TPC Connections

Sermon Notes

Mark: The Right Now Gospel
Pt. 8
“The Demon Possessed Man of Gadara”

Mark 5:1-13 “Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” 8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. 11 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. 12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” 13 And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.”
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Now, this has to be one of the most chilling stories found in Scripture. It is the case of one of the worst examples of demon possession in history, if not THE worst. Before we go into it we have a problem that needs to be cleared up. All three of the synoptic gospels record this story, but with Matthew’s account we have what Bible critics call a contradiction. Matthew writes,

“When he had come to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.”–Matt 8:28

So Matthew claims there were two demon possessed men, while Mark and Luke say there was one. The same difference is found in the story of blind Bartimaeus begging by the roadside when Jesus passed by. Both Mark and Luke include only him in the story. But Matthew writes, “And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, ‘Have mercy on us O’ Lord.” (Matt 20: 29-30).

Is this a contradiction? No! The natural explanation is that, in each case, one of the two was more prominent for whatever reason–by appearance, by their words, etc. As a result they were the one most remembered and specified, while the other was either forgotten or left unnoticed.

We’ve all done this at some time or another. I remember watching a tennis match once when Roger Federer had first burst onto the tennis scene with his brilliant play. I think it was Wimbledon, and the announcers were literally fawning over Federer, bragging and offering profuse praise with every shot he made. I remember thinking how it was as if the other player wasn’t even there. Same idea!
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Scripture provides the horrifying fact that, dwelling inside this poor man, were upward of a thousand demons signified by the word “legion.” He is the poster boy for what Satan wants to do with someone he has access to. It could be that somewhere along the way this poor man had opened a door or maybe a series of doors to the devil, resulting in severe demonic possession.

Mark, far and away, provides the most lengthy and graphic description of his condition. He is described as crying out in torment, fascinated with and drawn to death as evidenced by living in a graveyard. He is cutting himself with sharp stones in severe acts of self-harm. And his modesty is gone in that he wears no clothes.

The whole town is afraid of him as no one could even pass by the place of his dwelling. He possessed amazing supernatural strength to the point that chains couldn’t bind him. He had literally “broken the shackles in pieces” like Samson, yet by a very different spiritual power source. And he was incorrigible. “Neither could anyone tame him.”–vs. 4

He is a human tragedy. It’s safe to surmise that he had once had a house and family because after his deliverance, Jesus tells him to return to his house. It could be that as his condition grew worse, he had either fled his home or been removed. We don’t know for sure. But when Jesus met him he had no future, had lost everything, was the terror of Gadara, and no doubt would not have lived much longer in that condition.

On seeing Jesus, he instantly ran toward him and worshipped him. But at the same time something else began speaking through him. The demons took over and cried out,

“What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”–vs 7

Matthew records them asking, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?”–Matt 8:29

And Luke records similar words to Mark’s account. “I beg You, do not torment me!”–Luke 8:28

And Luke adds something very important. He writes, “they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.”–Lk 8:31
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What is remarkable in all of these accounts is what the demons knew!

First, they knew Jesus’s name.
Second, they knew He was the Son of God.
Third, they knew he had total authority over them.
Fourth, they knew they were doomed to face his judgment at what they called “the time.”
Fifth, they knew their fate–that one day Christ Jesus would cast them into a place of torment called “the abyss.”

The word ‘abyss’ is ἄβυσσος (ab’-us-sos), and means “bottomless pit.”

With that in mind, let’s read how John the Revelator describes in detail the very thing the demons feared coming to pass on the day of Judgment:

Rev 20:1-3 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him,”

So what the demons feared first was being cast into the bottomless pit for the duration of the thousand year millennium. But the abyss is not their final fate. John goes on to write that after the millennium, just prior to the Great White Throne Judgment where Christ Jesus will judge the entire world, the devil and his demons will be consigned to their final destination:

“The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”–Rev 20:1-3
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Now, there is another source of controversy in this story. We’re told that the demons made yet another request to Jesus, a very strange one. “He (the demon that was speaking) begged him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. Now a large herd of swine (Mark says about 2,000) was feeding there near the mountains, so all the demons begged Him, saying, ‘Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.'”–Mark 5:10-12

Notice, if the demons couldn’t torment and destroy the man, they wanted to destroy the next best thing–his possessions!
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Now the town of Gadara was populated with a mixture of Jew and Gentile. Who exactly owned the swine, be he Jew or Gentile, isn’t told us. We do know that according to Matthew’s account, “the whole city came out to meet Jesus,” following the demoniac’s deliverance and the swine rushing into the sea to be drowned. So we can assume that both Jew and Gentile had a hand in the raising of the swine for profit.

Now, for the Gentile this was to be expected for he was not under Jewish law. But for the Jews of Gadara this would have been direct disobedience of God’s command through Moses.

“Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses” (Deut 14:8).

So, if they were Jews, and they brought up these swine in order to eat them themselves, to destroy them was a just punishment, for their violation of the law of God. And if they brought them up to sell to others, this was contrary to their own Scriptures. Hence, Jesus allowing the devils to enter the swine was a type of judgment against a forbidden profession.

And regarding the Gentiles, commentator Gill writes, “If they were Gentiles that were the owners of them, these were idolatrous persons, worshippers of devils; and it was but a righteous thing, to suffer the devils, whom they worshipped, to do this mischief to their property, to whom they devoted themselves soul and body; and a Jew cannot well find fault with this, who believes that idolaters cannot be punished too severely:” Either way, Jesus’s actions were surely a type of judgment.
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Now, what did the whole city discover when they came to see what had happened?

“Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind.”–Mk 5:15

Luke adds that he was “sitting at the feet of Jesus…”–Luke 8:35

This horribly demon possessed man is now completely sane, whole, clothed, and at peace.

The story ends with two prayer requests–one from the healed man and the other from the townspeople. The delivered man begs Jesus to take him with Him on His travels. Jesus turned him down saying instead, “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” He went out and preached the gospel in ten different cities!

And the townspeople prayed one of the saddest prayers in the Bible. “Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them.” Jesus answered their prayer and “…got into the boat and returned.”

TAKEAWAYS:

ONE, demons are real and not to be taken lightly.
TWO, Christ Jesus has complete authority over them.
THREE, their hour of judgment is fast approaching.
FOUR, no case is too hard for the Lord.
FIVE, Jesus will not stay where he is not invited!