Sermon Tone Analysis

“They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.

2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs.

And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.

6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7 and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I implore You by God, do not torment me!” 8 For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And He was asking him, “What is your name?”

And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”

10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain.

12 The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.”

13 Jesus gave them permission.

And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

14 Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country.

And the people came to see what it was that had happened.

15 They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened.

16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine.

17 And they began to implore Him to leave their region.

18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him.

19 And He did not let him, but He said to him, “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.”

20 And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.”

I call the Gospel of Mark the ‘guy’s gospel’.

It’s full of action from the very start.

It is descriptive.

Jesus sleeps in the boat during a storm, we’re told by Matthew Mark and Luke, but only Mark mentions that He’s sleeping on a cushion (4:38).

All four Gospel writers tell of His feeding of the five thousand, but only Mark tells us that He commanded the five thousand to recline on the green grass as He prepared to feed them.

(6:39) And Jesus is constantly on the go and doing something.

In chapter 4 He is Master of the wind and the sea.

In chapter five alone, He commands demons, heals a woman of a twelve year hemorrhage, and raises a little girl from the dead.

Since we aren’t going into chapter 6 today, I just want you to take notice that these things that happen in chapter 5 take place in the Decapolis; a region of 10 cities inhabited almost entirely by Greeks…gentiles… but in Chapter 6 when He goes to His own hometown, inhabited by Jews, they take offense and reject Him.

But we’re in chapter 5.

More specifically, the first 20 verses, which give us the account of the Gerasene demoniac.

I thought we might focus our attention there today and see what nuggets we can find lying around.

JESUS’ COMMISSION

Jesus had a commission, you know.

And that’s not something we determine by a systematic study of the doctrinal epistles.

Jesus made it abundantly clear with His own words.

Since we’re in Mark today, let’s use a verse from Mark to prove this point.

In chapter 9 verse 37 Jesus says, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

Now, having dutifully stuck to the Gospel of our text for that reference, let me just tell you that in John’s Gospel, he quotes Jesus no less than 29 times, using the term “Him who sent Me”, or something close to that, like, “the Father has sent Me”.

So we have to agree, that although His coming was determined in the absolute unity of the Trinity before time began, yet in submission to the Father, Jesus came commissioned by the Father, to do His will.

(Jn 4:34)

And what was His stated mission?

We find it in Luke 19:10 “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost”.

This is the cause that earmarked Christ’s earthly ministry.

It was evident in every contact, every step of His journeying, everything He said.

His commission was to seek and to save that which was lost, and so consumed was He by that passion, that at the age of 30 the Pharisees thought He was closer to 50.

It was the driving force of every minute of His day, and it took Him to a cross.

He often prayed all night to get the Father’s strength and direction for the coming day; and by the time the sun was up, the Son was up; and going about doing good and healing those who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Now having said all that, this is what I want you to be very cognizant of.

Often, when He said, let’s go here, or let’s go there, if you pay attention to the text and keep track of where He is, what He is doing, and then where He goes after doing that thing, you’ll realize that the only reason He went there was to do that thing!

You see, we just kind of wander through our days sometimes, with no apparent purpose except to get through them.

Most everyone knows of the newspaper comic strip called “Family Circus”.

It pokes fun in a gentle way at the typical family life in a home with several very young children.

I remember one that started out with the mother giving the oldest boy, who appears to be about 6, something to take to the neighbor next door.

Then the next frame is from a bird’s-eye view, and there is a dotted line showing the route the boy took to get next door.

The line takes him across the street, through a park, stops at a swing set and slide, moves on to a brick wall that he apparently scaled and walked like a tightrope, around several other houses, stopping to talk to little boys and girls in the neighborhood, and finally stops at the front door of the next door neighbor’s house with the item he was to deliver.

I think that sometimes our days are much like that, except that at the end we haven’t delivered anything of value at all.

I wonder how fruitful and prosperous, both for ourselves and the Kingdom of God, our lives would be if we prayed well into the night for the Father’s direction for the coming day?

We see Jesus going to Samaria.

John 4 starts out telling us he ‘needed’ to pass through Samaria.

Yet the only thing we find Him doing there is talking with the unnamed woman at Jacob’s well.

And the outcome?

Her salvation and the salvation of many in her village.

This account that is our text today is another one of those times.

Jesus was teaching and healing near the Sea of Galilee.

Probably Capernaum, since that seems to have been used as a sort of headquarters by Him when He was in the North of Israel.

Then in the evening He says, ‘Let’s go over to the other side”.

Why?

Why go to the other side?

Those are Greeks over there.

Jesus, you’ve said yourself that you were sent to the Jews.

Do you know they herd pigs over there?

Do you have any idea what this will do to your reputation in the press?

The Pharisees love to accuse you of being a glutton and a wine swiller, and hanging out with the low-lifes.

If you go over to the Decapolis and have any contact with those pig farmers, the Pharisees will have you chompin’ pork rinds before the week is out!

No, the text doesn’t say they questioned Him at all.

But they might have.

It wouldn’t have been out of the norm.

And it certainly isn’t out of the norm today for Christians to question where the Lord is leading.

Especially if it’s someone else’s leading.

“We’ve never done it that way before!”

“That’s not how to do church!”

“Do you think anyone’s going to listen to your message with that pink hair?

Huh?

That pin in the side of your nose?

C’mon!

Get real!” “What would you want to go there for?

Even if they listen and believe the gospel, what then?

You’re not going to bring them back to OUR church; are you?”

People I have to tell you that many, many churches across our great land have built up as many hedges of laws and rules and traditions as the Jews had built up by Jesus’ day, to control the people and keep out the outsider!

It’s ridiculous!

Sometimes it’s so pathetic as to be humorous.

And we laugh.

But it’s a sad laugh.

Because what if Jesus says, “Let’s go over to the other side”.

Do you think they’re going to go? No. They’re more likely to say, “You go, we’re doing church” and lock Him out in the parking lot.

But the cure doesn’t start with church congregations, friends.

It starts with the individual.

It starts with you and me, searching our hearts; asking Him to search our hearts, and asking ‘Lord, am I in a position and is my attitude such that I’m likely to follow without question, if you were to lead me in a direction I didn’t fully understand?’

It’s a question we have to ask openly and honestly and be ready to face and deal with the answer, Beloved.