Last week we began a new 4-part teaching series called “For One”.

Throughout this teaching series we are seeking to know and understand the power of Jesus’ one at a time pursuit of people. We believe that Jesus came to save the whole word, and that through his life, death, and resurrection, he has made the pathway to salvation and eternal life open to us.
Jesus is for everyone.

During his earthly ministry, many times we see Jesus fulfilling this worldwide redemption mission, one person at a time.
Jesus is for one.

So, what would it look like for you and I to adopt that same model for our lives? So many times, our focus is on our country or our community, and that’s not a bad thing. But what would it look like for us to be for one, like Jesus was?

That’s what Jesus did, and it transformed the lives of many people in the gospels. Even the ones who seemed too far gone.

Our teaching text begins with a note about some travel plans that establish the location for the story. Earlier in this voyage at sea, Jesus and his disciples had encountered a great storm.

Just before our text in chapter 8, we find the miracle of Jesus calming the wind and the waves with only a word. The disciples are in such a fierce storm they are afraid for their lives. They grab Jesus and beg that he would do something. Jesus speaks and immediately the sea and storm were calm, and the disciples wonder among themselves, “Who is this guy that can even control the wind and the waves?”

Our text at verse 26 continues that same trip, with an arrival on shore. There Jesus receives a shocking welcome from a demon possessed man.

For a long time, this man had lived in the graveyard naked, making his home among the graves. The gospel of Mark records that this man was heard screaming out day and night.

All other attempts had failed at restraining this man had failed. The evil spirits that had possessed him had such control and power over him that he was able to break free from chains. Yet, at the very presence of Jesus, these evil spirits know they are outmatched, they are done.

What this passage illustrates is the immense power of Jesus over the most seemingly uncontrollable forces in this man’s life.

Much study and attention has gone into the details of this demonic oppression.
How many demons? How did this happen? What does it mean today? And to be sure, there is a time a place for those questions.

But what I want us to focus on today is the ultimate power and authority of Jesus over every single evil spirit. The demons were so sure of their immanent judgement and destruction, they are literally begging Jesus over and over, not to cast them back to the Abyss.

Commentator Darrel Bock says: “Jesus may have been outnumbered, but he was certainly not outmatched.”

When the people of the town came out to see this crazy story about the demon possessed man, what they found was a brand-new man, redeemed and restored, sitting at the feet of Jesus.

The word at the end of verse 36 that says “had been cured”. In the original language that literally means “saved” or to be made whole.

He wasn’t cured from a disease- He was rescued and re-made. Transformed.

That’s the miracle working power of Jesus.

iWhat is amazing to me is that the people don’t seem to have a category for this kind of power.

We don’t know if they were afraid of his supernatural power, if they were afraid he was there to shut down the pig industry- either way, they ask him to leave. And he does. Jesus heads back home.

But what about the man? What happened to him?

The man wanted to go with Jesus and his disciples, but Jesus had another plan. Jesus wanted this man to go home and tell everyone how much God had done for him.

The one who everyone would have said was too far gone, was no Jesus’ trusted messenger to tell everyone in his hometown about all that God had done.

There is no such thing as too far gone for Jesus.

Friends as this was true for the crazed and possessed man in the cemetery, it’s still true today. There is no evil force in the world today greater than the power of Jesus Christ. Not an evil spirit, not an addiction, not an illness, nothing.

Those stories in the lives of our loved ones can be extremely painful. This story does not make light of the power and pain of sin.

But as we begin this journey together asking the Lord to give us one person, we might have a reaction or response to the name he gives us.

You might have been praying for and working with that person for a long time and you honestly have just given up hope.

Time and time again, nothing’s changed. Because of lies, addictions, poor choices, broken relationships. They just seem too far.

Friend, those feelings are real. And the truth is, someone can be to far for us to reach. But there is no such thing as too far for Jesus. He is greater!

Will you trust him today with the one he is placing on your heart?