Sermon Tone Analysis

The Lord God Almighty

And

An Encounter with a Demon-Possessed Man

Mark 5:1–5 (ESV)

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.

Nothing like this display of power over demons is recorded in Scripture since God Himself threw Satan and all the evil rebelling angels out of heaven.

That was a massive upheaval.

That was a sweeping act by God in which He vacated heaven of Satan and a third of the angels.

Thousands, of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand innumerable angels were thrown out of heaven in one moment by the power of God.

There has been no display like that until this.

This is the most extreme encounter with the powers of supernatural wickedness anywhere in Scripture.

[2]

And there won’t be another display like this until Christ fully sets up His Kingdom and binds Satan and all the demons and throws them into the Lake of Fire.

If He is the true Messiah, if He is the Lord of heaven come down, He must be able to conquer Satan.

or He cannot bring the everlasting Kingdom.

He must have power over the natural world [1]

This kind of power over the kingdom of darkness is only possible when God is wielding it … whether it’s in the casting out of heaven, or the casting into the Lake of Fire, or here casting thousands of demons out of one man, this is the power of God on display.

Now this is part of Mark’s proof.

If you go back to his purpose, 1:1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark is writing the history of Jesus to prove He is the Son of God.

What the prophets said is that He, the Messiah, is going to come and restore the earth and lion will lie down with lamb and the desert will blossom like a rose, etc., etc.

There will be a restored, rejuvenated, restructured earth that will approximate the Garden of Eden.[3]

Introduction

Christ’s encounter with the demoniac took place the morning following his calming of the great night storm on the Sea of Galilee.

It’s probably just barely dawn.

They have just tied up their boats.

Maybe a little dock was available there and immediately at the water’s edge a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met them.

“They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.

When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him.”

Jesus came straight from his confrontation with the storm in nature

to confront an equally violent storm in human nature.

The region of the Gerasenes, on the other side of the lake from the strictly Jewish area, was a place where Gentiles and Jews co-mingled, an unsavory place according to Jewish thinking.[4]

The Demon Possessed Man

The fierce strength of this demon-possessed man is reiterated in 5:5: No one had the strength to “subdue” him.

The Greek word used here (damazo) is used for taming a wild animal and is better translated, “no one was able to bind him.”

Obviously this demoniac roams free because all attempts to constrain him have failed.

He is one tough customer, and only a power more potent than iron bars and chains will bridle him.

He is banished as an outcast from society and must dwell with those whose sleep will not be disturbed by his shrieks echoing through the night as he lacerates his body with stones.

He is a microcosm of the whole of creation, inarticulately groaning for redemption.

He is condemned to live out his days alone amid the decaying bones of the dead, with no one who loves him and no one to love.

Malignant spirits always deface humanity and destroy life.[5]

He is sleepless.

He is restless.

He is wandering out … in and out of the tombs, in and out of the mountains, driven into the wilderness, the desert by the demons, tormented.

This is a living hell.

This is a taste of hell, completely subsumed to demonic power and presence.

Nothing good, nothing left, no escape, no rest, no sleep, this is hell.

And looking for relief, he grabs stones and unsuccessfully attempting his own life, hacks away at his flesh with stones meant to cut.[6]

The Encounter with Unclean Spirits

Mark 5:6–13 (ESV)

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!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

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.

Jesus was telling the evil spirit to come out of the man (5:8), which meets with evasive tactics.

Unlike humans, who cannot quite fathom the reality of the divine breaking into human history (4:41), evil spirits always recognize Jesus’ divine origin.

(1:24; 3:11; see James 2:19) and quake in his presence.

They know that they are pitted against vastly superior firepower.[7]

An engrossing battle of wits between Jesus and the demons unfolds as the evil spirits worry about being forced to leave their familiar surroundings.

It would make sense from a Jewish perspective for demons to be most at home in this pagan setting.

They perceive it to be their territory,

but the kingdom of God manifest in Jesus’ ministry is laying claim to all the earth.

There is no place where Satan is safe.

It was popular belief in the first century that evil spirits were not content to wander aimlessly about.

They abhor a vacuum and want to inhabit something.

A human host is best; wanting that, a bunch of pigs will do.

Anything is better than wandering in dry places (Matt.

12:43; Luke 11:24) or being consigned to the sea if you are a land demon.8

The evil spirits therefore request to be sent into an enormously large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside.

These demons create fits of frenzy in whatever they inhabit, and the very thing they want to avert happens.

The united legionary force is broken up as the pigs, an animal without a herd instinct, begin to stampede, leaping down the bank and into the waters, where both they and the evil spirits are destroyed.

The destructive power of the sea that almost sank the disciples’ boat now swallows up the pigs.

Jesus, who has just demonstrated his dominion over the sea (4:39, 41; compare Pss.

65:7; 88:9; 106:9; 107:23–32), does not need to know the names of the evil spirits in order to drive them out.

The kamikaze demons “fall victim to their own designs and tumble headlong into chaos.”11

“The joke is on them.”12

Unclean spirits and unclean animals are both wiped out in one fell swoop, and a human being is cleansed.

[8]

The Encounter with the Townspeople

Mark 5:14–17 (ESV) when jesus is in town the extraordinary happens

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.

when Jesus makes his presence felt not everyone rejoices some are afraid of what it could mean.

when Roe v Wade is overturned some are afraid and would rather the work of demons and death continue that the presence of Jesus and life....

is the fear really of not having access to abortion services or is the fear after all underneath it all a fear of Christ of Jesus and his rule, his kingdom

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 prefer the work of demons in their midst

When the community arrives, they are not frightened by what has happened to the pigs but by seeing this man now clothed and in his right mind!

They do not rejoice at his recovery but are afraid.

What is so scary about seeing a person sitting at the feet of Jesus?

The community had desperately tried to tame him with chains and fetters, all to no avail.