- [Narrator] This is why the demons
asked Jesus for the pigs,
five mysteries about the possessed demoniac.
Number one, the great challenge to meet the demoniac.
In Mark 4:35, Jesus told his disciples
that they needed to go to the other side of a body of water.
He was about to go on a journey
that will be spoken about for thousands of years.
He was going to meet the demoniac.
However, as soon as they set out for the other side,
the Bible said there arose a great storm of wind
and the waves beat into the sea.
Mark 4:35-38, "On that same day, when evening had come,
he said to them,
'Let us go over to the other side of the sea of Galilee.'
So leaving the crowd, they took him with them,
just as he was in the boat.
And other boats were with him.
And a fierce windstorm began to blow
and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already being swamped.
But Jesus was in the stern, asleep
with his head on the sailor's leather cushion.
And they woke him and said to him,
'Teacher, do you not care that we are about to die?'"
Just because you are on a godly mission
does not mean that there will not be challenges.
However, there was a big breakthrough on the other side.
If Jesus did not know what to do,
the waves would've stopped him
from getting to the other side.
Most believers allow the waves
to stop them from getting to the other side.
If they didn't get to the other side,
the demoniac would've been in perpetual bondage forever.
Watch what Jesus did.
Jesus rebuked the wind.
What the disciples were seeing was the waves of the sea,
but really what was causing the waves was the wind.
The wind was what was causing the waves to beat turbulently.
Jesus was able to identify the root of the problem
and rebuke the wind behind the waves.
Mark 4:39-41, "And he got up and sternly rebuked the wind
and said to the sea, 'Hush, be still, muzzled!'
And the wind died down as if it had grown weary,
and there was at once a great calm, a perfect peacefulness.
Jesus said to them, 'Why are you afraid?
Do you still have no faith and confidence in me?'
They were filled with great fear and said to each other,
'Who then is this,
that even the wind and the sea obey him?'"
Number two, when dealing with the kingdom of darkness,
discernment is important.
Mark 5:1-6, "They came to the other side of the sea
to the region of the Gerasenes.
When Jesus got out of the boat, immediately a man
from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him,
and the man lived in the tombs,
and no one could bind him anymore, not even with chains.
For he had often been bound
with shackles for the feet and with chains,
and he tore apart the chains
and broke the shackles into pieces,
and no one was strong enough to subdue and tame him.
Night and day, he was constantly screaming
and shrieking among the tombs and on the mountains
and cutting himself with sharp stones.
Seeing Jesus from a distance,
he ran up and bowed down before him in homage.
Jesus knew that multitudes
of demons plagued the madman of Gadara.
However, when the man began speaking with Jesus,
he began to speak with Jesus in the singular person of I."
Mark 5:7-9, "And screaming with a loud voice, he said,
'What business do we have in common with each other?
Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I implore you by God, swear to me, do not torment me!'
For Jesus had been saying to him,
'Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!'
He was asking him, 'What is your name?'
And he replied, 'My name is Legion, for we are many.'"
And he asked him, "What is thy name?",
which question Christ put not for his own sake,
for he was not clueless of his name,
nor of the number of the unclean spirits
which were in the man,
but that it might be known what a pitiful condition
this man was in, being plagued and vexed
with such an enormous group of devils.
At this point, the chief demon in charge
of all the demons confessed saying,
"My name is Legion, for we are many."
A legion of demons was equal to 6,000 demons
after the order of the Roman army.
Some make a legion to consist of 6,666
and others make it much more significant, even 12,500.
You can contrast it with the demon in Matthew 12:43-45.
Matthew 12:43-45, "Now when the unclean spirit
has gone out of a man, it roams through waterless, dry,
arid places in search of rest, but it does not find it.
Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.'
And when it arrives, it finds the place unoccupied,
swept, and put in order.
Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits
more wicked than itself,
and they go in and make their home there.
And the last condition of that man
becomes worse than the first.
So will it also be with this wicked generation."
The man in this above passage
had only seven other demons with him,
and the demon in the demoniac was chief demon among 6,000.
Number three, there are an innumerable company of devils
assigned to cause havoc to humanity.
The Bible makes us understand
that an innumerable company of angels
is available to believers
to execute different tasks on their behalf,
as there is an innumerable company
of holy angels to encamp about the saints
and do them all the service they can as appointed to.
So there is undoubtedly a numerous company of devils
who do all the hurt they can,
or are permitted to do, unto the sons of men.
Hence, they are expressed by words
which signify number as well as power,
as principalities and powers,
the rulers of the darkness of this world,
spiritual wickedness in high places,
the power or posse of the air, the angels of Satan,
the angels that sinned and left their habitations.
Hebrews 6:12, "So that you will not be spiritually sluggish
but will instead be imitators of those who through faith
lean on God with absolute trust and confidence in him
and in his power and by patient endurance
even when suffering are now inheriting the promises."
Jude 6, "And angels who did not keep
their own designated place of power
but abandoned their proper dwelling place,
these he has kept in eternal chains under the thick gloom
of utter darkness for the judgment of the great day."
As also that they are in a body
and the form of an army with a general at the head of them,
the princes of devils and king of the bottomless pit,
there are whole squadrons
and regiments of them, even legions.
What a mercy it is for the saints
that besides 12 legions of good angels and more,
which are ready to assist and protect them,
they have God on their side,
and therefore, it signifies not who is against them,
and they have Christ with them
who has spoiled principalities and powers,
and greater is the Holy Spirit that is in them
than he that is in the world.
Matthew 26:53-56, "'Do you think
that I cannot appeal to my father,
and he will immediately provide me
with more than 12 legions of angels?
How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled
that it must happen this way?'
At that moment, Jesus said to the crowds,
'Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me
as you word against a robber?
Day after day, I used to sit in the porches
and courts of the temple teaching and you did not arrest me.
But all this has taken place so that the Scriptures
of the prophets would be fulfilled.'
Then all the disciples deserted him and fled."
As 12 legions of angels were on standby to assist
and protect Jesus from being crucified,
they are also on standby to protect
and preserve any believer.
Number four, demons are location-specific
and need bodies to survive.
The demons begged Jesus not to leave the locality.
Casting them out of that locality meant torment for them
because they couldn't function outside that locality.
That's why they requested to be sent to the nearby swine
in the exact location.
Mark 5:10-14, "And he began begging him repeatedly
not to send them out of the region.
Now there was a large herd of pigs
grazing there on the mountain,
and the demons begged him saying,
'Send us to the pigs so that we may go into them.'
Jesus gave them permission,
and the unclean spirits came out of the man
and entered the pigs.
The herd, numbering about 2000,
rushed down the steep bank into the sea,
and they were drowned one after the other in the sea.
The herdsman tending the pigs ran away
and reported it in the city and in the country,
and the people came to see what had happened."
Demons would instead go into the pigs
than roam without a body.
They are spiritual viruses,
and most things in the physical
have parallels in the spirit.
Also, we can see this at play in Matthew 12:43-45.
The demon was cast out of a body
but could not find any other body to inhabit,
so the demon has to go out
to find seven other demons more wicked than himself
so that they could force their way back into that body.
We can also see this at play in the Book of Daniel.
Location specificity is key in the kingdom of darkness,
as we are told of a prince of Persia
and also a prince of Greece.
Daniel 10:12-14, "Then he said to me,
'Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day
that you set your heart on understanding this
and on humbling yourself before your God,
your words were heard,
and I have come in response to your words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
were standing in opposition to me for 21 days.
Then, behold, Michael,
one of the chief of the celestial princes, came to help me,
for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
Now I have come to make you understand
what will happen to your people in the latter days,
for the vision is in regard to the days yet to come.'"
Number five, the demoniac man
became a minister of God's word.
Most of us are familiar with the popular story
of the Demoniac of Gadara, but what we don't know
are the mystery surrounding this demonic possession.
There are many mysteries
about this remarkable man that meets the eye.
The demon possessed man was unique.
His case was so bad
that he lived on the outskirts of the town.
Gadara was a city south of the Sea of Galilee
and east of Jordan in a region referred to as Decapolis,
an area of 10 cities.
The region of Gadara refers
to parts outside the city reaching the sea.
The madman of Gadara lived in tombs or caves.
The Bible also tells us that no one could chain him down.
They tried to bind him several times
with different fetters and chains,
but he would break them off like a piece of flax.
In other words, the devil had blocked this man
from fulfilling anything called purpose
or being useful on earth.
Thank God, Jesus located him.
If Jesus did not locate him,
he wouldn't have been able to become the great evangelist
that God ordained him to be,
who would eventually preach to 10 cities, Decapolis.
Number six, demons seek destruction,
and he besought him much.
The devil at the head of this legion,
who had the rest under his command,
he entreated Jesus with great earnestness.
This shows the authority Christ has over the devils
and their subjugation to him.
They are obliged to quit their former possession
when he gives orders.
Even though the man they were in could not be bound
and held with iron chains and fetters
due to the incredible strength they put forth in him,
these themselves are bound and held in chains
and cannot move without Christ's permission.
And though they are such proud spirits,
they are very willing to humble themselves
and ask a favor, even of him whom they truly hate.
The devils are unwearied in making mischief.
They cannot rest unless they are about it.
If they are not permitted to touch the lives of men
or ruin their souls,
it is some satisfaction to them to be allowed to hurt.
And if that is no longer permitted,
rather than be doing nothing,
they are desirous of doing harm to irrational animals,
the property of men, all which shows the malice
and wickedness of these evil spirits.
They were about 2000, a very large herd,
but there were devils enough in that one man
to possess all these and run them into the sea.