Introduction:
A. Let’s start with a question: Are there certain places you don’t like to go when it’s dark?
1. How about down in the basement? Out in the woods? Down a dark road? Or into a cemetery?
2. During my elementary school years, we lived on the northeast side of Syracuse and around the corner and down the street from us was Woodlawn Cemetery.
a. We used to like to go to the cemetery on our bikes and ride on the many roads throughout the cemetery protected from the busy traffic on Grant Blvd.
b. We played all kinds of games like bicycle tag, hide and seek, and all kinds of races.
c. During the daytime, we didn’t give a second thought to the fact that it was a cemetery.
d. But there’s no way we would go into that cemetery at night! Not a chance!
3. Cemeteries can be a very eerie place at night! Right?
4. I heard the story about a man who was cutting through a cemetery one night when he fell into a newly dug, unoccupied grave.
a. He tried desperately to get out of the grave, but it was too deep and the sides were too steep.
b. So the man decided to just wait out the night and hoped that someone could help him the next day, and he fell asleep curled up on a ball in one corner of the grave.
c. Several hours later, he awoke to the sound of a man who was obviously drunk and was singing and stumbling his way through the cemetery.
d. Coincidentally, the drunken man fell into the same open grave and began to desperately try to climb out.
e. After a few minutes of letting the drunken man struggle to get out of the grave, the other man said, “It’s no use, you can’t get out of here.”
f. But he was wrong! That drunken man jumped right out of that grave in an instant.
g. The fight or flight response is truly powerful!
B. Graveyards can truly be a scary place, not just in our day, but also in Jesus’ day.
1. The story from the Gospel of Mark that we are going to explore today is one of the more vivid and eerie stories in the Bible.
2. It is the 2nd miracle in this section on Jesus’ miracles which began in the last chapter.
3. Let’s work our way through this Scripture section and see what lessons we can learn from it.
I. First, Mark begins with The Place
A. Mark wrote: They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. (Mk. 5:1)
1. This story occurs some time during the evening, probably after dark.
2. Back in the previous story in Mark 4, we are told that is was late in the evening when Jesus and his disciples set sail across the lake.
3. You will recall that as they crossed the lake, they encountered a violent storm, which Jesus proceeded to silence with a single command.
4. They eventually landed on the eastern shore of the lake, five miles from where they had started.
B. They had arrived at a part of the lakeside where there were many caves in the rock cliffs that overlooked the Sea of Galilee.
1. The place was in the region of the Gerasenes and the precise location is uncertain.
2. In these caves were many tombs in which the bodies of the dead had been placed.
3. At the best of times, this place would have been an eerie place, but at night, and after what they had experienced in the storm, this place must have been a grim one indeed.
II. Next, Mark introduces us to The Possessed Person
A. Mark wrote: 2 As soon as he got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met him. 3 He lived in the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him anymore—not even with a chain— 4 because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had torn the chains apart and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you before God, don’t torment me!” (Mk. 5:2-7)
1. Mark reported that as soon as Jesus got out of the boat a man with an unclean or evil spirit came from the tombs to meet Him and as he came running he was screaming in a loud voice.
2. This was one man that I would not have been interested in meeting at any time or place, but certainly not in a cemetery on a dark night! How about you?
3. How would you have reacted if you had been there that night? Would you have jumped back in the boat and rowed away from there in a matter of seconds?
4. This was a perilous place, a perilous hour, and now here came a wild and screaming man.
B. Obviously, this man had some very serious problems and needs.
1. We discover in the text that he was demon possessed.
2. I’m guessing that this had not always been the way this man was and that he had not always lived this way.
3. But tragically, somewhere along the way the demons had taken over and the demons gave him extraordinary strength such that he could not be restrained, even with chains and shackles.
4. He was driven from civilized society and made his home in the tombs.
5. He had become a wild man who roamed about unclothed and spent night and day crying out and cutting himself with stones.
6. Obviously, any encounter with him would terrify most of us, but at the same time, hopefully we would feel great compassion for his sad existence.
C. When this possessed man saw Jesus, he immediately cried out to him and declared Jesus’ identity.
1. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, we are told that the demons always recognized Him and acknowledged Him as the Son of God, and the demons in this man caused him to do the same.
2. The demons in this man were gripped with fear because they understood that Jesus had power over them and they were afraid of what Jesus might do to them.
D. Apparently, when Jesus saw the demon-infested man coming toward Him, He must have begun to command that the demons come out of him, because Mark reports in verse 8: For he had told him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.” (Mk. 5:8)
1. But then Mark reports the conversation Jesus had with the demon: 9 “What is your name?” he asked him. “My name is Legion,” he answered him, “because we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region. (Mk. 5:9-10)
2. For those with Jesus this must have been a very unsettling conversation.
3. As I’ve said before when talking about demons, I can imagine them speaking with a very scary, sinister voice.
4. Jesus asked what’s your name and they reply, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
a. Can you imagine if you asked someone their name and they replied like that?
5. A legion was a Roman regiment of approximately 6000 soldiers.
a. If the demon was responding literally, rather than figuratively, that would be a lot of demons inside that guy! Kind of crowded in there!
6. So, if this whole scene wasn’t strange enough, it is about to get even stranger.
III. Next, Mark tells us about The Pigs
A. Mark wrote: 11 A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. 12 The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so that we may enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there. 14 The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened. (Mk. 5:11-14)
1. I told you the story was only going to get stranger! Right?
2. As you know, pigs were considered unclean animals for the Jews, and the owners and tenders of this herd of pigs were most likely Gentiles because of the region and the Law of God.
3. There are many things we don’t know about demons and how they lived and worked.
4. We assume the demons could have just left this man and gone wherever they wanted to go, and yet they asked for Jesus’ permission to leave the man and enter into the pigs.
5. No one knows why the pigs ran down the hillside and drowned themselves once the demons entered them – I guess they got spooked!
6. Some people want to criticize God for the needless death of these pigs, but we must remember that it was the presence of Satan and his demons that caused the death of the pigs, not Jesus.
B. This whole episode is so peculiar, but in the end God used it all for some powerful purposes.
1. The death of these pigs must have had a powerful effect on the man who had been possessed by the demons – it was a vivid confirmation that the demons who once controlled him were gone.
2. And as we will see in a minute, what happened with the pigs had a powerful effect on the people of that region.
3. But we also must keep in mind the effect that all of this must have had on the disciples whom Jesus was training.
4. Every day with Jesus was filled with surprises as they listened to His teaching and as they witnessed His miracles.
5. That very night, they had seen what Jesus could do with a violent storm and what Jesus could do with a legion of demons.
IV. Next, Mark introduces The Peoples’ Perogative
A. Mark wrote: 15 They came to Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs. 17 Then they began to beg him to leave their region. (Mk. 5:15-17)
1. Those tending the pigs were quite surprised when the pigs stampeded to their deaths, so naturally they ran to town and reported this unusual occurrence.
2. When the curious townspeople arrived, they found the man who had once been so wild and crazy sitting there fully clothed and in full possession of his faculties and they were afraid.
3. For the town’s people, even more surprising and disturbing than the loss of the pigs was the transformation of the demon-possessed man.
4. Rather than exploring who Jesus was and allowing their faith in Him to grow, they asked Him to leave their region.
5. They were uncomfortable having a power like His in their midst and they resolved to send Jesus away as quickly as possible.
6. But why send Jesus away, what had He done? Well…
a. Jesus had truly stirred things up.
b. Jesus had unsettled the routines of their lives.
c. Jesus brought change, and people simply don’t like change! Amen?
d. The cry of people is: “Don’t disturb me! Don’t ask me to change!”
7. When a person is confronted with Jesus, He stirs up several things:
a. Jesus disturbs a person’s comfort.
b. Jesus disturbs a person’s priorities.
c. Jesus even disturbs a person’s religious practices.
B. But for those people that day, this has to go down in history as one of the worst decisions of all time – they chose to send Jesus away.
1. Consider what happens when anyone asks Jesus to get out of their lives.
2. When a person asks Jesus to leave, they are sending away a compassionate Savior.
3. When a person asks Jesus to leave, they are sending away the Author of Truth.
4. When a person asks Jesus to leave, they are sending away the Judge of Evil and the One with Power to overcome Evil.
5. When a person asks Jesus to leave, they are sending away the Source of Every Good Thing.
6. It’s not just a mistake to send Jesus away, it is a calamity with eternal consequences.
C. The opposite of this scene occurred in John 4 when the woman at the well accepted the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah.
1. She ran to town and told everyone that she had found the Messiah and that they should come and meet Him.
2. Then she and the people of her town begged Jesus to stay with them, and He stayed for 2 days.
3. When every person meets Jesus, they are forced to make one of two choices: will I send Jesus away, or will I beg Him to stay?
4. But guess what? God gives us the freedom to make our own choice, even if the choice is to reject Him.
5. Jesus didn’t stay and argue with the people, rather He turned and climbed back in the boat to leave their territory, just as they had requested.
6. God never stays where He isn’t wanted.
V. Finally, Mark tells us about The Passionate Plea
A. Mark wrote: 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him earnestly that he might remain with him. 19 Jesus did not let him but told him, “Go home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed. (Mk. 5:18-20)
1. As Jesus climbed back into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed began to beg Jesus to be allowed to join their group and leave with Jesus.
2. The man undoubtably had deep emotions of gratitude and love for Jesus and he wanted to stay close to the One who had set him free.
3. On top of that, he probably thought that there was nothing left for him there in that region, he knew that he would have a hard time overcoming his past reputation in that community.
4. So he wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus said “no.”
B. Jesus had a far greater purpose for that man.
1. Jesus said: “Go home to your own people and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.”
2. Sometimes we want to go somewhere and do big things for God, when in reality the biggest thing we can do for God is to stay home and tell our family and friends how God has had mercy on us.
3. This man’s transformation and newfound freedom would make him a great ambassador for Jesus.
4. This man was the ideal person to work in that region that was hard spiritual soil.
5. Those people initially rejected Jesus, but then that man went and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him – and everyone who heard were amazed.
6. Later in Mark 7, we discover that Jesus had a large following in that region, and perhaps the future work of the apostles was made more successful by the work of this transformed man, whose name we are not even told.
C. These final words to the healed demoniac have a permanent and universal meaning for all of us who have been recipients of God’s grace and mercy.
1. We all have a story to tell and a testimony to give.
2. Our story and testimony may not be as dramatic or sensational as that man’s, but every conversion to Christ is miraculous and powerful and is a gift of God’s mercy.
3. Every one of us were lost and enslaved and spiritually dead and were without hope.
4. But in Christ and because of Christ, every one of us have been found, set free, made alive, and filled with hope – and that is a powerful story to tell.
5. We may not be all that we want to be for God, but we are not what we were – Praise God!
Conclusion:
A. So, why is this peculiar and eerie story in our Bibles?
1. Number 1: Because it is true and really happened.
2. Number 2: Because it has many needed lessons for us.
B. First of all, we learn from this episode that Jesus is Lord and that He has great power.
1. Jesus is in charge and He is in control.
2. Jesus has power over nature and Jesus has power over Satan and demons.
3. Our enemy may be strong, but Jesus is stronger – so we don’t have to be afraid.
C. Second, we learn that Jesus has to power to set us free and transform us.
1. The demon-possessed man needed to be set free from Satan who had him enslaved.
2. Similarly, all of us also need to be set free from Satan and from sin that binds us.
3. We are set free when we first come to Christ and receive the forgiveness of our sins, but then we are regularly given the ability to overcome temptation and sinful traps that we fall into.
4. Perhaps you find yourself caught in a trap of sinful behavior or unspiritual thinking and attitudes and you need to repent and receive truth and power to change.
5. God has the power to take us from where we are to where we need to be.
6. Through God’s power, we can get all cleaned up and be found dressed and in our right mind.
D. Third, we also learn the sad truth that some people will choose the swine over the Savior.
1. Some people chose to stay the way they are and send Jesus away.
2. And when they do, Jesus honors their request – He will not force Himself on anyone and He will not stay where He is not welcome.
3. Many people are like the rich young man who chose to keep his money rather than keep the Master.
4. Many people chose the pleasures of this life and the possession of their life and their will rather than choose God’s life and God’s ways and God’s will.
5. But whenever someone choses the swine over the Savior, God honors their choice.
6. In that sense, God never sends anyone to hell, rather He simply grants their wish.
E. Finally, we learn that Jesus has a mission for us after He has made us whole.
1. A part of everyone’s mission is the privilege of telling others how merciful God has been.
2. But then the rest of our individual missions will be based on the gifts and opportunities that we are given.
3. The body of Christ is made up of many parts and all the parts don’t have the same function, but all the parts are needed in order for the body to do its work, so let’s all do our part.
F. Have you chosen the Savior?
1. Are you being transformed?
2. Are you busy telling others about God’s mercy?
3. If not, then why not begin today?
Resources:
• Truth for Today Commentary: Mark 1-8 and 9-16, Martel Pace, Resources Communications.
• God in the Graveyard, Sermon by David Owens
