Geoff Girardin

My youth group had a Halloween Zombie Attack last night. This was my message. 

Zombie. Ephesians 2.

What is/defines a zombie?

• Disheveled - doesn’t really have everything sorted out.
• Hungry for brains.
• Doesn’t run, shuffles along.
• Flesh falling off. Organs falling out.

Zombies are reanimated corpses. The dead brought to life as an empty shell of what they once were. Does that sound familiar? Like us? I’ll tell you, we for sure are like zombies. Once great, able, capable human beings, or in our case, responsible, strong Christians. Zombies shuffle around unsure of what they are doing, focused on finding the one thing that will; satisfy them (yet in doing so, harm others) - in their case, it’s brains; in our case, it’s sin. Sin hurts everyone, not just you. It hurts your relationships, your family, your friends, your future. Your eternal future.  

You feel me?

We have examples of people similar to Zombies, in the Bible.

Back then, and still today, there are lepers. People who suffer from a flesh eating disease. The skins develops a rash and falls off of their hand, their entire hand falls off, some fingers, etc. Gross right? Well back in biblical times, they had these things that we call leper colonies. People who suffered from leprosy couldn’t live in normal society, they had to live in huts and shacks far away from everyone else. And if someone came too close to them, by law, they had to shout “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!”

I imagine that some of them were missing jaws, or had such bad leprosy that it sounded more like a haunting moan than actual words. Do you see what I’m getting at yet? They were similar to Zombies! Shuffling around, moaning, flesh falling off. Ew. But Jesus heals. A man suffering from leprosy cried out to Jesus one day to heal him, and Jesus reached out and touched the man. He was healed.

We have to remember to trust in Jesus to save us from our Zombification. Our Spiritual Leprosy. When we find ourselves sinning over and over again, searching for that thing that will satisfy ourselves, we need to reach out to Jesus and ask to be healed, and returned to our normal selves.

Vampires.

The thing with vampires is that they suck blood. That is disgusting. I wouldn’t want to drink someone’s blood. All warm and thick and red. IT DOES NOT TASTE LIKE KOOL-AID. IT IS MISLEADING.

But why do Vampires suck blood from people? To keep them alive. To make themselves feel better. Ever see a show or something where the Vampire didn’t get blood, and flew into a RAGE? That is just rude, man. But I know people who are like Vampires. They are those people, those friends of yours AND mine, that try and suck the will out of you.

Peer Pressure. “Come on man, just try it once man. No one’s going to catch us man. Dude come on don’t be chicken. Don’t you want to be cool?”

Blah. Blah. Blah.

They try to wear you down. They try to suck the will out of you. The will that you have to stand up against sin. Victims of Vampires, they are like shells now, right? No blood, no life? That’s what these “friends” try and do to you!

You don’t want to be friends with Vampires. You don’t want to be friends with people who see something in your life that gives you Life, and try to make you throw it away, to be like them. You don’t want Vampires.

Demon Possession. Mark 5.

Demons are a real thing, and unfortunately Demon Possession is a real and terrible thing in the world. I’ve heard so many stories of demons manifesting during prayer meetings, it’s crazy. When they are confronted with the Light of Christ, they know they have no power. They get scared and desperate. You see one day Jesus and His disciples crossed a lake. 

Once they got to the other side, Jesus stepped off of the boat. All he did was step off the boat. As soon as he touched down on that shore, a possessed man came running down from the tombs up in the hillside, where he lived. Now, the thing you have to know about this guy, is that no one had been able to restrain him. Not with chains, not with sheer force. So everyone in the area would talk and warn of his doings in an effort to keep people out of his way. He would spend all night and all day among the tombs and in the hills, screaming and cutting himself with sharp rocks.

So back to the boat. As soon as Jesus steps foot off this boat, the evil mountain man sees him from his hilltop estate. He comes hurtling down and throws himself at Jesus’ feet. Jesus looks at him and says, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!” The possessed man begins screaming at the top of his lungs, “WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME, JESUS, SON OF THE MOST HIGH GOD? SWEAR TO GOD THAT YOU WON’T TORTURE ME!”

Jesus looks at him, and asks, “What is your name?”

The demon replies.

“MY NAME IS LEGION, FOR WE ARE MANY.”

It is apparent that it’s not just one demon possessing his man, but a whole mess of them. Well crap.

The demons start begging Jesus not to send them back to Hell, but rather send them into a herd of 2000 nearby pigs. Jesus complies, and as soon as they take control of these pigs, every single one of those sweet pieces of bacon goes hurtling over the edge of a cliff and drowns.

The man is now fine. Everyone in the area is still afraid of him, but when they see him they find that he is himself again. No demonic presence is found. Jesus healed him of the 2000 demons inhabiting his body.

Demons aren’t cute. They aren’t adorable little devils that go on mud flaps and t-shirts. They cause real pain and suffering. And they are terrified of the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. The possessed man flew towards Jesus as soon as he saw Him, immediately begging to be spared. The name of Jesus and our relationship with Him is our weapon against a demonic influence. If we have that, we’re all set. His name is the best item in the arsenal of a Hunter.

Hunters. Matthew 28:16. Jesus Freaks.

Buffy. Van Helsing. Amazing examples of monster hunters. They sacrificed their lives every day to battle the demonic forces of their respective stories, and try to bring good back to their worlds.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We have to be like that. We’re fighting a war every day, fighting against the Vampires of Peer Pressure. The Ghosts of Depression. The Zombies of Repetition. Fighting to hunt the monsters that try to kill our relationship with Jesus Christ, and save those in peril, the lost ones that we know and love.

We have to be Jesus Freaks. The ones who aren’t afraid to proclaim our love for Christ and our new way of life, because who’s going to judge us? A bunch of Vampires? Have you seen what Vampires look like lately?

Don’t be a monster.