9
The Day the Swine Flew
The Day the Swine Flew
Theme
TEXT: Mark 5:1-20
AIM:
INTRODUCTION:
A. Recently, the Swine Flu has been HOGGING much of the attention of the news media…
The swine flu, “aka” influenza A (H1N1)—said to be an extremely severe or harmful strain of the flu with the potential of reaching “Pandemic” levels worldwide—in many cities of the world the public was panicking, and mask manufacturers and hand disinfectant cleaners were doing a great business. BTW, this particular flu is not a virus that is air borne but spread by droplets which live for days on all kinds of surfaces. You get it by coming in contact with them, not by breathing them in the air.
The symptoms are the same, and swine flu cases so far have been mild. There’s no hint that this swine flu is either easier to transmit than seasonal flu or more lethal! The Centers for Disease Control notes that every year "ordinary" flus play some role in 36,000 deaths (e.g., the flu leads to fatal pneumonia).
Mexico ranks 11th in terms of world population and according to the UN News centre as of May 8th 2009 there were 2,500 confirmed cases reported from 25 countries resulting in 48 deaths in Mexico, 2 deaths in the US and one death of a 53-yr old Costa Rican who also had diabetes and chronic lung disease. Some Pandemic! Out of 110 million people in Mexico only 48 people have died, but remember 36,000 die annually from ordinary flu.
* A blonde wife calls her husband, “Honey I’ve almost run out of fuel for the car, BUT I’m so afraid to go into the station to fill it up because of the swine flu.” Hubby says, “No dear, that flu is in Mexico not Texaco!”
This health scare is essentially media hype and exaggeration, mostly fabricated or manipulated …as the regular old flu that comes around every year has proved to be far more prevalent and dangerous.
B. BUT this recent outbreak did made me think of a another kind of influenza…
1. The word INFLUENZA has its origin mid 18th cent. from Italian. It literally means “Influence,” from Medieval Latin influential.
2. Here in our text we have a man who was under the influence!
3. BUT it was another kind of influence, NOT viral infection—BUT a demonic influence…
a. NOTE in vs. 13 when Jesus gave them permission to leave and Matthew 8:32 relays Jesus commanded them to “GO” into the swine they F-L-E-W! —They flew down the hillside…they flew into the sea and flew to pig’s heaven.
b. Mark 5:14 notes also that “they that fed the swine fled”—they flew out of the city and countryside to see what had happened.
When Jesus arrived in the countryside of Gadarenes in verse 1 He had travelled a good distance to get there. From Capernaum in Galilee (Mk. 2:1) He crossed over “the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias” (Jn. 6:1) landing on the eastern shore of the lake in the countryside of Gadarenes. Before His arrival he was preaching and healing and teaching various parables in the countryside of Galilee east of the sea. There is no real reason stated for the journey and it wouldn’t be the first time Jesus travelled a long way for just one person—In John 4:4 it says Jesus “must needs go through Samaria” where he met a woman at a well—here in our text he went to a cemetery to met this one man!!!
This account of the man with the “unclean spirit” is mentioned in 3 of the 4 gospels. I believe that is important. This story deals with a very powerful miracle and tells us or demonstrates to us the affects of being without Christ. As Jesus steps out of the ship He is met with…
I. He was a DisturBed MAN
A. HIS COUNTRY: “the country of Gadarenes” – Vs. 1
1. The word “country” did not mean a nation with it own government, but the countryside of a region with its fields, land, and people.
2. The story of this demonic is found in 3 of the 4 gospels.
a. Mark and Luke mention one man, but Matthew reports there were two.
b. However, because only one is mention in Mark & Luke does not mean there were not two.
c. Remember style and intentions of the writer come out in the writing of Scripture and probably one man stood out as the leader or maybe one was more violent than the other?
3. The cities of Gadara & Gergesa were in the southern area today known as the Golan Heights.
4. The small town of Gergesa was close to the lake known as Tiberias and located on the eastern shore of the more commonly known Sea of Galilee, in the district of Gadara, which was the capital of the Roman province of Peraea.
a. Gadara was a larger and important city 6-8 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee and apparently was the political centre of the entire region.
b. Considering the terrain of the area, it seems Jesus and the disciples landed very near a cemetery by the sea, south of the city Gergesa in the countryside called Gergesenes.
c. Matthew, in writing to Jews, most likely from the area, used the local city’s name, while Mark & Luke writing for a broader audience, who would be less knowledgeable of the region, used the countryside name Gadarenes in reference to the capital city, Gadara.
d. NOTE that Gergesa is on the coast of the lake, whereas Gadara was not. The miracle mentioned in this account could not have been wrought at Gadara itself, for between the lake and this town there is the deep, almost impassable ravine. ((Easton’s Bible Dictionary - Maps from Accordance Bible Software)
B. HIS CONDITION – vs. 2-4
1. He was UNSOCIALBE and a COMPANION to CORPSES – he came to confront Jesus from “out of the tombs” – Vs. 2
2. He was UNCLEAN: Vs. 2 says he had an “unclean spirit.”
a. Unclean means “impure, morally foul & lewd (meaning sexually crude and offensive) specially demonic.
1) Matthew & Luke say he was “possessed with devils.”
a) The word “devils” is from the Gk. = “daimonion” from which we get the word demon.
b) I know there are some children who act like the devil, but I think it unwise for believer to name your child Damion.
2) This man was personally isolated from others and & infiltrated with others!
3) Understand many a Christian has had a sinful, un-spiritual or un-pleasant attitude, BUT no true Christian can be possessed with a demon.
4) A believer can be OPRESSED because of un-yielded areas of their lives, but NOT POSSESSED. 1John 4:4 – “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
b. To be unclean gives us the impression not only was he morally perverse, but repugnant, revolting and repulsive—blood shot eyes, scuzzy, matted hair, foul, dirty, stinking—SIN not only STINKS, but SINKS souls into filth.
c. SIN is and always will be unclean thus dirty books, dirty magazines, dirty stories, dirty jokes, dirty movies, dirty fleshly revealing clothing and a whole lot of other dirty stuff.
1) Dirt on the inside produces dirt on the outside.
2) It’s “not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man” (Matt. 15:11).
d. This man was LITERALLY—full of the Devil! Most in the near-by town considered him be a “lost cause.”
3. He was UNCONTROLLABLE – Vs. 4-5
a. He was Deranged
b. He was Demented. This man was not only an OUT CAST, but he was “OUT OF CONTROL.”
c. This guy Dangerous. He was a menace—
1) He had super-human strength and was exceedingly Fierce, Ferocious & Frightening. – Vs. 3
2) Matthew 8:28 tells us he attacked anyone who ventured to take the road by the tombs.
d. The man in our story acted crazy, BUT was NOT mentally ill—he was NOT called a maniac (i.e. someone suffering from mental illness), he was a Demoniac. He was demonically possessed!
1) To be demoniac means that he was under the influence of the devil and his evil spirits.
2) This may surprise some people in our modern, super-scientific society, but demons are as real today as they were long ago.
3) Mt. 4:24 point out there is a difference in those sick and those with demons. “And [JESUS’] fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.”
e. Sin is always disturbed when Holiness shows up and I think this explains why there was an increase in demonic activity during Jesus lifetime.
1) They were stirred up and sought to defeat His efforts.
2) In our day there seems to be a return of demonic spirits. Is it because the time of our Lord return draws nigh? How do we explain some things, which happen around us?
a) Satan worship, new age, cult growth, etc?
b) What would make a woman drown her 5 children in a bathtub one by one?
f. This guy Demonstrated his demonic influence by purposely injuring himself. Vs. 5 says he cut himself with stones.
1) Self-mutilation, Suicide, Sadomasochism is on the rise in a society, which has no purpose and no direction.
2) It seems to be common for people to be cutting themselves, burning or bruising their bodies to help cope with stress so say our medical experts.
a) Such problems have sparked a flurry of training sessions for school nurses, counsellors and doctors and referrals to therapists.
b) Such problems in society are not new.
(i) Just like the demonic who Luke says, “had devils long time,” (Lk. 8:27) these ills have been around a long time—it is just that their prominence has not been heard recently.
(ii) I don’t believe this phenomenon is psychological, but demonic spiritual activity!!!!
c) Society doesn’t have any solutions for such problems. Society cannot solve the SIN problem by offering PILLS, PROGRAMS & PRISONS!
3) So many today are purposely disfiguring their bodies.
a) Tattoos are marking our bodies in some places you would not think possible.
b) Body Piercings of the tongue, nose, ears, stomach, as well as private parts.
c) Even Brandings – it is Satanic to disfigure the body. The body was created to be temples, which He purchased for Himself to dwell in!
4. Luke 8:27 reveals the this man “ware no clothes.” He was UNCLOTHED!
He was LEAN, MEAN, & overly SEEN!
HE was a RUDE, LEWD, CRUDE DUDE…in the NUDE!
a. This is a sure sign of Satanic INFLUENZA—INFLUENCE in society!WHAT is this sign? A demonic desire to be unclothed
1) I went to public school for 12 yrs. with girls. In all those years with all those girls I NEVER saw their belly buttons!
2) Sin had robbed this man of all MODESTY and DECENCY and so has our society today.
3) Women think nothing of putting on jeans or trousers that expose their private parts and intimate apparel. Participate in sports the expose every nook and cranny for sake of competition.
4) Did you see the first place the demonic pigs ran when ordered to go from the man among the tombs—they flew to the BEACH!
b. The locals in the community tried to bind the man, but they could not “tame” the man.
1) If they had been successful, what would they have done with him?Treated him like a one man freak show?
2) Their attempts to bind him wasn’t because they were trying to help him, they were only trying to protect themselves!
§ The best society can do for the ALCOHOLIC is put him in detox, and rehab!
§ The best society can do for ADDICTS, it to provide them with clean needles or give them legal addictive drugs!
§ The best society can do for sexually IMMORAL, is to provide it with so-called safe contraceptives, and seek to “educate them.”
All society can do with the thief is “put them away.”
This man was already shackled with chains greater than man could make.
He was in the bondage of sin and Satan!
What this man needed was for someone to set him free!
II. A DEMONIC RACE – Vs. 6 “Seeing “Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped Him”—”HE ran”
A. This man who ran everyone else off, ran to Jesus!
1. There is no record in Scripture that devils ever inhabited inanimate objects like rocks, trees or houses.
2. What we do know is that they inhabit PEOPLE, then PIGS—HUMANS then HOGS—SINNERS then SWINE.
* Do you know what you get when you cross a pig with a tree? —A porky-pine!
B. Did you know there are no atheists or agnostics among demons? They are not fools – Vs. 7
1. We need to understand that there is more to being saved than just to believe the Bible says. In James 2:19 – “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”
2. Notice some things about these demons.
a. They believed in Jesus’ Person: Vs. 7 – “Jesus, thou Son of the most high God.”
b. They believe in Prayer: Vs. 7 – “adjure”, 10, 12 “besought”
c. They believe in His Power when they pleaded with him to send them into the swine – Vs. 12
d. Devils have FAITH; Devils have FEAR. But neither their faith nor fear saves them.
3. The word “adjure” means to place someone under oath.
4. Mt. 8:29 reveals the demons were basically asking Jesus to give his solemn word that He would not send them into their eternal torment before their time.These demons begged Jesus to send them into the Pigs Not The Pit!!
C. Did you know that demons have names – Vs. 9
* This reminds me of a man was sued by a woman for defamation of character.
She charged that he had called her a pig. The man was found guilty and fined.
After the trial he asked the judge, “Does this means I CAN’T call Mrs. Johnson a pig?”