Encounters - The Demoniac

Encounters - Conversations with Jesus

The Demoniac

November 4, 2018

• This story is told in Matthew, Mark and Luke. (Synoptic Gospels)

Luke 8:1b-3 NIV

The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Luke 8:26-27 NIV

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

• He had lived in the tombs, the place of the dead, but Jesus came to give life.

• What an epic 12-hour period for Jesus. He steps off a boat that was about to capsize under stormy waves just hour earlier and the first person to greet him when he is finally safely ashore is a naked wild man who lives in the graveyard.

• Chaos at sea and now chaos on land.

• His condition otherwise was like what would now be described as manic–depressive psychosis.

• The medical care of the time knew no other treatment for the mentally ill than to keep them under the strictest restraint, but this man had overcome all attempts to control him.

V. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!" 29 For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

The people saw a mentally ill, throw away human, but Jesus saw this man’s future!!

• Notice, the man uses messianic language. The evil spirits knew exactly who had just arrived.

• They also knew what they deserved – “don’t torture me”

Four Primary Views:

1. No God, No Demons

2. Big God, No Demons

3. Big God, Big Demons

4. Big God, Defeated Demons

V.30 -33 Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave tm permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

• He felt that he was driven by a mass of conflicting impulses and that he was possessed by as many demons as there were soldiers in a Roman legion (some 5,000 of them).

• It is interesting that the demons feel like they can negotiate their fate.

• The Abyss is one of five names used for hell in the NT – Abyss means a deep hole with no bottom – a dark place – a prison for demons.

• Why the pigs? Why did they drown themselves?

• Some believe the demons spooked them and others believe the demons actually possessed the pigs.

• Either way, 2000 pigs make a lot of Deviled Ham ?

• To the Jewish people hearing this story later, this made perfect sense – unclean spirits and the unclean pigs are vanquished, while the tormented man is set free.

V.34-39 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.”