We’ve come to Mark chapter 5:1-20 today. And this is going to be a two-part sermon.
Now, along those lines let me tell you about next week. I will miss another Sunday. As I mentioned probably 2 months ago, each year I tend to miss 3 Sundays from July through Sept and that is proving true this year too. After next week, my schedule should be back to normal and we should be able to really begin to roll though the book of Mark more consistently. Next week we have a church planter from Hazen, ND that we support. You saw his video earlier. He is a good friend and a great preacher.
And then the following week we will have part two of this sermon today.
Last week we finished Mark chapter 4 where we saw Jesus calm a storm that fell on the sea of Galilee. The storm was so bad that the disciples thought they might die as they were sailing. But after Jesus calmed the sea, the disciples, in their amazement simply asked the question,” who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
Now, that had to be such a terrifying experience as it was happening.
But after they saw and experienced the miracle of Jesus calming the sea, I’m sure that the disciples were glad it happened as their faith in Jesus grew tremendously! Simply put, there can’t be a faith building calming of a storm unless there is first a storm. And through that, the disciples recognized the authority of Jesus over creation. They recognized in wonder and reverence that Jesus was not an ordinary man! He is truly the very Son of God!
And right after that account, Mark continues to build that theme of the wonder of Jesus as the Son of God. Something else was about to happen to once again build the disciples’ faith in Jesus in an even greater way. Jesus had just shown His authority to command creation. And now he was going to show His authority, once again, to command the evil spirits. Now, to this point in our study of Mark there have been several times that Jesus had casted out demons, but in Mark 5:1-20 this is a bit more dramatic and a more expanded explanation than the previous demonic encounters that Jesus had in the gospel of Mark.
So, before we look at these verses, let me share a few things with you.
First, a disclaimer. I mentioned this last Sunday. But by the very nature and content of the verses that we’ve come to today, we are going to discuss some things that might be a bit unsettling. This topic is one that can be unnerving as it deals with a scary reality of an often-unseen spirit realm.
Second, and along those lines, what we are covering today is absolutely real. This isn’t a Hollywood script. This isn’t a made-up story. This is an historical narrative of a real event that happened around 2K years ago. It is about a demon-possessed man. A man who was, in fact, possessed by many demons. And just like back then, demonic activity is still very real today. We have an actual, literal, hate-filled enemy who commands a host of fallen angels who are absolutely bent on the destruction and bondage of humanity. Consequently, they strive to bring maximum devastation to people all around the world and throughout time. And here is part of the reason why.
Satan, is a created angel who rebelled against God. He is not eternal. It is believed that he was a powerful angel in God’s service who eventually became proud and began to exalt himself. Self-exaltation to the point that he wanted to be like God. He wanted to share in the glory of God.
He wanted to be like God, yet he was not at all like God. God is all-knowing and the devil is not. God is all powerful and the devil is not. God is perfect in all His ways. The devil is perverse in all of his ways. God is incapable of sin. Satan is a liar and deceiver and murderer. God is glorious. And Satan desperately desires to share the glory that belongs to God alone.
Now, we don’t know the exact timeline. But at some point, after the creation and fall of Satan, humanity was created by God. And people are the only creation that the bible specifically states are created in the image of God.
Gen 1:27: God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
James 3:9: With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;
What does it mean that people are created in the image of God?
One theologian said this: “Being created in the image of God means humans are designed like mirrors to reflect God's greatness, beauty, and worth out into the world.”
There are also certain attributes that humanity has that no other parts of creation have. And those attributes reflect or mirror our Lord.
And there are many other things that we could talk about related to this. But there are simply things that God has placed in humankind that He has done in a special, unique way that He has not done in any other portion of His creation.
So, you have Satan, the chief fallen angel, who desperately wants to be like God and yet he is not and cannot be and will not ever be like God. But then, all of a sudden, God created people, whom He created in His own image to reflect His glory in this world. Even the angels are not created in the image of God in the way that people are. And in Satan’s fury and hatred, he then turned his wrath toward the special objects of God’s love, humankind! And he hates humanity with a seething hatred since we are created in the image of the God that he burns with inextinguishable hatred toward!
In fact, part of the strategy that Satan employed in order to deceive Adam and Eve was the same thing that caused his own fall. He tempted them with this. If you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will become like God. The same lie and desire that he was ensnared by is part of what he used to tempt humanity. And it worked. And with the fall of man, sin entered the world and therefore has become a nasty reality for all people then and since then. And Satan is still seeking to create havoc in our world today.
Think of it like this. Satan’s goal is for a person to never hear the gospel and never repent of their sin and be made right with God. Or, if they do hear the gospel, Satan and his demons do everything they can to steal away the seed of the gospel as we saw in the parable of the sower and the seed in chapter 4.
And so, he employs different strategies in different parts of the world to try to keep people from Jesus. Different strategies but with the same goal.
Africa example
So, with Satan knowing that, there are typically more blatant, demonic manifestations as he plays on their fears and aberrant beliefs. Whereas in America, demonic activity can be more subtle at times. Things like materialism, greed, lustful media, and so forth. Now, that doesn’t mean that blatant, in your face, demonic activity doesn’t happen here at times. I’ll be honest, we had a demonic manifestation happen in this very room several years ago.
So, it does happen in our culture, but it’s not usually as obvious as perhaps other parts of the world. But regardless, ultimately, the end goal of Satan is the same even if the strategy is different in different cultures and with different people. The end goal is to cause people to fix their eyes and their affections on anything or anyone other than Jesus and the gospel.
Now, with that longer than normal introduction, let’s now look at our passage in Mark 5.
Read verses 1-5:
Verse 1: Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and arrived on the eastern shore, in Gentile territory associated with the region of the Decapolis.
By the way, in Matthew’s gospel we learn a bit more about this encounter. In Matthew 8 Matthew gives another detail when he tells us that there were 2 demon possessed men that were there. Now, this isn’t a contradiction at all. Mark simply chose to focus on this one demon possessed man rather than both. Most likely this man was the more severely demon possessed man and Mark focused on him to show the magnitude of what Jesus did for this man.
Either way, notice, in verses 1-5, where this man’s life had descended to at this point.
·He lived in a graveyard. He lived in a cemetery. His life had become completely separated from ordinary human community and, instead, surrounded by death.
·He lived in complete isolation away from others, except another person who was also demon possessed which possibly made this even worse for him.
·He could not be kept in shackles and chains because of his other-worldly, demonic power. Metal chains were unable to restrain him!
·He was screaming in torment continually. The word for screaming is a GR word that meant, “A cry perhaps imitating the shrieking cry of a raven. A shout or cry with the possible implication of the unpleasant nature of the sound.” In other words, a demonic shriek that would have incited terror and fear.
·He was continually cutting himself with stones because of his hatred for his life and because of the demonic bondage over his life. Satan hates humanity. And how much joy it must give Satan to influence a person created in the image of God to begin harming oneself because of hatred for oneself. Satan’s influence was driving this man toward the literal destruction of his own flesh.
Death, loneliness, chains, misery, and self-harm described this man’s whole life. And to make this more shocking his literal chains were nothing compared to the spiritual chains that he was bound by.
What an awful place to be at in life! What a terrifying portrait that Mark paints for us of the way this man’s life had absolutely spiraled to this point.
Now, we don’t know this man’s name nor do we know what he had done to open himself up to demonic influence like this. The text doesn’t tell us. But what it does show us is the desperate condition of this man’s life. His life was in shambles!
Our enemy, the devil, will always attempt to work in concert with our sin nature to deceive us into believing that his ways are best….that the things of the kingdom of this world are better than the things of the Kingdom of God. But the devil’s ways always lead to utter ruin if they are believed and lived out. I heard this saying a long time ago. Sin will always take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you’re willing to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay.
Isn’t that the way sin works? It’s like the alcoholic in the gutter….when they took that first drink, they would have never looked down the road and envisioned their lived wrecked and ruined in a gutter due to alcohol.
Now, we could speculate how this man had arrived at this point in his life but we don’t know. We don’t know his background or his specific life story. But what we do know is that Satan wants to lead humanity toward isolation, bondage, destruction, and death.
Now, let me say to avoid any confusion. Not all who are bound by sin are demon possessed. I am not someone who believes that there is a demon behind every rock. I don’t think that Christians are to go around looking for encounters with demons. But I also think that we can often downplay the role of demons as well. I think there needs to be good, biblical balance in this.
But I don’t believe that all who are bound by sin are possessed by a demon. I believe that some are for sure, but not all. But when we find a person enslaved to a particular sin or sins it is going to be because he or she has embraced lies. And who is the father of lies? The devil.
And we can know that there is at least a certain level of manipulation by our enemy that is going to be involved in someone being bound by sin. And so, some are enslaved to things like sexual sin or alcoholism or drugs. Or perhaps things like anger or pride or jealousy or envy or bitterness. Slavery is slavery regardless of what it is. It binds and in consumes.
And ultimately what those things are driven by is an idol. Something that we have exalted to the place of God. And that idol consumes us. What am I so focused on that it is causing me to be bound by jealousy or bitterness. What has consumed my thoughts to bring me to the point of enslavement? What is ruling in my heart?
Now, in this man’s case, it was true demonic possession and it ruled his whole life, not just parts of it! It was destroying him. What needed to happen? Could anything free a person who was this bound? Was he too far gone? In fact, let’s keep reading and you’ll see how bound this man actually was.
Read verses 6-20.
Legion: Roman military term or 5-6K troops.
15: Absolute transformation! The man couldn’t do this. Jesus could!
20: Transformation of mission!
We will study verses 6-20 next time.
But please hear me on this today. We don’t have to be fearful. We don’t have to be worried. And we don’t have to be bound! Because for the Christian, greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world, I John 4:4 teaches us.
--I heard of some missionaries in South America many years ago who, after being out for the day, came home to their hut. And upon entering they were shocked at what they found. They lived in a hut that was on stilts. And as they walked into their house, they found a massive anaconda snake. And sometimes anacondas can be 25-30 feet long and way 700 pounds or so! And they found one around that size in their hut.
--So, they ran down and got one of their neighbors who was native to that area. He came and looked in the window and was shocked as well. Well, he had brought a rifle with him. He put the rifle through the window and shot the snake in the head, killing it. However, to the amazement of those watching, the hut began to shake as the defeated snake was dying! Its body was jerking around and they could hear things falling over in the hut and breaking. The stilts were moving back and forth as the massive snake’s body was writhing around in its final moments of life.
--That is Satan. His time is short and so he is trying to maximize damages in this world and in people’s lives. But, make no mistake about it, the death blow has been dealt! Satan is defeated! His time is limited!
Col 2:15: Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities.
Hebrews 2:14: through death Jesus rendered powerless him who had the power of death.
1 John 3:8: the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil.
Because of Jesus, liberation is possible, no matter the chains that bind a person.
Today we’ve seen the destructive power of Satan and sin. Two weeks from now we will encounter the liberating power of Jesus to free captives and to transform lives! Jesus is greater and better!
So, here are just a few quick points of application as we conclude today:
1.We need to come to the same conclusion as last week. We shouldn’t have left last week thinking wow, storms are scary or Jesus is a miracle worker. And today we shouldn’t leave thinking, wow, demonic stuff is scary or Jesus must be strong to cast them out. No, we must leave thinking, who then is this, that even evil spirits are subject and terrified of Him? He must be the very Son of God.
2.He is the eternal Son of God who put on flesh to live among us. And He lived a perfectly holy life. And yet He was hung on a cross as a sinful criminal, yet without sin. And He died. And He was buried. But three days later He rose again, just as the Scriptures said would happen. And then He ascended back to heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father.
3.Do you know Him? Not do you know about Him. Have you surrendered your life to Him in faith and repentance?
4.Maybe today you would admit that you are bound by certain things. Things that you can’t come free of. You might not have bondage like this man. You’re not living in a graveyard. You’re not screaming in anguish day and night. You aren’t breaking metal chains. But you might still be experiencing bondage. Bitterness, lust, alcohol, anger, fear, etc.
5.Here is what I’d like to say to you. No one is so enslaved that God’s grace can’t set them free! Just like the man in our text today ran to Jesus, run to Jesus today and find freedom.