TORMENTED SOULS

36-3598

TEXT – MARK 5:1-20

INTRODUCTION:

I.  Have you ever lived around someone that was scary to you? Have you had someone in the neighborhood that made you afraid to allow your children to go outside without you with them? Have you had an area you had to pass through on the way home that gave you the creeps to the degree you were always nervous as you passed through the area?

II.  Fear is a strange thing. It isn’t always rational. Yet it can paralyze us to the degree that nothing we say do seems reasonable. Many of our fears go back to things we’ve either experienced along the way or things we’ve been told by others that we believed.

III.  Imagine growing up in the area of the Gerasenes where a man named Legion roamed the countryside. He was often seen running through the area without a stich of clothes on. He was a tormented soul, who was often caught by the people in town and bound with chains but he would break them loose and run away again. He lived among the tombs and would cut himself with stones and cry out in the night with horrifying screams. Would you allow your child to go outside and play if you had lived in that area at that time?

IV.  I wonder what people said about him. Did they know that he was demon possessed? Were they convinced he was mentally ill? Did they believe he had been abused by his parents and left him a tormented soul who would abuse others if he had the chance? We don’t really know any of the answers to those questions. We just know they were afraid of him. Most likely when he cried out in the night it sent shivers down the spine of most of the people.

DISCUSSION:

I.  WHEN HE SAW JESUS.

  1. It was from a distance. But he ran to him and bowed before him. He shouted with a loud voice, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God, do not torment me.”
  2. Mark explains why the man would say this to Jesus by saying, “For he had been saying to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.”
  3. Jesus asked the man, “What is your name?”
  4. He answered Jesus, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”
  5. The demons inside the people always recognized Jesus for who he was, as the Son of God. They knew he was more than a man, more than a good teacher. He had power that only God could supply.
  6. While people couldn’t drive out the demons and even the one who was possessed by them couldn’t get rid of them, the demons knew that Jesus was no ordinary man. He had authority over them and could cast them out of the people.
  7. Their plea changed from, don’t cast us out, to “Don’t drive us out into the arid places.” (Or out of the country)
  8. They had been able to over power the man and turn him into a tormented soul, but they knew that Jesus had power over them no matter how many of them there were.
  9. Think of how Satan claims to offer people freedom, with him they can be whatever they want to be; yet the truth is that he imprisons anyone who comes to him. They become his slaves with no control over their thoughts, dreams or motives.
  10. It seems odd to us that the demons could never overpower Jesus or withstand any of his commands, yet they were always drawn to where he was. The people they possessed were always tormented souls
  11. Notice the demons attacked their bodies to make them sick, but always attacked their mind and heart to make their sick mentally and emotionally as well. Most likely there were those in that time as there have been in our own time that felt that what people called demon possession was really just mental illness or that they were calling sick people demon possessed.

II.  THERE WAS A LARGE HERD OF SWINE FEEDING NEARBY ON THE MOUNTAIN.

  1. The demons implored him to send them into the swine and Jesus gave them permission to do so. When the demons entered the pigs they rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them and were drowned in the sea.
  2. We look back at what happened and wonder why Jesus allowed them to enter the pigs.
  3. Did he know they would cause the pigs to rush into the sea and drown?
  4. Some of the reasons people have given are:
  5. Because as a Jew he saw the pigs as unclean animals and thus was angry that they were raising them. But these were Gentiles and it was unclean only to the Jews.
  6. Because he wanted them to see what the presence of demons did even to the pigs. Satan’s control over anything brings ruin and destruction.
  7. Because he wanted them to see that he placed more value on saving one man that 2000 pigs. He wanted to teach us the lesson that the most valuable thing in the world is a person and nothing else can be compared with saving an individual from the clutches of Satan.
  8. What we know is that when the animals rushed down into the sea the people who were taking care of them ran to the city to tell them what had happened. They obviously didn’t want people to think it was their fault they were lost or they had lost the herd.
  9. The people of the city came rushing out to see what had happened.

III.  THE MAN WAS SITTING DOWN, CLOTHED AND IN HIS RIGHT MIND.

  1. The man who had frightened them as a mad man now frightened them with his sanity. The people who had kept the herds told them what had happened, how Jesus had healed the man, Legion and the demons entered the pigs and they went crazy.
  2. It is not the case that every person who is mentally ill or who has lost control over their own mind and emotions is demon possessed. But just as Satan’s demons could produce other kinds of illness in a person, they could drive one insane.
  3. But no matter what Satan does to a person, Jesus has greater power and can not only drive the demons out; he can heal the sickness that is caused by them.
  4. Today there are all kinds of horrible situations in the world that I wonder if Satan’s demons aren’t behind a lot of it, such as the homeless person who is tormented mentally and emotionally or the person who is controlled by addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex or pornography.
  5. But what I want you to know and every one to see is that no matter whether Satan produces such things by demon possession or just through his actions in the world, Jesus has power over the devil and all his minions.
  6. There is no program or organization that has the power to deliver from Satan’s grasp without the help and power of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.
  7. I’m for using things like the 12 step programs to help one grow and overcome illness and hurt just as one goes to the doctor. But if one depends only on such efforts and leaves God out of the picture, even if they overcome that problem they are still held captive by Satan. Freedom is in Christ.

IV.  THEY ASKED JESUS TO LEAVE.

  1. Even though he had cured the man who had kept them afraid to allow their children out of the house alone, they couldn’t understand what had happened and asked him to leave.
  2. The old demons we have become accustomed to are often more comfortable to us than the Savior who we don’t understand.
  3. Jesus got into the boat to leave. He never forces himself on anyone.
  4. When he did the man who had been healed came to him and pleaded with him to allow him to go with him and the twelve. Jesus said, “No”. He said, “But, go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.”
  5. “He went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.”

V.  CONCLUSION:

  1. This man who had been changed so drastically, became a means of changing others all around him.
  2. When Jesus returned to the area of Decapolis the crowds rushed out to meet him and wanted to hear his message and have him heal their sick. Legion was able to get people to see what Jesus had done when they wouldn’t allow Jesus himself to do so.