Last time in our study together we looked at Mark 5:1-5. In those verses we found a man whose life was in an awful, awful place. About as bad as one could imagine. This man was demon possessed. And because of the absolute bondage they held over this man’s life, he was living in a graveyard, quite literally surrounded by death and decay. He was screaming in torment day and night. He would cut himself with stones. And no one could bind him, not even with chains because of his other worldly, demonic power. As a result, he was separated from society in isolation.
Two weeks ago, that is what we studied in Mark 5:1-5. But today is part two where we will see the liberating power of Jesus to set captives free in verses 6-20. At the end of Mark 4 Jesus showed His authority over creation. And today we will see Jesus’ absolute authority over the spirit realm.
Read 1-5
Verse 6:
Remember that in Matthew’s gospel it tells us that there were two demon possessed men. Mark chose to focus on this one man. But Matthew’s gospel tells us that these two demon possessed men were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. Locals absolutely avoided that area because they were afraid of these two men. Now, given what Matthew tells us there, the man might have been running toward Jesus and His disciples wanting to harm them. But instead, something remarkable happened:
We are told that the man ran toward Jesus and then “bowed down before” Jesus. The GR word here is proskuneo, which is a compound word that means “to kiss toward” or to worship. For example, when the wisemen of the East came into Jerusalem looking for Jesus, they said this in Matthew 2:2: “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” Or Luke 24:52 after the resurrection of Jesus, as some of His followers were with Him, we read: And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
So, this word is sometimes translated as bowed down before or worship depending on the context. And here it is translated as bowed down before. The idea is that the demonic forces bowed down before Jesus in fear.
And the reason is because the demons that inhabited the man knew that they were in the literal presence of God! God in human flesh was standing before them!
Verse 7:
Shouting: same word that was used back in verse 5 about the man screaming in the tombs night and day. This was an unpleasant, unnerving shriek is the idea.
Now, the demonic forces in that area most certainly knew that Jesus was there. If word of His miracles had spread among people in that region, it had also spread among demons. They knew about Jesus’ miracles of healing. They knew that Jesus had calmed the Sea. They knew that Jesus was proclaiming the Kingdom of God was at hand. They knew that He was preaching a message of faith and repentance. And they certainly knew that He had been casting out demons.
Just like back in chapters 1 and 3 when Jesus encountered demons….they knew who Jesus was. In fact, back in chapter 1:24 the demon said this to Jesus, “I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
In chapter 3:11: Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!”
They fell down! They proclaimed who Jesus is. Just like this demon possessed man does here in our verses today.
And in all of those cases, the demons’ theology was sound! Here the demon refers to Jesus as Jesus, Son of the Most High God. The demons here were in complete opposition to Jesus but they accurately knew and proclaimed who He is.
Just a quick reminder here. Sound theology doesn’t necessarily mean surrendered living. Theology is the most important thing about a person. It is the study of God. It is what we believe about God. But a person can have great theology and yet not know God at all. Proper theology should lead a person to proper worship of God. But the demon proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of the Most High God while at the same time being in complete rebellion against God. Still, the demon was accurate in what he said.
Jesus is more than a teacher. He is more than a miracle worker. He is the perfect, eternal Son of the Most High God. In fact, that is the very thing that Mark wants to point out in this gospel. The very first verse of Mark that sets the tone of the book, Mark 1:1 reads like this: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Now, look at what the demon said to Jesus, “I implore you by God, do not torment me.” This was a plea for mercy from this demonic horde that infested this man. They knew that they were in trouble since the very presence of God was among them and they were begging for His mercy. Let’s keep reading to see why.
Verse 8:
Jesus was in the process of commanding these evil spirits out of this man. And they were terrified of what that might mean for them. Thus, they fell before Jesus and begged Jesus for mercy.
Verse 9:
Now, I believe that Jesus asked this question, at least in part, for the sake of His disciples. This man would have undoubtedly had a name. A name given long ago from his parents. But he was so engrossed in demonic bondage that he doesn’t even answer by his own name. The evil forces had so taken this man over that his identity was no longer his own.
And Jesus, most certainly, knew who and what He was dealing with. But I think He wanted His disciples to hear the answer of this demon in order to see His power over not just one demon but over a host of demons. So, He asked, “what is your name?”
And the answer….a terrifying answer to us…. “my name is Legion, for we are many.”
Now, the term legion was a Roman military term that signified a band of around 5-6K soldiers. So, we can conclude from this that this man was possessed by a massive number of demons! In fact, in Luke 8 it says: for many demons had entered him.
This was an evil army of powerful fallen angels and yet we read this in verse 10.
Verse 10:
That verse should give us peace. It should give us confidence in our Lord and in His power over the spirit realm. The demons just acknowledged that they are many and yet their first instinct after declaring that was to beg Jesus for mercy in their fear! Do not send us out of the country, they begged. In other words, please let us stay in this region. The region where they had been causing fear and disorder and confusion, not only in this man’s life but in the community as well. Remember, this territory was inhabited by majority Gentile people. Meaning that this area would have been ripe with false religions of various kinds. And the devil loves the soil of false religion to operate in. And they wanted to stay there where they had a stronghold.
Now, here is something else to consider. As I stated last time, this narrative isn’t just found here in Mark. It is also in Matthew and Luke’s gospels as well. And we learn a little more detail from each. For example, in Luke, we learn that not only were the demons asking Jesus to not send them out of the country but Luke 8:31 tells us that they also had another request. It states: They were imploring Him not to command them to go away into the abyss. Don’t make us leave the country is pretty easy to interpret. But what does it mean that they were also asking, don’t make us go away into the abyss?
Well, the abyss was a place that especially evil demons were sent to be continually bound. For example, II Peter and Jude tell us that some of the demons from Noah’s day, I believe referencing Gen 6, were sent to the abyss. They were so evil that God sent them away to be locked in this demonic prison so that they couldn’t cause chaos on earth anymore.
So, these demons here begged Jesus to not send them out of the country or region of the Gentiles in which they were operating. And they begged Jesus to not send them into the abyss. In other words, the demons knew that Jesus could send them wherever He wished. And that terrified them.
Verses 11-13:
First of all, since this was a Gentile area, there were pigs there. Had this been a primarily Jewish region there wouldn’t have been many pigs, if any, since according to the OT law pigs were unclean animals. But in this area alone, there was this herd of 2K pigs right where this took place.
Now, why did Jesus cast the demons into pigs. We don’t know. We don’t know why the demons requested that or why Jesus chose to grant that request. As I just stated, we know that pigs were considered ceremonially unclean in the OT Law, so perhaps this was a picture of the uncleanliness of the demons and thus Jesus let the unclean spirits go into the unclean animals? But we don’t know why for sure.
Either way, Jesus commanded the demons to leave the man and they did. And they went into the herd of pigs. And what happened to the pigs when the demons entered them? Frenzy, confusion, chaos that culminates in death! They swiftly ran down the bank into the sea and died, 2K of them!
This was not only vivid proof that Satan has come to destroy life, but it should have also been a vivid warning for those who saw it. Now, from that event, there was fear and there was intrigue.
Verses 14-15: People rushed out to see what happened to the pigs. But they also found something remarkable upon their arrival. They found the man sitting upright, calm, clothed, and with a clear mind. Previously, living in a cemetery, shrieking in torment, cutting himself, literal chains….what are we seeing here? That is absolute transformation. He couldn’t free himself. Others couldn’t keep him under control. Only Jesus could free him and transform him!
But notice the response of those who came out to see what happened. When they saw the man in his right mind and considered what had happened, (they were full of joy, no! They were thankful to Jesus, no!) they became frightened.
The word for frightened is the word phobeo from which the get our word, phobia. And the word phobia is attached to words to indicated specific fears in our language. For example, arachnophobia is the fear of spiders.
And the people that came out to witness what had happened were phobeo, they were deeply afraid.
Now, that is strange, isn’t it. They had previously been afraid of the demon possessed man. They had tried to chain him up because they recognized how dangerous he was to society. And now they find him sitting clothed, coherent, and calm. And it says that they were frightened. But not of the man anymore. Instead, they were frightened of the One who set the man free. If Jesus was powerful enough to do that then that meant that He was even more powerful than the evil spirits that they couldn’t bind even with metal chains. And they were fearfully amazed.
Now, a very similar thing happened to the disciples at the end of chapter 4. The storm was raging. They woke Jesus up. “And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and [k]it became perfectly calm. 40 And He said to them, “Why are you [l]afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They became very much afraid (phobeo) and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
So, the disciples experienced another kind of fear when Jesus rebuked the storm and it immediately obeyed. They went from fear of the storm to fearing the One who commanded the storm to cease.
And here, in Mark 5, the people who came out to see what Jesus had done also became very much afraid. Just like the disciples had been afraid of the storm, the people here had been afraid of the demon possessed man. But now they were experiencing a different kind of fear when they realized the authority of Jesus over the evil spirits. But their fear led to a different destination than the disciples’ fear. The disciples’ fear, minus Judas, led them to conclude appropriate things about the nature and the authority of Jesus. But that isn’t the case with those who came out to see Jesus here in Mark 5. Their fear led them to a totally different conclusion.
Verses 16-17: Now, had this been a holy fear of God that gripped the people in light of the greatness of Jesus and the deliverance of the demon possessed man, their response would most certainly not have been, “Jesus, please leave.” And by the way, Luke’s gospel says this: And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them.
It’s crazy to think that in the blindness and hardness of their hearts they were actually more comfortable when demons were in their midst than when Jesus was in their midst. It is a scary place for a person to become so engrossed and so comfortable with the world that they get to this point.
Remember, those who inhabited that area, would have almost certainly been wrapped up in false religion. And because of that, darkness doesn’t like light. They were more at home with darkness than with Jesus. They were more comfortable with the madness of the demon possessed man than they were with the presence of God.
Had this been a reverential fear acknowledging the nature and the greatness of Jesus as Lord, they would have said, “please stay!” It would have been the response of worship. So, why did they want Him to leave?
No one knows for sure other than darkness isn’t comfortable with light. But it could have been simple fear because Jesus did what no one else could do for this man. It could have been that since they were Gentile people with pagan religions that maybe they thought Jesus was some sort of god.
But most likely there was also a financial component to this as well. Through the miracle of Jesus casting out the demons, 2K of their pigs had died. And both Luke and Mark tell us that the herdsmen went and reported what had happened in the city and in the country. They were scrambling. This herd was probably owned by quite a few people in the city and country. And the herdsmen were scrambling to let them know what had happened. It wasn’t their fault, in other words. And once word spread of the loss of the herd, the people came and met Jesus and promptly asked him to leave.
It is sad to consider that it seems like they valued their pigs over Jesus. Maybe they cared more about the money they could make through their pigs than they cared about this man who had been delivered from Satanic bondage.
Whatever the case, they asked Jesus to leave.
Verse 18: This is a super sad statement. Jesus was in the presence of the people and they didn’t want Him there, so Jesus got into the boat to leave. Jesus was going to grant their request because of their rejection. But…..even where darkness is prevalent, God has His way of getting His message of light to people. The demon possessed man wanted to come with Jesus. Jesus had just delivered and transformed this man’s life from bondage we can’t even comprehend and he wanted to stay with Jesus. But looked at what Jesus said.
Verse 19: Jesus loved this man enough to intentionally go there on that day to set him free. He loved him but He wanted this man to stay right where he was. And even though it wasn’t what the man wanted, Jesus had purpose in calling the man to stay there. He wanted the man to stay there to be a living, breathing, and verbal testimony to the liberating power of Jesus. When eyes saw this man and ears heard this man, he would stand as a continual reminder of the grace and the mercy and the power of Jesus. And that’s what the man did. He stayed and he obeyed.
Verse 20:
Isn’t that beautiful. Jesus delivered this man and gave him purpose.
He was not just delivered from something; he was delivered for something!
Consider the transformation. This man was once an emissary of Satan and now he was walking into enemy territory as an ambassador for Jesus! He went from being a walking testimony of Satan’s powerful bondage to being a living, breathing testimony to the grace and deliverance of Jesus who is better and more powerful!
Think of this man now compared to verses 3-5: and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.
From confusion to clarity
From chaos to calm
From isolation to community
From torment to transformation
From powerless to purposeful
Here are a few thinks to think about. Application:
1.The demons recognized who Jesus was but rebelled against Him. The people in that region experienced the authority of Jesus but rejected Him outright. They loved darkness more than light. But the delivered man encountered Jesus and surrendered to Him!
It isn’t enough to tip our cap to Jesus. It isn’t even enough to recognize who He is. It isn’t enough to even be amazed by God at times. The main response that we must have is worshipful surrender to His Lordship. Have you bowed your heart to Jesus? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus in faith and repentance?
2.God often saves and uses the least likely candidates. Don’t underestimate what God can do in and through a person’s life who is surrendered and obedient to Him. God doesn’t require the most gifted person. He doesn’t require a person with a perfect past. He wants a person who is fully committed to Him! Who will simply say, my life is Yours! Not my will but Your will be done.
3.If you know the Lord, He has not just saved you from something, He has saved you for something. You have purpose and mission in life. If God has saved you, then you have a testimony to tell. A story to share with others. Just like the man that Jesus delivered, God has you where you are in life intentionally. He has you around the people He has you around for mission as His ambassador.
The final song we are going to sing was selected on purpose. I think it captures part of what we’ve studied. If you have been born again through faith in Jesus, see yourself in this man’s life and see the grace of God in your life. None of us were where this man was in life but through the grace of God we were brought out of death to life. Out of the depths of ruin untold into the peace of Thy sheltering fold, we have been saved. This song was written in 1887 but it captures our need for Jesus so well.
So, I ask you to set aside distractions as we sing this song and truly offer it up to God as worship and thanksgiving for His transforming grace in your life.
Two weeks ago, that is what we studied in Mark 5:1-5. But today is part two where we will see the liberating power of Jesus to set captives free in verses 6-20. At the end of Mark 4 Jesus showed His authority over creation. And today we will see Jesus’ absolute authority over the spirit realm.
Read 1-5
Verse 6:
Remember that in Matthew’s gospel it tells us that there were two demon possessed men. Mark chose to focus on this one man. But Matthew’s gospel tells us that these two demon possessed men were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. Locals absolutely avoided that area because they were afraid of these two men. Now, given what Matthew tells us there, the man might have been running toward Jesus and His disciples wanting to harm them. But instead, something remarkable happened:
We are told that the man ran toward Jesus and then “bowed down before” Jesus. The GR word here is proskuneo, which is a compound word that means “to kiss toward” or to worship. For example, when the wisemen of the East came into Jerusalem looking for Jesus, they said this in Matthew 2:2: “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” Or Luke 24:52 after the resurrection of Jesus, as some of His followers were with Him, we read: And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
So, this word is sometimes translated as bowed down before or worship depending on the context. And here it is translated as bowed down before. The idea is that the demonic forces bowed down before Jesus in fear.
And the reason is because the demons that inhabited the man knew that they were in the literal presence of God! God in human flesh was standing before them!
Verse 7:
Shouting: same word that was used back in verse 5 about the man screaming in the tombs night and day. This was an unpleasant, unnerving shriek is the idea.
Now, the demonic forces in that area most certainly knew that Jesus was there. If word of His miracles had spread among people in that region, it had also spread among demons. They knew about Jesus’ miracles of healing. They knew that Jesus had calmed the Sea. They knew that Jesus was proclaiming the Kingdom of God was at hand. They knew that He was preaching a message of faith and repentance. And they certainly knew that He had been casting out demons.
Just like back in chapters 1 and 3 when Jesus encountered demons….they knew who Jesus was. In fact, back in chapter 1:24 the demon said this to Jesus, “I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
In chapter 3:11: Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!”
They fell down! They proclaimed who Jesus is. Just like this demon possessed man does here in our verses today.
And in all of those cases, the demons’ theology was sound! Here the demon refers to Jesus as Jesus, Son of the Most High God. The demons here were in complete opposition to Jesus but they accurately knew and proclaimed who He is.
Just a quick reminder here. Sound theology doesn’t necessarily mean surrendered living. Theology is the most important thing about a person. It is the study of God. It is what we believe about God. But a person can have great theology and yet not know God at all. Proper theology should lead a person to proper worship of God. But the demon proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of the Most High God while at the same time being in complete rebellion against God. Still, the demon was accurate in what he said.
Jesus is more than a teacher. He is more than a miracle worker. He is the perfect, eternal Son of the Most High God. In fact, that is the very thing that Mark wants to point out in this gospel. The very first verse of Mark that sets the tone of the book, Mark 1:1 reads like this: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Now, look at what the demon said to Jesus, “I implore you by God, do not torment me.” This was a plea for mercy from this demonic horde that infested this man. They knew that they were in trouble since the very presence of God was among them and they were begging for His mercy. Let’s keep reading to see why.
Verse 8:
Jesus was in the process of commanding these evil spirits out of this man. And they were terrified of what that might mean for them. Thus, they fell before Jesus and begged Jesus for mercy.
Verse 9:
Now, I believe that Jesus asked this question, at least in part, for the sake of His disciples. This man would have undoubtedly had a name. A name given long ago from his parents. But he was so engrossed in demonic bondage that he doesn’t even answer by his own name. The evil forces had so taken this man over that his identity was no longer his own.
And Jesus, most certainly, knew who and what He was dealing with. But I think He wanted His disciples to hear the answer of this demon in order to see His power over not just one demon but over a host of demons. So, He asked, “what is your name?”
And the answer….a terrifying answer to us…. “my name is Legion, for we are many.”
Now, the term legion was a Roman military term that signified a band of around 5-6K soldiers. So, we can conclude from this that this man was possessed by a massive number of demons! In fact, in Luke 8 it says: for many demons had entered him.
This was an evil army of powerful fallen angels and yet we read this in verse 10.
Verse 10:
That verse should give us peace. It should give us confidence in our Lord and in His power over the spirit realm. The demons just acknowledged that they are many and yet their first instinct after declaring that was to beg Jesus for mercy in their fear! Do not send us out of the country, they begged. In other words, please let us stay in this region. The region where they had been causing fear and disorder and confusion, not only in this man’s life but in the community as well. Remember, this territory was inhabited by majority Gentile people. Meaning that this area would have been ripe with false religions of various kinds. And the devil loves the soil of false religion to operate in. And they wanted to stay there where they had a stronghold.
Now, here is something else to consider. As I stated last time, this narrative isn’t just found here in Mark. It is also in Matthew and Luke’s gospels as well. And we learn a little more detail from each. For example, in Luke, we learn that not only were the demons asking Jesus to not send them out of the country but Luke 8:31 tells us that they also had another request. It states: They were imploring Him not to command them to go away into the abyss. Don’t make us leave the country is pretty easy to interpret. But what does it mean that they were also asking, don’t make us go away into the abyss?
Well, the abyss was a place that especially evil demons were sent to be continually bound. For example, II Peter and Jude tell us that some of the demons from Noah’s day, I believe referencing Gen 6, were sent to the abyss. They were so evil that God sent them away to be locked in this demonic prison so that they couldn’t cause chaos on earth anymore.
So, these demons here begged Jesus to not send them out of the country or region of the Gentiles in which they were operating. And they begged Jesus to not send them into the abyss. In other words, the demons knew that Jesus could send them wherever He wished. And that terrified them.
Verses 11-13:
First of all, since this was a Gentile area, there were pigs there. Had this been a primarily Jewish region there wouldn’t have been many pigs, if any, since according to the OT law pigs were unclean animals. But in this area alone, there was this herd of 2K pigs right where this took place.
Now, why did Jesus cast the demons into pigs. We don’t know. We don’t know why the demons requested that or why Jesus chose to grant that request. As I just stated, we know that pigs were considered ceremonially unclean in the OT Law, so perhaps this was a picture of the uncleanliness of the demons and thus Jesus let the unclean spirits go into the unclean animals? But we don’t know why for sure.
Either way, Jesus commanded the demons to leave the man and they did. And they went into the herd of pigs. And what happened to the pigs when the demons entered them? Frenzy, confusion, chaos that culminates in death! They swiftly ran down the bank into the sea and died, 2K of them!
This was not only vivid proof that Satan has come to destroy life, but it should have also been a vivid warning for those who saw it. Now, from that event, there was fear and there was intrigue.
Verses 14-15: People rushed out to see what happened to the pigs. But they also found something remarkable upon their arrival. They found the man sitting upright, calm, clothed, and with a clear mind. Previously, living in a cemetery, shrieking in torment, cutting himself, literal chains….what are we seeing here? That is absolute transformation. He couldn’t free himself. Others couldn’t keep him under control. Only Jesus could free him and transform him!
But notice the response of those who came out to see what happened. When they saw the man in his right mind and considered what had happened, (they were full of joy, no! They were thankful to Jesus, no!) they became frightened.
The word for frightened is the word phobeo from which the get our word, phobia. And the word phobia is attached to words to indicated specific fears in our language. For example, arachnophobia is the fear of spiders.
And the people that came out to witness what had happened were phobeo, they were deeply afraid.
Now, that is strange, isn’t it. They had previously been afraid of the demon possessed man. They had tried to chain him up because they recognized how dangerous he was to society. And now they find him sitting clothed, coherent, and calm. And it says that they were frightened. But not of the man anymore. Instead, they were frightened of the One who set the man free. If Jesus was powerful enough to do that then that meant that He was even more powerful than the evil spirits that they couldn’t bind even with metal chains. And they were fearfully amazed.
Now, a very similar thing happened to the disciples at the end of chapter 4. The storm was raging. They woke Jesus up. “And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and [k]it became perfectly calm. 40 And He said to them, “Why are you [l]afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They became very much afraid (phobeo) and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
So, the disciples experienced another kind of fear when Jesus rebuked the storm and it immediately obeyed. They went from fear of the storm to fearing the One who commanded the storm to cease.
And here, in Mark 5, the people who came out to see what Jesus had done also became very much afraid. Just like the disciples had been afraid of the storm, the people here had been afraid of the demon possessed man. But now they were experiencing a different kind of fear when they realized the authority of Jesus over the evil spirits. But their fear led to a different destination than the disciples’ fear. The disciples’ fear, minus Judas, led them to conclude appropriate things about the nature and the authority of Jesus. But that isn’t the case with those who came out to see Jesus here in Mark 5. Their fear led them to a totally different conclusion.
Verses 16-17: Now, had this been a holy fear of God that gripped the people in light of the greatness of Jesus and the deliverance of the demon possessed man, their response would most certainly not have been, “Jesus, please leave.” And by the way, Luke’s gospel says this: And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them.
It’s crazy to think that in the blindness and hardness of their hearts they were actually more comfortable when demons were in their midst than when Jesus was in their midst. It is a scary place for a person to become so engrossed and so comfortable with the world that they get to this point.
Remember, those who inhabited that area, would have almost certainly been wrapped up in false religion. And because of that, darkness doesn’t like light. They were more at home with darkness than with Jesus. They were more comfortable with the madness of the demon possessed man than they were with the presence of God.
Had this been a reverential fear acknowledging the nature and the greatness of Jesus as Lord, they would have said, “please stay!” It would have been the response of worship. So, why did they want Him to leave?
No one knows for sure other than darkness isn’t comfortable with light. But it could have been simple fear because Jesus did what no one else could do for this man. It could have been that since they were Gentile people with pagan religions that maybe they thought Jesus was some sort of god.
But most likely there was also a financial component to this as well. Through the miracle of Jesus casting out the demons, 2K of their pigs had died. And both Luke and Mark tell us that the herdsmen went and reported what had happened in the city and in the country. They were scrambling. This herd was probably owned by quite a few people in the city and country. And the herdsmen were scrambling to let them know what had happened. It wasn’t their fault, in other words. And once word spread of the loss of the herd, the people came and met Jesus and promptly asked him to leave.
It is sad to consider that it seems like they valued their pigs over Jesus. Maybe they cared more about the money they could make through their pigs than they cared about this man who had been delivered from Satanic bondage.
Whatever the case, they asked Jesus to leave.
Verse 18: This is a super sad statement. Jesus was in the presence of the people and they didn’t want Him there, so Jesus got into the boat to leave. Jesus was going to grant their request because of their rejection. But…..even where darkness is prevalent, God has His way of getting His message of light to people. The demon possessed man wanted to come with Jesus. Jesus had just delivered and transformed this man’s life from bondage we can’t even comprehend and he wanted to stay with Jesus. But looked at what Jesus said.
Verse 19: Jesus loved this man enough to intentionally go there on that day to set him free. He loved him but He wanted this man to stay right where he was. And even though it wasn’t what the man wanted, Jesus had purpose in calling the man to stay there. He wanted the man to stay there to be a living, breathing, and verbal testimony to the liberating power of Jesus. When eyes saw this man and ears heard this man, he would stand as a continual reminder of the grace and the mercy and the power of Jesus. And that’s what the man did. He stayed and he obeyed.
Verse 20:
Isn’t that beautiful. Jesus delivered this man and gave him purpose.
He was not just delivered from something; he was delivered for something!
Consider the transformation. This man was once an emissary of Satan and now he was walking into enemy territory as an ambassador for Jesus! He went from being a walking testimony of Satan’s powerful bondage to being a living, breathing testimony to the grace and deliverance of Jesus who is better and more powerful!
Think of this man now compared to verses 3-5: and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.
From confusion to clarity
From chaos to calm
From isolation to community
From torment to transformation
From powerless to purposeful
Here are a few thinks to think about. Application:
1.The demons recognized who Jesus was but rebelled against Him. The people in that region experienced the authority of Jesus but rejected Him outright. They loved darkness more than light. But the delivered man encountered Jesus and surrendered to Him!
It isn’t enough to tip our cap to Jesus. It isn’t even enough to recognize who He is. It isn’t enough to even be amazed by God at times. The main response that we must have is worshipful surrender to His Lordship. Have you bowed your heart to Jesus? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus in faith and repentance?
2.God often saves and uses the least likely candidates. Don’t underestimate what God can do in and through a person’s life who is surrendered and obedient to Him. God doesn’t require the most gifted person. He doesn’t require a person with a perfect past. He wants a person who is fully committed to Him! Who will simply say, my life is Yours! Not my will but Your will be done.
3.If you know the Lord, He has not just saved you from something, He has saved you for something. You have purpose and mission in life. If God has saved you, then you have a testimony to tell. A story to share with others. Just like the man that Jesus delivered, God has you where you are in life intentionally. He has you around the people He has you around for mission as His ambassador.
The final song we are going to sing was selected on purpose. I think it captures part of what we’ve studied. If you have been born again through faith in Jesus, see yourself in this man’s life and see the grace of God in your life. None of us were where this man was in life but through the grace of God we were brought out of death to life. Out of the depths of ruin untold into the peace of Thy sheltering fold, we have been saved. This song was written in 1887 but it captures our need for Jesus so well.
So, I ask you to set aside distractions as we sing this song and truly offer it up to God as worship and thanksgiving for His transforming grace in your life.
