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Mark | 1:1-11 | 1:12-34 | 1:35-45 | 2:1-20  | 2:21-3:12 | 3:13-35 | 4:1-20 | 4:21-41 | 5:1-20 | 5:21-43 | 6:1-13 | 6:14-29 | 6:45-56 | 7-12| 13-16 |

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Mark 5:1-20 Bible Study and Questions – Testimony of a Changed Life

Outline

I. The world is a dark place without Christ (1-5)
II. The light of Christ overcomes the darkness (6-13)
III. The light changes lives (14-18)
IV. Shine the light (19-20)

I. The world is a dark place without Christ (1-5)

Discussion Questions

• What are your observations about the region they went to?
• How could the demon-possessed land confront them so quickly? Is there anything going on behind the scenes?
• What are your observations about this demon-possessed man?
• Where did this man’s strength come from?
• What does this passage teach you about Satan and his demons?

Cross-References

1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Matthew 12:43-45 – When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1. A man from the tombs – For Jews, tombs were an unclean place. They were not allowed to touch bodies. Demons drove these people (Matthew 8:28 mentions two of them) to live in this horrific place. Demons seem to take delight in causing misery and torment to their hosts. Satan has always appeared as an angel of light. He often makes big promises about the fun and pleasure people can have if they give in to his temptations, but such people are always disappointed and find themselves trapped and enslaved instead.

James rightly said that we should resist the devil. Never give in and never give any foothold.

James 4:7 – Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Ephesians 4:26-27 – Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

2. This man met Jesus as soon as Jesus got out of the boats – Some questions immediately pop into my mind. How did he know Jesus was coming? How did he know who Jesus was? What was his purpose?

I believe this fact can give us some insight into the organizational ability and intel of Satan and his cohorts. These demons were seemingly sent to oppose Jesus’ work and cause disturbances and problems in hopes of preventing Jesus’ message from reaching the people.

Satan and his dark spiritual forces clearly knew where Jesus was and were waiting to oppose him. This fits with the parable of the soils in the last chapter. In that parable, we saw that where the sower was spreading seed, Satan was also there opposing the work of the sower and taking the seed from people’s hearts. This is a very stark reminder that Satan and demons are very real and are active in this world. They are actively working against God, against the church, and against believers.

Application – Do not underestimate the enemy. We should not be surprised to face opposition to following God. Rather, we should expect it. Satan doesn’t want us to follow the Lord. He will put temptations in our path. He also doesn’t want us to tell others about the Lord or teach others about Him. We have to be alert. That means being careful to avoid any potential temptations. Billy Graham is a good example. He knew that people would be out to discredit his ministry and therefore he always had people go into his hotel rooms to make sure no women were waiting there to entice him.

3. The demon-possessed man possessed uncanny strength – No one could subdue him. He was stronger than everyone else and, therefore, free to roam around causing turmoil. Obviously, people had tried many times to bind him, but every time, he broke free. This bears some similarity to Samson. The difference is that Samson’s strength came from the Lord, while this man’s strength came from demons. The problem was that people tried to subdue this man with their own strength. There is no evidence that they prayed or asked God for help. Their own efforts and their own strength were not enough. Demons are stronger than people.

Application – We cannot hope to win the spiritual battle against Satan and his demons by our own power. He is stronger than we are and smarter than we are. If we rely on ourselves, we will lose. We have to rely on the Lord, who is stronger than He is.

How can we do this?

We must be alert to temptations and always turn to the Lord through prayer and the Word. Follow the principles in God’s Word and pray for His help. The prayer, “God help me,” is very simple but extremely powerful.

II. The light of Christ overcomes the darkness (6-13)

Discussion Questions

• What do the man’s words show us about demons’ knowledge level?
• What was the demons’ request?
• What does their request show us about their understanding of who Jesus was and His power?
• Why was the man called “Legion?”
• Why do you think the demons asked to go into the herd of pigs?
• Why would Jesus give them permission?
• What does this encounter show us about spiritual warfare?

Jesus’ Encounter with the Demons

1. The demon-possessed man bows to Jesus – Clearly, these demons were not submitting themselves to Jesus’ authority. Their words make this very clear. So why did the man bow? It could have been mocking him (like the Roman guards who put the purple robe on Jesus.) If not mocking him, they could have been patronizing him in an attempt to get mercy and obtain a more favorable outcome to this confrontation.

2. What do you have to do with me, Jesus?

The answer to this question is clear. They have no business with each other.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 – Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

There could be no cooperation. No mutual goals. No helping each other. No peace. The two sides are diametrically opposed and there is no hope of compromise or reconciliation. We should understand this and stay far away from evil. Do not consider doing something bad for a good purpose, telling white lies, or compromising for the greater good.

We should avoid even the appearance of evil. The idea is not to see how close to the line we should get. That attitude is often seen in the sentence, “The Bible doesn’t say I can’t do it, so it must be OK).” We should instead try to stay far away from the line. A better question to ask would be, “Does this glorify God? If He were here, would I do it?”

3. The demons had head knowledge –

These demons understood who Jesus was, but they weren’t willing to accept him. This is a reminder that intellectual agreement with the facts about Jesus does not equal a saving faith.

3. Do not torment me! –

Luke 8:31 – And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

This request is very interesting. They are asking not to be prematurely confined to the “abyss.”

To understand it, we need to look at the full Scriptural context.

Jude 1:6-7 – And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

2 Peter 2:4-6 – For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

Likely these passages are a reference to fallen angels (called ‘sons of God’ in Genesis 6:4) sinning egregiously by committing sexual immorality with the “daughters of men” prior to the flood.

Genesis 6:4 – The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

Some fallen angels have so disregarded the natural order and committed such abominations that God has seen fit to bind them there awaiting their final judgment and preventing them from influencing the world. The rest of the fallen angels and Satan will one day be judged and thrown into the lake of fire as well.

These demons in this man were hoping to keep their freedom for as long as possible and avoid being bound in this abyss. That shows again that they knew their punishment was coming. Yet they still kept doing evil deeds. They had done them so much that there was no going back and no repenting even though they knew the final outcome was their complete destruction and punishment.

The story of the binding of demons who go too far is an encouraging reminder that God is sovereign. Though He allows some freedom, even freedom to make sinful choices, He is still actively restraining sin and evil in the world (2 Thessalonians 2:6).

Application – Sometimes we know ahead of time that something is sin. And yet because of the temporal pleasure that comes from the sin, we might just do it anyway and not care about the results. Make up your mind not to do this.

Sinning willfully against the Lord is a very dangerous proposition and those who do it are living very precariously. God could strike you down immediately like He did Ananias or Sapphira (Acts 5). Or your heart could become increasingly hardened and insensitive to sin as you get farther and farther from the Lord. Or your life could be completely ruined like Samson’s was.

5. Legion – This man was possessed by many demons. Perhaps a person possessed by multiple demons could show multiple personality disorder. Some things diagnosed in the modern day as mental illnesses could be manifestations of demon possession. This is not always the case, but we should consider it in some extreme situations.

6. The demons requested to be sent into the herd of pigs –

Their request likely had two motivations. One was probably that this was a convenient alternative to the abyss. The other is that perhaps they foresaw that the pig herders would become angry and this would lead to Jesus’ departure from that area. Their goal would have been to oppose Jesus’ work by causing as much chaos as possible.

These pigs were unclean animals so it could show that the Jews living in that area cared not for the law.

7. Jesus gave the demons permission to go into the swine –

Why? The text does not give the answer. Some have speculated that it was a way to judge those Jews who had been raising pigs. But Jesus said that He came “not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). Therefore it seems judgment was not Jesus’ purpose.

One thing this accomplished was that it gave a visible demonstration of the great evil power Jesus had delivered the man and that region from.

We don’t know why Jesus granted their request but we do know that He is sovereign (the demons also realized this) and that He had a good reason to allow it. We will not always know why God does things, but we should trust that He does them for a good reason and His actions have always shown this to be true.

III. The light changes lives (14-18)

Discussion Questions

• How did the people react to the miracle?
• How should they have reacted?
• Why were they afraid when they saw the man healed?
• What did they ask Jesus to do? Why do you think they asked this?
• What did the man ask of Jesus?
• What does his request show about the change he had experienced?

Jesus’ Encounter with the People

1. This event caused a big stir in that area and many people came to see what had happened.

2. The crazy man had been healed –

The demon-possessed man was sitting down, dressed and in his right mind. In the span of just a few verses, this man had experienced a 180-degree change in direction. His completely different demeanor was so shocking to the people that they seemed even more frightened by this than by his previous evil rantings and ravings. They were used to those, but this was something new that they didn’t understand.

3. They implored Jesus to leave –

Asking Jesus to leave was their response to Jesus’ miracle. The crazed man had been a plague in their area. Though they often tried, they could not handle him or solve this issue. But there is no indication that they thanked Jesus for handling their problem. Neither did they ask for more information about how He did this. They didn’t celebrate. They didn’t congratulate the man. They didn’t praise God for His goodness or power. They didn’t seek to understand more. They just wanted Jesus to leave.

One reason for this reaction was probably the financial loss some of them took when the pigs ran off the cliff. But another and more likely reason was that if Jesus was gone they could just ignore what had happened.

They didn’t want to think about it. They didn’t want to understand it. They didn’t want to be enlightened. These were like ancestors of modern agnostics. It was too troubling for them to think about spiritual issues. It was far easier to ignore the weighty questions of life. They wanted to continue living their comfortable lives with things they were familiar with (even if those familiar things were evil.)

Their reaction is very sad. It also stands in stark contrast to the disciples who often asked questions about things that they couldn’t understand.

In today’s world, many people are like this as well. Perhaps they immediately reject the gospel because it is new to them and beyond their understanding. Most people would prefer to watch television or a movie than use their minds. Perhaps they even want to watch a show that they “don’t need to use their mind” to understand. Many in this generation are mentally lazy. There are far more couch potatoes who go through life with dull expressions and ignore things they don’t understand than there are sincere learners who try to understand the world and are willing to study, question, and dig to find the answer.

We should be more like Mary, who was always meditating on the amazing things happening around her, than the scribes whom Herod asked about the birth of Messiah. These scribes didn’t even ask any questions or go to Bethlehem to investigate whether the Messiah was really being born there. (See Luke 2:19, and Matthew 2:1-2).

4. The man who was demon-possessed asked to follow Jesus –

This shows the change Jesus had made in his heart. Before, he was completely controlled by Satanic forces and spent his time wandering among tombs ranting and raving like a lunatic. Now he was calm and composed and sought to become a disciple of Jesus.

IV. Shine the light (19-20)

Verse by Verse Commentary

1. Jesus’ response to the man’s request – Jesus perhaps surprisingly didn’t allow the changed man to follow him. Instead, Jesus told him to go back and tell the people what Jesus had done for him.

Mark 5:19 – And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

Satan was playing checkers, but Jesus playing checkers. Satan thought he won. He apparently drove Jesus out of the region before Jesus could teach there or do much ministry. Jesus did leave that region when the locals asked Him to. But He didn’t leave it the same. He left one believer who could testify personally of God’s grace. This man would have a big impact.

Application – Jesus did not train this man. This man did not go to seminary or Bible school, or even a short-term training. Probably one hour after his salvation (and he was a very evil man before), Jesus sent him out to share the gospel. The man did not know a lot and he could not have answered many questions. But he knew what Jesus had done for him and he could tell this to others.

God wants us to actively tell others what He has done in our lives. You don’t have to have the answers to all the questions. You don’t have to be a seminary graduate. Every person who has been touched by Christ can share about it. Tell others what Christ has done for you! Testify of His goodness!

Share your testimony and the gospel to friends and family members from the moment you believe. Do not wait until your excitement grows cold.

2. The man was obedient – Sometimes we think that knowledge is a sign of maturity. It isn’t. Obedience is. Jesus only told him to do one thing. He did it.

Mark 5:20 – And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

3. Jesus would go back – Jesus wasn’t done with this area. He had a foothold there. His tool was going to share God’s goodness. Later Jesus went back to Decapolis. The next time he went, he was not driven away. Instead, a huge crowd gathered and Jesus taught the multitudes as well as fed the four thousand. This man’s changed life and faithful testimony prepared the soil for Jesus to return.

Application – This man’s life was changed. He was commanded to tell others. He obeyed. Are you obeying what God has told you to do? Are you testifying of His goodness?