the race, and to keep going, because we are almost home. Let me
read you the lyrics:
Are you disappointed, Are you
desperate for help
You know what it's like to be tired,
And only a shell of yourself
Well you start to believe You don't
have what it takes
'Cause it's all you can do Just to
move much less finish the race
But don't forget what lies ahead
Almost home Brother it won't be long
Soon all your burdens will be gone
With all your strength Sister run
wild, run free
Hold up your head Keep pressing on
We are almost home
Well this road will be hard But we
win in the end
Simply because of Jesus in us It's
not if but when
So take joy in the journey Even when
it feels long
Oh find strength in each step Knowing
heaven is cheering you on
We are almost home Brother it won't
be long
Soon all your burdens will be gone With
all your strength
Sister run wild, run free Hold up
your head
Keep pressing on We are almost home
Almost home
Almost home
I know that the cross has brought
heaven to us
But make no mistake there's still
more to come
When our flesh and our bone are no
longer between
Where we are right now and where
we're meant to be
When all that's been lost has been
made whole again
When these tears and this pain no
longer exist
No more walking we're running as
fast as we can
Consider this our second wind
Almost home Brother it won't be long
Soon all your burdens will be gone
With all your strength Sister run
wild, run free
Hold up your head Keep pressing on
We are almost home
Almost home
Almost home
We are almost home
We are almost home, my friends. We hold our heads up high, we have hope in the
Lord, and we will have our burdens lifted from this life. Let’s pray.
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