11th Sunday After Pentecost!
Introduction:
A. Have you
ever noticed how when you set something out
and put
"Free" on it, it goes just like that?
1. Consider our free food shelf at the Thrift
Store!
2. Consider when you set something out on the
street
that
is worth anything at all and put a free sign
on
it!
B. I am a
fan of Candid Camera. Anybody
remember it? I
can remember an episode where they put something
out
and marked "free take one" on it. I don't remember
what it was, but it was something that you couldn't
hardly figure out what it was! They had people
looking them over, walking away, coming back, carrying
them around, taking them, etc., all because it was
free.
C. If a
company wants to get you to open some junk mail,
they put
"Free gift inside!" or "Your a Winner" on the envelope,
and we open it!
D. Everybody
wants to get something "Free!"
E. Sometimes we even market Christ that way!
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer called this tendency, “Cheap
Grace.”
F. The truth
is that most things that are worthwhile cost us something! Even Christ will cost us something!
Trans.
Let's look this morning at a city of people who
weren't willing to pay the price!
Prayer
Matt.
8:28-34
I. Remember Matthew arranges his gospel
Topically and not
Chronologically.
A. Our scripture today is
in a section where Matthew is
recalling the miracles of Jesus.
B. Our scripture today
recalls the healing of the
Gadarene Demoniacs! Let’s look at this miracle!
II. Here we have two men who were in a terrible
shape!
A. They were
possessed, the scriptures tell us, with
demons!
B. They were
so hateful and violent that they had to live among the tombs! (In a graveyard!)
C. They were
exceeding fierce! Mark 5:1-20 & Luke
8:26-
40 record
that at least one of these men was so fierce that he couldn't even be held with chains!
D. They
really needed the Lord!
III. The Lord healed these men of their demon
possession!
A. At the
demons request, Christ let them go out into a
herd of swine!
B. When he
did, the swine ran into the sea and drown!
C. When this
happened, the keepers of the swine ran into
the city
to report what had happened!
IV. Jesus is asked to leave!
A. The
people of the city came out to Jesus.
B. Mark and
Luke both record that they saw one of these
men sitting by Jesus, clothed, and in his right
mind!
C. The
people overlooked the miracle and saw the fact
that
Jesus had cost them something! It might
be their
herds
next time!
D. So they
asked Jesus to leave!
V. Jesus had cost them something; living for
Christ costs us something today too!
A. Yes,
salvation is "Free." There is
no way that we can buy it!
We can't live good enough to be saved without the sacrifice of Christ!
(Eph. 2:8-10)
(Eph 2:8 NRSV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God--
(Eph 2:9 NRSV)
not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
(Eph 2:10 NRSV)
For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
B. It is free, but we need to be careful that we
do not
market it in a way that Dietrich Bonhoeffer
called
“Cheap Grace!”
C. When we
accept this free gift, it is going to so
change
our lives that it will cost us something!
1. It may
cost us some of our old "so called"
friends
and the relationship we shared with them!
They may
not want to be around us anymore! Maybe
we aren’t
comfortable doing the things with them
that we
used to do.
2. It will
cost us some time spent in study!
3. It will
cost us some time in church and in
fellowship
with other Christians.
4. It will
cost us some time doing the things of
God!
a. Wesley and Methodists are very much about
doing
something with our faith!
b. Salvation isn’t just about showing up on
Sunday
and not living and loving for God the
rest
of the week!
c. The early Methodist groups as a part of
their
gathering together were asked:
1) Did you visit the sick?
2) Have you ministered to those in prison?
3) Have you ministered to the widows?
4) Have you helped the poor?
5) Have you read the Bible?
6) Have you done all the good you can in
all the ways you can?
5. It will
cost us our money, and not only that, but it will cost us our whole life!
a. Remember?
Present your bodies a living
sacrifice
. . . . Rom. 12:1-2.
b. I for one do not like to talk about money,
but
the Bible does not spare us that.
c. Our commitment affects this part of our
lives
too.
d. This miracle speaks to this more than
anything
else. Whey did the town’s people
ask
Christ to leave? They asked him to leave
because
he was costing them money!
6. We may
even find ourselves trading some of our
old
pass-times for some new pass-times!
7. Remember
your membership vows: “As members of this congregation, will you faithfully
participate in its ministries by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your
service, and your witness?”
D. It costs,
but we are willing and really want to pay
the price
if we really have a true faith in Christ!
1. Remember?
It is our reasonable service, and we
will
think it is only reasonable! (Rom. 12:1&2)
2. It is
worth the price! Remember… (Matt 13:45&46)
(Mat 13:45 NRSV)
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine
pearls;
(Mat 13:46 NRSV)
on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had
and bought it.
E. True
faith will work! (remember James
2:17&18)
(James 2:17 NRSV)
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
(James 2:18 NRSV)
But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show
me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
1. If we
wear the name Christian and we don't live a changed life, we are missing it!
2. We may be
a member of the church, but if we
aren't
continually changing & growing in Christ,
we are
missing it!
3. Somewhere
along the way, the church has softened
up the
Gospel!
a. We speak
of committed Christians & non-
committed
Christians. Like there was such a thing
as a non-committed Christian !
b. We speak
of those who make Christ Lord and
those who
do not!
c. We have
active members and inactive members!
4. God
hasn't softened up; either we have accepted
what God
has done for us through Christ and it is changing our lives or we really don't
know him!
IT IS THAT SIMPLE! God expects us to do something
with our faith!
Conclusion:
A. These
people asked Christ to leave because he cost them something! Have you or are you asking Christ to leave
for the same reason today? We can! It is up to us.
B. I want to share just a part of Mark’s version of this miracle:
read Mark 5:14-20.
C. Are we
like the man who was healed?
1. Wanting
to be with Jesus!
2. Wanting
to live for Christ!
D. Or are we
like the others: the town’s people?
Asking Christ to leave by the way that we live
because we are
afraid of
what Christ will cost us?
E. If we
find ourselves a little too much like the towns
people,
we can settle that as we encounter Christ at
the table
today. Ask Christ to come Lord Jesus Come!
Fill me
with your Spirit! Let me be more like you!
Prayer
of Confession
Service of Communion
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