Lord over Darkness - Mark 5:1-20

Over 1600 years ago, two prominent men in the church had a theological disagreement. This wasn’t some minor, irrelevant theological disagreement. It was very significant and was to echo throughout history, even affecting us today. Who were these two men, and what were they arguing about? They were Augustine and Pelagius. And they were arguing about human nature. Pelagius, a British monk, argued that we are born basically good, and have the free will to choose God and even live a sinless life. Our sins are just bad habits that we learn over time. His adversary was a man named Augustine, bishop of Hippo, in North Africa. He argued that the Bible clearly taught that we are born into sin, sin inherited from Adam, and our own sin, which makes us slaves to darkness, unable to do any good, and cannot help but continue to sin.

Pretty stark positions! Take a guess which view is more popular today? Without a doubt, Pelagius. In our culture, and even much of the church – humans are seen as basically good. We mess up here and there, but on the whole, we are free to choose the good and choose God.

Sounds good on the surface, but there is a major flaw here. If you think you are basically good, then you don’t need a Saviour. What do you need saving from? Your view of God will be something like that of an accessory – nice to have, but not essential. A spiritual buddy, not Lord and Saviour.

It’s only if you realise just how sinful you are – that your sin runs deep in you, colours everything you do, think and say – that you will know your deep need for a Saviour who can set you free from this bondage and allow you to live for God and his glory as he intended.

Our passage in Mark 5 is an account of Jesus setting free a man bound by a host of demons. What we’re going to see here is that we all need Someone to set us free from the oppression of the forces of darkness. We can’t do it on our own. There is only One who can – Jesus, the Sovereign Lord over all. Only he can overcome the powers of darkness.

Preacher: Rev. Antonio Coppola.