Mark 5:1-20 - See Jesus for Who He Is
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
I’ve received the same birthday text every year for the last 4 years.
It says “Happy Birthday, bud!” With a rock star hand, party hat guy, and clinking drinks emojis.
Picture of Text Message
The problem is, I’m terrible at putting numbers in my phone.
I don’t ask and since this number texts me the same text, I send the same text every year.
For four years, I’ve had no idea who this number is but I don’t want to be a jerk because it’s been 4 years. I should know who it is by now, right?
Come to find out, it’s my cousin Pat. Who (in person) I love dearly.
I’m so bad about this!
So many people who know Hilary come up and talk with me because of her Facebook page.
I’ll stand there and have full conversation and have 0% idea who that person is.
What do I do? Smile and go with it.
“It’s been awhile!” “…Yeah, it has!”
Now, shame on me!
There’s a difference in knowing who you’re talking to and not knowing who you’re talking to
Knowing the relationship to the person your speaking to influences the direction and connection of the conversation.
Jesus just finished teaching a large crowd and His disciples about the Kingdom of God, and they are trying to go to the other side of the sea of Galilee for some R&R.
They encounter this huge storm on the sea
These guys have heard of shipwrecks and people being lost at see.
They are probably traumatized from seeing Jesus tell the storm to chill out and it obey Him.
They ask this question: “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (4:41)
Even His disciples, the guys that spend the most time with Him and talk to Him most are asking, “Who is this guy?”
The passage in Mark 5 is going to call us to our big idea:
See Jesus for who He is
See Jesus for who He is
Stand to read Mark 5:1-5
1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
Leader: This is God’s word written down for you and for me
Everyone: Thanks be to God
After a rough night, they finally make it across the sea of Galilee to a Gentile city called Gergesa.
The moment Jesus steps off the boat, a demonized man comes running at him from the tombs.
Mark gives us a description of this guy which is one of the saddest description of human wretchedness in the Bible.
According to Jewish law, this encounter Jesus has is completely and totally unclean.
He was considered unclean in the eyes of the Law and the culture.
He lived in the grave yard, alone, and abandoned.
He was an unwanted, dirty outcast.
He already lived among the tombs, showing people thought he might as well be dead.
No one was coming, because, “No one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain” (v. 3)
This description was more fitting for a werewolf or a bear than a human being.
This man, who was created in God’s image, is being treated and deduced down to a ferocious animal.
This demoniac is a terror to himself and everyone around him.
People have tried to intervene and help, even trying to chain him up like an animal, yet being so overrun with demonic power, he destroyed the chains
Though this man wasn’t held by chains, he was bound by the weight of sin and evil.
This man was a slave to demonic sin and darkness.
This man is experiencing the violent weight of evil at all times
“Night and day” (v. 5)
He’s crying out—No one’s coming. To help.
Cutting himself with stones.
This man is who comes running up to Jesus.
Church,
Our World is Spiritually Dark (vv. 1-5)
Our World is Spiritually Dark (vv. 1-5)
Our world is broken by sin.
The enemy is cruel and malicious, and he’s powerful.
I know other people who experience this darkness
Drug addictions, pornography, adultery, self-absorption.
Loneliness, fear, anxiety, shame, guilt.
People everywhere experience the weight of the brokenness of the world.
We have a hard time trusting other people, because what if they hurt us?
People who live in poverty don’t describe poverty in material matters.
Poverty to them is being alone and forgotten.
If you look at some people, they have an extreme lack of joy and are skeptical when people show them any type of affection.
They live in a broken world and don’t know love.
APPLICATION: Lean in.
No one else wanted to go to where this man was for any reason. But contrary to all reason and expectation, Jesus does.
Every person you meet is just like you in two elements:
1. They were created in and bear the image of God
Just like you do.
2. They are sinners (just like you) in desperate need of love and grace
Just like you.
These people are not lost causes!
This description of this guy should make us take some personal inventory in our own lives because we experience it personally.
We are all tainted with sin.
There are some elements of our lives that are sympathetic to this guy.
Trapped in an addiction, relationship, feeling alone, unwanted, and unloved.
Sicknesses; cancer
Chained in anger toward a person or situation because it’s easier to be angry than broken and vulnerable.
Trapped in our own rebellion from God. Prone to wander away from Him. We’re slaves to our own wickedness.
More than that, we need to be vulnerable with being loved by and maybe even forgiving other people.
So this man, created in God’s image and experiencing unimaginable evil, has an interaction with Jesus.
6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
The demon responds to Jesus’s arrival with honor and reverence
He falls at his feet, then calls him by name and ascribes to Him a title that reinforces Mark’s entire point of the Gospel (v. 7)
“The Son of the Most High God” speaks to the Gentile territory’s polytheism.
This demons just proclaimed “Jesus is the Son of the one true God, transcendent over all others!”
This shows us:
Demons see Jesus for who He is
Demons see Jesus for who He is
Do you hear the begging and pleading that the demon meets Jesus with? (v. 7)
The demon is pleading for mercy.
This demon, who is tormenting this man, now recognizes Jesus as the threat to its very existence and it pleads for mercy.
"I’m in charge here” Jesus asks the demon its name
Mark 5:9 “9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.””
The name Legion is a military term used by the Romans.
A Roman legion was around 6,000 foot soldiers and 700 cavalrymen.
There were thousands of demons inhabiting this one man.
Notice this! These demons have the audacity to called themselves “Legion” showing their power and size
But when it’s 6,000 demons v. Jesus, the demons cower to Jesus’s authority!
11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
Notice Jesus’s authority over the demonic.
The demons need Jesus’s permission to go into the pigs!
Demons submit to Jesus’ authority!
Now killing 2,000 pigs is dramatic scene, but it shows us that
Jesus has overcome our spiritual darkness
Jesus has overcome our spiritual darkness
Jesus is the Son of God who put on flesh and became like a man so that He could restore all the darkness had covered up!
John’s gospel says this about Jesus:
John 1:4–5 “4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
What does light do?! It drives back darkness!
There is no evil—past, present, or future—that will triumph over Jesus!
There is no sin that can keep you from Jesus!
There is no addiction that can keep you from Jesus!
Jesus came to triumph over every evil in our lives!
Gospel presentation
How did He do this?
He lives perfectly according to the will of God!
Jesus was righteous in Himself.
Though He was in the world and experienced the brokenness of the world, He never sinned.
Instead, Jesus swapped us!
He took our sin and gave us His righteousness!
In all of His authority, He took the guilt, condemnation, and the wrath of God for our sins
Put all our sin on Himself
And marched like a soldier to the cross where He would be nailed, and as His perfect blood flowed, He gave up His life!
In doing so, He satisfied the wrath of God and paid the debt of our sinful darkness
Then, with authority, Jesus was raised to life!
Without the resurrection, we remain in spiritual darkness, dead in our sins!
But praise be to God, Jesus came out of the grave, resurrected, and in Him we are risen to life with Him
The Son of God has overcome our spiritual darkness by becoming sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God!
Through faith in Jesus, we can be set free from the darkness!
Jesus offers this same type of deliverance from darkness to those see Him for who He is and believe in Him as Savior and Lord.
The problem is, some people won’t see it
14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.
They saw this man restored!
He was not as they say him before!
He was changed by the power of Jesus!
Jesus gave him his life back!
He was calm, covered, and peace!
They were afraid because they didn’t see who Jesus was.
He was right in front of them and they missed him.
The demon was so strong, that Mark said, “No one could bind him anymore” and “No one had the strength to subdue him.”
Until Jesus comes!
Now the man is restored and they still don’t see Jesus.
But the restored man does.
18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
He begs Jesus to let Him come
For what reason? That he might be with Him.
This man sees Jesus for who He is!
People who have been saved want to be with Jesus!
Not because Jesus gives us stuff, but because Jesus gives us Himself!
APPLICATION: Don’t settle for less than Jesus
Jesus offers us Himself, yet too often we settle for too little.
We settle for the blessings Jesus gives
We are enamored with the miracles
We desire His moral and ethical philosophies
We take the short deal when we settle for the things we get through Jesus, as if He’s the means to getting what we want.
When we rightly see who Jesus is, we see that the blessings He gives us are in Him.
He is the treasure!
We get forgiveness, love, blessings, because we have Him!
The privilege of the gospel is not to just be forgiven of sin, but that you get Jesus!
Heaven is not a place for people who are good and don’t want to go to hell.
Heaven is for people who want to be with Jesus!
If you’re here and you’re not a Christian, you can be set free from your spiritual darkness.
In order to get out of spiritual darkness, you need light.
Jesus is the light that leads us out of spiritual darkness.
Jesus is the light that leads us out of spiritual darkness.
Believe in Jesus today.
He is the true light that has come into the world from God.
He came to us, though we rejected Him.
But to all who receive Him and believe in His name, He gives us the right to be children of God.
He died so that you might be set free from sin, and rose to ensure an eternal life with him.
Turn from your sin and leave the darkness behind!
You don’t have to live there anymore.
If you’re here and you’re a Christian, you have a mandate.
19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
After being with Jesus, he’s told to go tell his story!
It says that he went into the Decapolis, which means 10 cities!
He went to 10 cities telling everyone what the Lord, Jesus, the Son of God had done for him.
Everyone responded by marveling by his story.
Christian, the gospel is the greatest story ever told.
Go and tell people of what the Lord has done in redeeming you!
Invite people to come and see what Jesus is doing!
Prayer Prompts Psalm 121.
Applicational Outline:
Our World is Spiritually Dark (vv. 1-5)
APPLICATION: Lean in
Be honest with yourself about who you are
We know people who live like this
“Jesus has overcome our spiritual darkness” (vv. 6-13)
APPLICATION: Submit to the authority of Jesus
Demons recognize and submit to Jesus’s authority
They meet Him with reverence
They see Him as a threat to their very existence
Jesus has authority over spiritual beings
The people don’t see Jesus for who He is (vv. 14-17)
APPLICATION: Don’t settle for less than Jesus
Settling for Jesus’s stuff, His abilities, or even heaven completely misses the beauty of Heaven
There’s a difference of having blessings through Christ and blessings in Christ.
The difference is you get Him.
“To get out of our spiritual darkness, we must want the light” (vv. 18-20)
APPLICATION: Be with Jesus and tell others about Him
The redeemed want to be with Jesus
Our command from Jesus is to go tell others of what the Lord has done and of His mercy
Share your story
Appeal to Unbelievers:
This doesn’t have to be your story anymore.
Jesus changed this man’s story in a moment
You can have redemption in Jesus now.
Appeal to Christians
We have our marching orders “Go and tell” (vv. 19-20)
Exegetical Outline:
Jesus meets the demon-possessed man (vv.1-5)
The demon recognizes Jesus as the Son of God (v. 6-8)
The demon begs Jesus and is obedient to Jesus’s commands (vv. 9-13)
People see the restoration Jesus is capable of but miss Him as the Son of God (vv. 14-17)
The formerly demon possessed man desires to be with Jesus but obey’s Jesus’ command to go and tell (vv. 18-20)
Subpoints:
Demons see Jesus for who He is
APPLICATION
Demons obey Jesus
Jesus has authority over spiritual beings
APPLICATION
The people don’t see Jesus for who He is
APPLICATION: Don’t settle for less than Jesus
The restored man see Jesus for who He is
APPLICATION: Be with Jesus
Questions:
What authority does Jesus have over demons? Over sin/death?
Who is Jesus?
Preaching Prep NOTES
Series: Mark: The Son of God
Series: Mark: The Son of God
Text: Mark 5:1-20
Text: Mark 5:1-20
Sermon Date: 9.24.2023
1. Big Idea: See Jesus For Who He Is
2. Tweet the Point:
Jesus sets us free from Spiritual darkness.
3. Command:
See Jesus for who He is
Obey Jesus because of who He is
4. Explanation:
5. Illustration:
Opening: Pat Power’s mysterious Happy Birthday texts
Not recognizing someone who comes up and talks to you but have no idea who they are.
6. What would people lose if this text wasn’t there:
Witnessing the power and person of Jesus
7. When are you sharing the Gospel?
Verses 6-13 — Point: Jesus overcomes our spiritual darkness
8. Additional Service Comments/Elements?
Two baptisms/ LAUNCH DAY!!!!!
9. “Big Idea” Question we are answering:
How does Jesus bring us out of spiritual darkness?
How can we trust Jesus to give us light in spiritual darkness?
The Son of the Most High God (v. 7)
10. Points
Demons see Jesus for who He is
Demons obey Jesus’s commands
The people don’t see Jesus for who He is
The formerly demon-possessed man sees Jesus for who He is