Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, December 11, 2022

Deviled Ham!

Today, Pastor Michael is back in Mark and discussing a man the odds were against.  His life was so messed up, he didn’t have a devil’s eggs chance of making it through a Baptist pot luck.  His problems look absolutely impossible to overcome.  Then he met the God of possibilities!

We find Jesus and His disciples have landed in a region noted as the Gerasenes (Decapolis) and it is important to know that this region was populated by Gentiles.  They get out of the boat and meet a guy that was in a desperate condition.  He had been restrained by chains and continually broke them and spent his time in caves (tombs).  Essentially a mad man.  As it turns out, he was demon-possessed.  He runs to Jesus and Jesus asks him, “What is your name?”.  He answered, “My name is Legion, we are many”.  Legion was a unit of the Roman Army, some 6,000 strong.  So this is an indication there wasn’t one evil spirit in this man but a BUNCH of them!

These spirits knew they were facing the Son of God.  They asked Him to be cast out of the man and went into a herd of pigs that ran off a cliff and drowned.  The crazy duality here is that the demons asked to be cast into the pigs (an alternative to the bottomless pit) and that Jesus allowed that.  If nothing else it shows the grace Jesus has even for Satan’s demons. 

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) A legion in the Roman army consisted of nearly six thousand soldiers; the attribution of “Legion” to the demoniac may suggest that his demonic oppression rivals the force and domination of the Roman army in the Decapolis (5:9). The superhuman strength and explosive terror of the demoniac are no contest for the Son of God, however, whom the demoniac recognizes in Jesus, and to whom he pleads for clemency (5:7). The demons acquiesce to Jesus’s superior authority but beg not to be banished from the region (5:10). There is a measure of grace even in Jesus’s judgment of Satan’s minions, for he consents to their plea.

Verses can be found today in Mark 5: 1-20.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.