Mark 5:1-20
That’s Not Normal!
Do people break? Cars break. Washing machines break. Tire jacks
break. Computers break. Cameras break. Cell phones break. Do
human beings break?
I. How do we know he was broke?
If there was ever a human being that broke, the man in this story
would be him. He was certainly not normal and the list of things
wrong with him is long.
\\#2\\ He had an unclean spirit, singular. We will later find that
he had unclean spirits.
\\#3\\ He had no home. We are also told that dwelt in the tombs,
among the dead.
\\#3-4\\ He was super strong.
\\#4\\ He could not be calmed.
\\#5\\ He cried out constantly.
He cut himself.
\\#6-7\\ He must have been very religious.
\\#Luke 8:27\\ He was naked.
\\#Luke 8:29\\ He was "driven of the devil into the wilderness."
Not only is there what the Bible said of the man. There is also what
the Bible did not say of the man. There is no mention of family or
friends or help of any kind. He was alone. To me the most notable
indicator of this man’s broken condition was he was alone.
II. What broke the man?
A. Did his mind break him?
1. This man’s mind was broke. He behavior indicates that he
did not think properly.
2. Most believe that the mind is the key to having a
successful human existence.
a. We spend a lot of time in this country developing the
mind.
b. 12 years of school; 2 to 3 years of preschool; and for
most anywhere from 2 to 8 years in post school.
c. It is interesting that the Bible, a Book written to
help people live the successful life, does not speak
much of that kind of education.
(1) The Bible speaks of training a child’s morals
much more than educating a child’s mind.
Pr 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should
go: and when he is old, he will not depart from
it.
(2) To train is to demonstrate a behavior repeatedly
until the student can naturally do it.
(3) It is the term we use when we are speaking of our
pets.
3. I do not believe this man was broke because his mind was
broken. Rather, I believe this man’s mind broke because
he was broken.
4. I believe it is some times hard for us to distinguish
between the cause and the effect.
a. People say that so and so can’t learn and so they
are going to have a hard time.
b. I think some people are having a hard time and so they
can’t learn.
c. You can educate people for 12 to 20 years if you want
to; but if they are broken people, it won’t do much
good!
B. Did the demon possession break him?
1. This man was definitely demon possessed.
a. You can not have God without the devil, heaven without
hell, or angels without demons.
b. The Bible teaches them all!
2. \\#2\\ We are told the man had an "unclean spirit," but
the demons tell us that there were MANY demons within
the man.
a. \\#9\\ They call themselves Legion for they were many.
b. Legion is a troop of Roman soldiers, but the size
varied through Roman history.
c. I have read a legion was a many as 6,000 soldiers and
as a few as 1,500.
d. \\#13\\ There had to be at least 2,000 demons in this
man for they occupied 2,000 individual pigs.
3. Do you realize that we have no idea how many demons and
angels there are? how great their influence on us is?
how intense the warfare between them is?
4. At least 2,000 demons possessed this one man!!
5. Was the demon possession what broke this man?
a. Again, I don’t think so. I know they did not help
him, but I do not think they are what broke him.
b. Again, I think the demons being in the man was another
consequence of the man being broke.
c. I can’t prove my belief, but I have met people—who as
far as I knew—did not have a demon in them and they
were still broke human beings.
C. Did the man’s broken body break him?
1. His body was broke. It was not normal.
2. How so?
a. He was naked.
(1) I found out what makes a preacher old fashioned.
(2) They are still fighting the battles of the last
generation.
(3) We would be a lot better off if that is where the
battle field still lay.
(4) Beyonce’s Half Time show has been headlining FB
and internet news media. Some feel—and
apparently her staff has plainly said it was
so—that her show supported the Black Panthers,
a black terrorists group.
(5) I don’t know about that. What I do know is that
the woman wasn’t dressed decent.
(6) That is NOT normal!
b. \\#5\\ He was cutting himself. Self mutilation by
cutting, scaring, or piercing the body is not normal.
c. \\#3-4\\ He was super strong.
3. While broken bodies can break the person, I do not think
that is the case here.
a. As with the mind and the demon possession, I believe
these were the effects of the man being broken and
not the cases.
b. This man’s condition seemed to run deeper than the
problems he was having with his body.
III. So what broke this man?
A. He was born separated from God.
1. All human beings are.
Ro 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God;
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid
his face from you, that he will not hear.
2. It is hard to believe that the start of this man’s
problems is common to every infant ever born,
3. This condition has been bad side effects but two are:
a. There is no way for a person separated from God to
properly feed their spiritual nature.
(1) Every human being is a body, soul, and spirit.
(2) The body gets hunger and we feed it.
(3) The soul gets hunger and we feed it.
(a) Parents know to watch but feed curiosity
of the mind.
(b) Most parents know that a child needs to
have pleasure and have fun.
(4) But few parents understand that a child needs to
know God.
(a) That is why they ask questions like where
did I come from? What is life all about?
Is there a god?
(b) Just as untaught children seek to find their
own answers to questions about their bodies
and minds, so they will about their
spiritual questions.
b. There is no way for them to know spiritual right or to
resist spiritual wrong.
(1) Without spiritual guidance, they are left to
explore on their own.
(2) This leaves the door wide open for him to explore
the demons which are within his reach.
4. This is every human being’s Achilles heel. Since we are
all born as this man was, we can all become what this man
became.
B. He invited demons inside.
1. Demons are all around us and they desire to come inside of
us to take possession and control us.
2. Most do it through a mix of ignorance and purpose.
a. Few would purposely invite a demon to take control of
them but some do.
b. Most are introduced to demons through television,
music, and friends.
3. Every behavior is a gateway to another behavior.
a. Is marijuana a gateway to other drugs? Yes. Not
because everyone who smokes marijuana will move to
heavier drugs, but because the behavior of using a
drug socially is in itself a gateway to using other
drugs socially. It is the same people doing the same
things in the same places.
b. All behaviors are gateways to other behaviors.
a. Beer is a gateway to drunkenness.
b. Disobedience to parents is a gateway to rebellion.
c. Rebellion is a gateway to wrong relationships.
d. Wrong relationships are a gateway to a wrong
marriage.
e. A wrong marriage is a gateway to a divorce.
4. If you play with demonic things long enough, you will
invite a demon to move inside of you. (And I’m not sure
that they travel alone.)
1Tim 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that
in the latter times some shall depart from the
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils;
C. The man was conquered by his guest.
1. Have you ever had company that did not know when to leave?
2. Demons never do.
IV. The broken man got fixed.
Mark 5:15 And they come to Jesus, and see him
that was possessed with the devil, and had the
legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right
mind: and they were afraid.
A. Some thing has changed! This man is not broke any more. He
is in control of himself and doing "normal" behaviors now.
B. What fixed him?
1. The Bible does not say!
2. It describes a normal human being who has been fixed.
C. What does a normal person do?
1. \\#15\\ He controls himself.
a. He gets dressed.
b. He can sit down, calmly.
c. He thinks soundly.
(1) He knows right from wrong.
(2) There has never been a naturally born "normal"
human being.
(3) Normal has been re-defined to mean "what every
body else is doing."
(4) Normal means to do what you were designed to do.
(5) To operate as the Creator created you to operate.
(6) This man was thinking "normally" for the first
time in his life.
2. \\#18\\ He followed Jesus.
3. \\#19\\ He obeyed Jesus.
D. How did this man get fixed?
1. Some would say "Jesus cast the demon out;" however, that
would indicate that people who do not have demons in the
first place are not broken, but they are!
a. Getting the demons out helped.
b. It probably gave this man the ability to think
rationally enough to fix his real problem.
c. What was his real problem? He was separated from God.
d. What did the man do to fix that?
Matt 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with
himself seven other spirits more wicked than
himself, and they enter in and dwell there:
and the last state of that man is worse than
the first. Even so shall it be also unto this
wicked generation.
2. He believed on Jesus as God, Savior, and Lord.
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