You're listening to the Christ Our Cornerstone
podcast, a ministry of Christ Our Cornerstone
Church in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I'm Pastor Logan
Merrick and it's our prayer that this message
strengthens your faith and draws you closer to
Christ. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to Christ
Our Cornerstone Church podcast. My name is Pastor
Logan and I'm back again with another question
and answer time and I'm really excited to dive
into this one. If you have questions like this,
Feel free to reach out to me anytime. I will
have my email at this in the bottom of the show
notes, but also in At the end there. I'll let
you know what that is. So the question today.
I'm really excited to dive into It gets into
a lot of fun things but specifically about demons
and that is what is going on and mark chapter
5 with demons being sent into The pigs like what
is going on with all that stuff? So that's what
we're gonna dive into in this episode and I'm
ready to go into the pigs Like what's going on
in mark 5 now? It's the stories in Matthew and
it's also in Luke. And so there are details I
will go into that aren't necessarily in mark
5 But are in the other accounts and that's another
question I can answer for you of why do the Gospels
all have different accounts? I actually have
a blog about that. If you'd like to read that,
I'll connect it in the show notes at the bottom.
And so anyway, again, welcome back and glad to
have you here with me. And so this is one of
the wildest scenes in the New Testament to me.
So I love it because there's so much going on
and. Yeah, I'm just really pumped about it. So
I'm going to I'm going to read from Mark five.
And then I'll begin to unpack it. So here's what
it says. And I'm reading from the New King James
version. So it might be a little bit different
than what you may have if you're going to follow
along. Then they came to the other side, they
being Jesus and the disciples, came to the other
side of the sea, to the country of the Gedarians.
And when he came, had come out of the boat, him
being Jesus, immediately they were met. They
were met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean
spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs.
So he's in a cemetery and no one could bind him
not even with chains because he had often been
bound with shackles and chains and the chains
had been pulled apart by him and the shackles
broken in pieces. Neither could anyone tame him
and always night and day. He was in the mountains
and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself
with stones." Now, the strength of this man is
important because of what I'm going to dive into
in the first point about what demons are. But
I'll go into that in a little bit. When he saw
Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him. That's
important. He cried out with a loud voice and
said, what have I to do with you, Jesus, son
of the Most High God? I implore you by God that
you do not torment me. For he said to him, come
out of the man, unclean spirit. Then he asked
him, what is your name? And he answered saying,
my name is Legion, for we are many. Also, he
begged him earnestly that he would not send them
out of the country. Another thing that I can't
go into, but is also really neat when you get
into demonology. Demonology being the study of
demons. Now a large herd of swine was feeding
there near the mountains. So all the demons begged
him saying, send us into the swine that we may
enter them. And at once Jesus gave them permission.
Then the unclean spirits went out and entered
the swine. There were about 2000. Okay. And the
herd ran violently down the steep place into
the sea and drowned in the sea. And it's like,
Whoa, that's weird. Like, what's up with that?
So those who fed the swine fled and they told
it in the city and they told about it in the
city and in the country. And they went out to
see what had happened. Then they came to Jesus
and saw that the one who had been demon possessed
and the Legion sitting and had the Legion sitting
clothed and in his right mind because he was
naked and they were afraid and those who saw
it told them how it happened to him and who had
been demon -possessed and about the swine then
they began to plead with him to depart from their
region and when he got into the boat he who had
been demon -possessed begged them begged him
Jesus that he might be with him however Jesus
did not permit him but said to him go home to
your friends and tell them What great things
the Lord has done for you and how he has had
compassion on you And he departed and began to
proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done
for him and all marveled That was brutal to read
from the New King James. I apologize. That's
it's a study Bible I have and I'm not used to
reading from it and so it gets a little janky
for me All right, so much to unpack so much to
say so let's go ahead and get started. I've got
Six or seven points that I'm going to make. All
right. First one being this demons need a body
to dwell in. That's why they leave and they beg
to go into the pigs. OK, so Jesus permits it.
So why do they even ask to go into the pigs?
All right, so so here's this. So demons in the
Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism understood
that demons were disembodied spirits. What does
that mean? OK. It means that they are spirits.
All right. They're kind of like ghosts, if you
will. They're not fallen angels. That's important
for you to know. Fallen angels are different.
They are not demons. They are lingering spirits
of the Nephilim that were destroyed in the flood.
Who are the Nephilim? The Nephilim are, and I
can't go into a whole lot of that now, but the
Nephilim are, they were the offspring of when
the sons of God, the fallen angels, looked upon
the daughters of men. You can read about this
in Genesis six and had relations with them and
thus created the Nephilim. The Nephilim were
huge giants. That's where we get Goliath from
and things like that. They were massive giants.
And a lot of the reason why God sent the flood,
because they were these crazy half breeds. They're
half divine, half human. And that's where we
get a lot of the stories of the Titans like Hercules
and a lot of that stuff. I'm not going to go
into all that, but just know that's one of my
favorite things to talk about if you ever want
to talk about it. But anyway, that's important
to know. So when they were destroyed in the flood,
their physical bodies, their spirits remained
as lingering spirits. OK. And so demons seek
embodiment. They seek to torture us as human
beings made in the image of God because they
are not. They want a physical host with which
to torment, okay? And so that's why they cling
to this man. And when they're confronted by Jesus,
they ask for another physical vessel, just any
vessel. It can be an animal, it can be a person,
but they just want any vessel so that... would
be the pigs. They see the pigs and because they
knew that Jesus was not going to allow them to
go into another person because Jesus is about
bringing freedom. OK, from captives. And that's
part of this. And so here's the second part.
The demons know exactly who Jesus is. All right.
Well, you like, well, yeah, because they're demons.
They know everything. No, they don't. I'm going
to get into that in a little bit. They don't
know everything. How do they know who Jesus is?
OK, well, there are many theologians. And I take
to this myself, I believe where Jesus was baptized
would have been right there where the demons,
the pigs run into the sea. And so the demons
being in that country would have seen Jesus be
baptized, would have seen the Holy Spirit descending
upon Jesus and the voice of God saying, this
is my son in whom I'm all pleased. And so they
would have known who he was. They know he's divine.
Okay. And they know of a permanent judgment that
is coming because of him. Okay. They know, they
know there's a permanent judgment coming period,
but they know of the prophecies. And so they
know that it's, it's, he's the reason. Okay.
And so they're terrified, the demons, they're
terrified at this moment that Jesus will send
them to their final destruction, their final
judgment in hell. And this is why they beg for
an alternative. They want to go into some other
place, but they don't want to be sent out of
the region. They want to be sent into the pigs.
And so again, the region part I would love to
go into, but I can't. But even powers of darkness,
they recognize the authority and the identity
of Christ before many humans do. As a matter
of fact, I mean, we're going to see that in just
a second. We see that when they beg him to leave,
which you read about in other passages. as well.
And so here's the third point. So the presence
of the pigs tells us something very important
for us today. One, it tells us that it's Gentile
territory. What does that mean? Well, we are
Gentiles. We are not Jewish by lineage and by
heritage. And so we are Gentiles. And so. Jews
had nothing to do with pigs because they were
considered unclean. So they wouldn't have used
them for business. They wouldn't have been using
them to eat. And so this tells us they were pigs,
that this place was a Gentile region. So the
Gentiles, this tells us that there's Gentile
region. This is Gentile land. OK, so Jews don't
raise pigs. As I said, they don't eat pigs. They
don't touch pigs. And so they didn't own pigs.
So this story and what is happening in this region
is Gentiles and it's and this is a foreshadowing,
which brings to my next point, a foreshadowing
of Christ's mission to the Gentiles as well.
So like Jesus didn't just come to redeem the
people of Israel, the Jews, he came to redeem
all of mankind. And this foreshadows that because
this is a powerful scene, a preview of the mission
of Jesus breaking out beyond Israel. And so Jesus
isn't only freeing Israelites from bondage. He
is freeing everyone. And so he comes for the
Gentiles too. And that's important that you see
that in this. And so, which brings me to my next
point, which is demons don't know everything,
only God does. And so again, I'm going back to
the pigs here. It's fascinating because demons
are intelligent. Like, don't get me wrong. They,
they, they are intelligent. But they're not omniscient.
Omniscient is a theological term for all knowing.
And so they didn't foresee what happened next.
And what would that be? That would be the moment
they enter the pigs. Remember, they begged not
to be in that final judgment. And so they enter
into the pigs, but then the pigs rush down a
cliff and they drown in a water. And in so doing
so, the demons run literally straight into the
very judgment they're trying to escape. Now you'd
be like, why? How do you know that? It has to
do with the water. OK, and it has to do with
the study of Sheol and where Sheol is and water
and all that, which, again, I can't get into,
but just know that it brought them. They're no
longer able to to be in something. And so therefore,
they're then. brought into the judgment of Sheol.
Uh, and so Jesus allows their request to go into
the pigs because he knows that destruction is
coming. And remember what I said, he would not
have allowed them to go into another person to
torment those people. Cause Jesus comes to bring
freedom. All right. So that's why he's like,
okay, pigs, that's fine. Cause I also know where
those pigs are going to go. Those pigs were like,
yeah, this isn't right. This isn't normal. And
they run headlong into the water. And so this
moment exposes the limits of demonic knowledge
and the sovereignty of Christ over all spiritual
powers, which I think is really awesome. And
so hopefully so do you. Now, let's let's continue
to think about this pig thing. So it says in
Mark that there were two thousand pigs, two thousand
pigs. So think about that. There's two. They
said they're a legion for they are many. There's
two thousand demons, at least inside of this
man. That's terrifying. And again, I told you
to look at the strength of this man. What did
I tell you? Nephilim were they were giants, right?
So it tells you the strength of so then you've
got two thousand at least these demons. So now
you're getting an idea of how strong they are.
So, but why, why does it tell us 2000 pigs? Like
why that detail? And that detail isn't in the
other accounts, but it's important. They, the
others say there are many pigs. 2000 though is
important because in modern day time, okay, this
is somebody's business. So in modern day time,
all right, that would equate to about a half
a million dollars of somebody's business and
it's now gone. And so why does that matter? This
is why it matters. Remember they, They beg him
to leave. So this isn't a hobby farm. This is
a massive commercial operation. This is someone's
livelihood. All right. So when the pigs die,
the townspeople, they don't rejoice that the
demonized man is free. This man who has terrorized
them and lived in a cemetery and in a mountain
terrorizing the region. They don't care about
that. They don't celebrate the power of God.
They actually focus on the financial loss of
it all. And so they actually beg Jesus to leave.
And this is a sobering moment. Why? Because they
choose monetary comfort. They chose money over
spiritual freedom. They'd rather have their pigs
than to have Jesus. And so the question is for
you and me, do you choose monetary gain over
Jesus? Do you choose idolatry over Jesus? It's
just something to think about. And then the last
one is this, something that you should really
celebrate. And that is that the man was restored.
He got his humanity back. And so the man who
was once naked, who was raging, who was violent
and isolated is now described as clothed, right,
in his right mind and sitting at the feet of
Jesus. He's forever changed. So he gets his humanity
back. He gets his dignity back and he gets his
identity back. And so this is what Jesus does.
He restores people spiritually, emotionally,
mentally, and socially. And the man becomes the
first missionary to the Decapolis, a Gentile
region, declaring what Jesus had done for him.
So with all that being said, why did the demons
go into the pigs? Because demons seek a body.
They feared judgment because they were in a Gentile
territory. All right. because Jesus is signaling
of his coming salvation for the whole world.
It's showing that demons don't know everything
and that Jesus is sovereign and over them. Okay.
And because the townspeople, they value money
over deliverance. So these are all the points
I want you to remember. And because in the end,
Jesus shows his heart. He restores broken humanity.
And that's the real miracle of Mark 5. I hope
that makes some sense for you. I hope that helps.
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any questions, feel free to reach out to me at
logandmanerick at gmail .com. Well, that being
said, have a great rest of your day and we'll
see you later. Bye bye.