God of Mercy: Jesus the Demon-Possessed Man

Hermeneutical point: Jesus delivers a man from the oppression of the kingdom of darkness, and makes him into a messenger of good news.

I. Today we are going to talk about the demon-possessed man.

a. He was bad news to his community, but then became the spreader of good news to his community.

i. His story plays into a larger narrative of the Gospel of Mark

1. The Kingdom of God ()

a. What is the kingdom of God?

b. Jews thought Jesus was going to raise up an army against he roman oppressors, but Jesus came to deliver you from the oppression that is in your heart. (my kingdom is not of this world)

i. It begins with John the Baptist proclaiming the “The Lord is Coming”

1. Prepare his way (not road, but the way to your heart)

a. The king is not coming to rule your heart.

The king has come and he wants to rule your heart. To free you from the oppression that is within you.

The God of Mercy: Jesus And A Rejected Man

The disciples asks: Who is this that even the seas obey him VS the demons who recognized him.

Mark is writing this to Christians, during the time of Nero, who persecuted the church. The passage will speak greatly to those Christians.

It was at night.

Gadara was a very gentile area. Not Jewish state. City states. It’s an unclean place. It’s a gentile region created by Roman General Pompey in 63. The man lived in an unclean place, he was an unclean man. There were unclean animals there. The man had an unclean spirit. He was bleeding and untouchable.

Jesus is coming to do a clean up. He is teaching his disciples that they must step out of their safe zone to make a change.

The Demons came as in a way of defending their territory. They know that their day is coming.

Jesus in a sense is coming into the enemies’ territory and expending his kingdom. “The gates of Hades will not prevail”.

The man was an evil man.-

An army of demons trembled and pleaded with Jesus. As if asking, God, do not punish us, we do not destroy us quite yet. There was an army of demons controlling this territory, and when they see from afar the Lord of hosts, they tranbled. They didn’t try to fight him as they would have other people. The devil’s army trembled at the foot of Jesus. But Jesus wasn’t coming to seek land space, but seeking the hearts of people, and he started with the heart of a demon-possessed man. There was a man who was already condemned, he was hopeless in the eyes of the people.

The demons see like the Frodo’s ring in the Lord of the Ring story. The demons saw the king of Glory and they go and submit to his authority.

The demons claimed that as their territory, but Jesus is expanding his kingdom. Just like in the book of Daniel and the story of Nebukadnezar and Jesus does this through a rejected man, just like a mustard seed, he was planted in that area through his life.

The demons where protesting while Jesus was casting them out. They thought that Jesus was premature about expending his kingdom.

When they protest against Jesus, Jesus puts them in their place by in a sense asking, “who do you think you are?”.

That man has an army of demons dedicated to destroying his life and his community.

Why would someone do good to this evil man?

The demons pleads with Jesus, they are terrified of the judgment that is coming upon them.

The man is terrorizing everyone, except Jesus.

The man ran and bowed down before Jesus (some tralations says “worshiped” him) Jesus “came to bring life” so he went to a place where there were a man was “dead”.

The demons wants Jesus to swear in God’s name not to hurt them.

Legion: 6000 soldiers

Jesus appealed to the curiosity of humanity.

Jesus says, go back to your family.

People were probably afraid to see all that happened. They were shocked to see that this Jewish man comes in and in a couple of hours changes their worlds. They probably thought of Jesus as one who has come to cause chaos because of the pigs and the disturbance he had caused in the town, but they later find out that Jesus brought them peace. If you don’t know you are in darkness, you don’t know you need light.

Jesus came to a faithless people who lived in the darkness. God destroyed the darkness in the life of one man and and made in it a light to his community, by simply sharing what Jesus did in his life. Our testimony is our greatest light. While people ask him to leave now, they will receive him with praise two chapters later. All because of this man’s testimony.

And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

8:1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,

2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:

3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.

4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.

6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.

7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.

8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.

9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.[1]

_____ Light came to the world ()

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out fwithout hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for mthe God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up ya kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.[2]

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of one of the most powerful empire in the world, had a dream of a statue that had a head of gold, the chest of silver, the tithes of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet of iron and clay. And a rock is cut from the mountain and thrown into the statue and it brakes the image. The powers of this world are set on clay and iron, all formed by the hands of man. The kingdom of God is formed by God and it will overcome the kingdoms of the earth.

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ()

[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), .

[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), .