Lord Jesus, the source of God's wisdom. May we listen to you so that we might find life and obtain favor with you. Open our eyes that we may see wonderful truths in your law. For your name's sake, we pray. Amen. They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus came out of the boat, a man with a, let's call it unclean, it's evil, but it's really unclean, unclean spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. for he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him and shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you unclean spirit. Then Jesus asked him, What is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, send us among the pigs, allow us to go into them. gave them permission and the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd about 2000 in number rushed down this steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this to the town in the town and countryside and people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by a legion of demons sitting and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him but said, go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and all the people were amazed. Amen. On the 6th of March, 1927, Bernard Russell, a British philosopher and a well-known atheist, delivered a lecture called Why I Am Not a Christian. And one of the reasons Maybe we should put reasons in inverted commas. One of the reasons he cited for refusing to believe in God is the incident that we're going to look at this morning. It's the story recorded in Mark 5, 1-20 about how Jesus rescued a demon possessed man from Satan's clutches and Russell just couldn't believe it. Anybody could do that to 2,000 pigs. It just was awful. That's why he wasn't a Christian. That was one of his reasons. Do you remember the old ads that used to be on the TV about Ronseal? Do you remember what it said on them? It does what it says on the tin. And that phrase has come into English language. The day before, When accused of being in cahoots with Satan, Jesus had replied that he had come as someone stronger than Satan to bind Satan, the strong man, and to rescue people from Satan's destructive influence over their lives. And now as he frees this demon-possessed man from Satan's power, Jesus does what he said he would do. He does what he says it says on the tin. So in order to understand what's going on, we need to set this incident in its cultural and historical setting. So look with me in the first place at the place Jesus came ashore. the place Jesus came ashore. Now if you look at the footnotes in the NIV you can see there's a bit of difference of opinion to the exact name of the place where Jesus came ashore. Was it called Gerasa or Gadara? Now My mother came from Northern Ireland's second city. And like lots of things in Northern Ireland, what the city should be called is highly politicised. Some people refer to it as London Derry. Others label it Derry. Depends whether you're blue or green. some people now just call it Derry, Londonderry or there used to be a local wag in the radio who used to refer to it as Stroke City because it was Derry Stroke Londonderry that's how he called it in it and perhaps that was true of this area perhaps it had two different names But it was referring to the same place. I'm going to call it Gadara, because I can say that better than the other one. But that's where it is. So in spite of its actual name, there are some things that we know about this place in which Jesus landed. We know it was on the southeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. In other words, it was on the other side of the lake from Capernaum. Capernaumon is on the north west, so Gadara is on the south east of the Sea of Galilee. We know its inhabitants were mostly not Jews. It explains why pig farming was big business in that area. The Jews, you know, regarded the pig as unclean. And no self-respecting Jew would go near a pig in case of being made ceremonially unclean by it. By the way, when you read the word pig in this passage, Don't think about the large, white, almost domesticated pigs that we have in farms today. Think about something the size of a terrier dog, sort of semi-feral, with a reputation of being a scavenger that would eat almost anything it came across. So these were wee small, semi-feral pigs. We know this area was frontier territory on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire. And because it was on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, it was controlled by the Roman military. The people of this area, which was known as the Decapolis or the Ten Towns, were subject to martial law. and the Roman military ruled the area with an iron fist, crushing anyone who got in his way. A few locals, you know, cow-tying politicians, tax collectors, call girls, they did all right out of the Romans, but most people regarded the Roman occupying forces as the enemy. And on top of all this, Jesus' boat landed near a graveyard. And again, for Jews, graveyards were places of contamination. Contact with a dead body or with a tomb made a Jew ceremonially unclean. So, do you get the picture that Mark is constructing for us? The place that Jesus came ashore was the unclean heart of this unclean land. That's the place. He came ashore in the unclean heart of an unclean land. Let's move on. The second place, the person that Jesus met. Out of the unclean hearts of this unclean land emerged a man who was about as unclean as you could get. Now, here's some things about him. First of all, he was enslaved. Just as the area in which he lived was under Roman rule, this man's life was under demonic rule. His life was dominated by evil, and as a result, he was not in control of himself. This man was... This man was alone. What have we got? Oh, sorry. This man was alone. He was alone. People normally live in houses, don't they? With their families. But this man didn't. People usually have friends to greet them. But this man didn't. His friends were corpses. and his address was the local cemetery. He was totally alone, isolated from the rest of humanity. This man too was anti-Jesus. In verse 9 you see that when Jesus asked him his name he replied, Now a legion was the basic unit of the Roman army. It was made up of about 5,000 heavily armed infantry soldiers. And the Roman legions would have been a common sight in this frontier territory of Decapolis. So when he calls himself legion, The man is saying something more significant than the fact that his life had been invaded and taken control of by evil, just as the Romans had invaded and taken control of the Decapolis. This man's name, Legion, expresses the fact that he was, if you like, a garrison. of demonic activity, just as the Roman army was an outpost of Rome's activity. One commentator has put it this way, perhaps in the military language, we're meant to catch the fact of Satan's opposition to the kingdom of God, which was not haphazard, but ruthlessly well organized. This man was thoroughly against Jesus. His behavior towards Jesus in verse five was aggressive and threatening. This man too was, he was hopeless. His life was out of control. He couldn't control himself and neither could other people control him. They tried but to no avail, verses 3 and 4. No one could bind him, not even with a chain, for he often had been chained hand and foot. But he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. And such was the poor man's hopelessness. He resorted to self-harming and to screams. Verse 5, night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. This was just an expression of the hopelessness and the despair that this man felt inside. And he was also subhuman. Mark doesn't tell us this, but Luke, in his account of the story, informs us that the man ran around naked. And in the Bible, nakedness is a symbol of shame, of not being what we were intended to be as human beings. And evil had robbed this man's life, robbed him of his humanity. and his dignity as a human being. Many of you know that one of my brothers, Stephen, and my sister, Gillian, are doctors. When they were learning about diseases, their pathology professor gave them worst case scenarios so that they might see what various diseases could do to the human body. So when they were learning about jaundice, she would show them a really nasty case of jaundice and say, this is what happens when jaundice gets hold of somebody. And here in Mark 5, 1 to 20, Mark is doing the same for us. This man is a worst case scenario of what sin can do when it gets a grip on our lives. He is a sinner, if you like, in the pit. He's as far from God as it's possible to be. He's a warning to us. that if we let sin get a grip on our lives, we will end up, we could end up in such a desperate spiritual plight like this man. We're far too cocky and self-assured and confident of our own ability as human beings and even as Christians as well, that we think that we can control sin. And we think that we can let sin have a little bit in our lives but we can just set the boundaries and we forget that we can't do that. It takes over and takes over and takes over. It can't control. We can't control it. That's why the Bible tells us to have nothing to do with sin. Not to make agreements with sin. In fact the Bible says put sin to death. Sin will enslave us. so that we can't control it. Sin will leave us more and more isolated, as sin not only ruptures our relationship with God, but it ruins our relationship with other people as we become increasingly self-centred and self-absorbed. Sin will turn us increasingly against Jesus. People might enrage against him, but in very deliberate and quiet ways, and even religious ways, they increasingly ignore him and marginalise him. in order to do what they want to do. And as it spoils our lives, sin drags us down and down into a sense of hopelessness. Sin is not to be played with or messed around with. It's to be dealt with by Jesus. So once more let's move on. Let's look at something else. Let's look at the rescue that Jesus The rescue that Jesus carried out. You're going to meet him now. This is Alfie the Beagle. Sorry, the Beagle. Sorry, Beagle is how you say it in Cowdey Down, Northern Ireland. This is Alfie the Beagle. And Alfie is the current Pet Fit Club Slimmer of the Year. Here he is before a real canine couch potato. But here he is now, in contrast, full of life and energy. He's lost 34% of his original body weight. Now the reason I'm telling you about Alfie is that in this passage Mark does a similar thing in telling the man's story. He gives us a before and an after picture of him. Here's the before picture, verses 3 to 5. This man lived in the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been chained hand and foot but he tore the chain apart and broke the iron on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. And then Mark gives us the after picture in verse 15. The man who had been possessed by the legions of demons was sitting there dressed and in his right mind. Now what brought about this dramatic change in this man's life? And the answer that the Bible gives is dead simple. It says it was Jesus' grace. Now Jesus' grace can be seen in various ways in this passage. It can be seen in where he was. Why was Jesus in Gadara? He was there because he had deliberately chosen to be there. No self-respecting Jew would have come to this unclean area of the Decapolis, never mind to a graveyard. But it was Jesus who told the disciples to set out for that area. Mark 435. It was Jesus who had deliberately set his mind on rescuing this man. This man didn't come looking for Jesus. Jesus came looking for him because Jesus is the one who came to seek and to save what was lost. And this man certainly was lost. And Jesus' grace is seen in how he reacted to the man. When he saw this naked, mutilated man running towards him, screaming at the top of his voice, Jesus didn't do what we probably would have done, turned around and ran and jumped in the boat and headed back to where we came from. Jesus didn't run away. Everybody else did but Jesus didn't. He wanted to confront the evil that was controlling and destroying this man. So as he moves towards him, verse 8, Jesus was speaking to the demons and saying, come out of him you evil spirit. Jesus was on the front foot You see, the kind, loving, generous reaction to sin and evil is not to ignore it or to give in to it. It's to confront it. And that's what Jesus did. That's why he reacted in the way that he did. And Jesus' grace is seen in how he rescued the man. From verse 8, it appears that Jesus simply had to speak evil did what was commanded. He'd spoken to his creation and the storm and it did what it was told and now he speaks to evil and evil does what it's told. Jesus said to him, come out of this man, you evil spirit. And while that is true, it's too of how Jesus rescued this man from evil. Jesus had authority over evil because he knew that he would defeat it at the cross. This incident has to be set within the big picture of Mark's Gospel, the climax of which was Jesus himself having his flesh torn to shreds by small stones that were incorporated into a Roman whip. By being taken outside the city to be crucified, ending up naked, isolated, crying out in agony and being laid in a tomb. Jesus identified himself with sinners and suffered in his own innocent person, the horrible consequences of sin. That's how sin will be dealt with. And it's in anticipation of that victory over evil on the cross that Jesus gives orders to the evil spirit. And Jesus grace is seen to and how he reassured the man. Over the years many people have been puzzled by the events of verses 10 to 13. They begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs were feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, send us among the pigs, allow us to go into them. And he gave them permission and the unclean spirits, the evil spirits, came out and went into the pigs. They heard about 2,000 in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Why this terrible destruction? Well, Mark doesn't tell us, but there can be no doubt that Jesus did what he did to reassure this man. Here's a man who after many years of pain and shame had just been rescued from the control of evil. How could he be sure that they would never come back again to terrorise him? There was only one way to reassure the man and Jesus chose it. He banished the evil spirits into the pigs. misplaced sentimentality if we mourn it as pig destruction. It just shows how we don't have our priorities aligned with those of Jesus. How strange it is that people who enjoy bacon rolls, gammon steak, pork fillet and ham sandwiches find this scene offensive. Jesus is underlying the fact here that human beings are more important in God's estimations than animals. He's saying that human beings are not just an animal that's evolved to be the top of the pile. He's saying human beings are different from animals. They're more important to God because they're made in God's image and animals aren't. And for Jesus, the deliverance of this man from evil's control, even though it meant him doing what he did, was infinitely worth more than 2,000 pigs. And so it ought to be for us. Bertrand Russell cites this incident as one reason why he's not a Christian. I think we might say that this incident is one reason why we are Christians because it shows Jesus to be a gracious saviour who can rescue people from the ravages of sin and evil. You see in this story Mark is arguing from the greater to the lesser. He's saying to us that if Jesus can rescue this man from the clutches of evil, he can also rescue us. Mark is telling us that Jesus is mighty to save. And there's one last thing we need to look at in this incident and it's the reaction of Jesus. Here's one thing. The reaction that Jesus encountered. There are two very different reactions to Jesus in this story. And the first one comes from the people. And the people of Gadara, you see, they rejected Jesus. You would have thought that they would have been out celebrating the fact that this man who they couldn't control, this man who had terrorized their community for years was now changed and was like a abidable, obedient, small child. You'd have thought that they would have been overjoyed and delighted, but not a bit of it. Look at the end of verse 15. They weren't thankful. They were afraid. And look at verse Verse 17, then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave the region. The Greek word plead is the same word the demons use when begging Jesus in verse 12. Why did they react by asking Jesus to leave? They reacted This way they rejected Jesus because they could see the radical change in the man's life. They recognised that if they trusted in Jesus as he had done, then Jesus would change them and they didn't want that. They preferred their sin, they preferred the pigs and the money to Jesus' salvation. And it's tragic to see people holding on to their sin which ultimately would destroy them and begging Jesus to leave them alone. And yet there are people today who still do the same thing. They prefer their sin to Jesus and they tell Jesus to stay away from him. It's one of the saddest verses in the Bible, do you not think? Verse 17. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. Leave us alone, Jesus. It's a tragic verse. It should make our hearts weep. But that's what they did. They preferred their sin. But then there's the reaction of the man. And the man obeyed Jesus. Understandably he wanted to be with Jesus and join his protecting presence, verse 18, but Jesus had other plans for him and turned down his request, verse 19. Jesus wanted him to be a witness in the Decapolis to his saving power so he told the man to go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. And the man obeyed Jesus. It seemed that this man's life made a huge impact on other people because when Jesus made a return visit to the Decapolis some people brought a man who couldn't hear or speak to Jesus to be healed. The end of Mark 7. I wonder had they heard about Jesus' power from this man? Many of us know this story from childhood. It's maybe familiar as last week's joke. But has familiarity bred short-sightedness? Do you see the tweak that Mark gives the story? Do you see the tweak? Jesus refused the request of the man who trusted in him. but granted the request of those who rejected him. Do you pick that up? Jesus' refusals to us are always because he has some better plan for us. When Jesus says to us, no, not that. Even though we love him, not that. It's because he's something better in store for us. But our refusals of Jesus, when granted, always lead to hardness of heart and spiritual blindness and ultimately judgment in hell. So the challenge of this story is very simple. Do you want to go with Jesus? or do you want Jesus to go? And that's one of the most important questions you could ever answer. Do you want to go with Jesus? Or do you want Jesus to go? Let's pray for a moment. Lord Jesus, the gracious and strong wanting you to go away and leave us alone. Instead, by the power of the Holy Spirit and for the Father's glory, help us to accept your word to us, to place our trust in you alone, and to live lives of obedience in the days ahead. In your mercy and kindness, hear us, Lord Jesus. Amen.