Breaking the Chains: The Sufficiency of Christ to Change Lives

1. Breaking the Chains: The Sufficiency of Christ to Change Lives Mark 5:1-20 [Previously Mark 4:35-41]

2. Same Story The exact name and location of this story is semi-problematic and scoffers love this kind of thing. • Matthew 8:28-34 • Luke 8:26-39

3. Mark 5:1-2 • And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. • And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

4. Mark 5:3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

5. Mark 5:4 WHY is he among the tombs? • Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

6. Mark 5:5 Let’s talk about self-destructive behavior. • And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

7. All self-destructive behavior has Satanic origins. What is the first example of such behavior in the Bible?

8. Types of Self-Destructive Behavior • Cutting • Alcoholism • Anorexia • Forced-vomiting • Drug Abuse • Denial • Promiscuous Behavior • Suicide • Selfishness • Greed • Covetousness

9. Notice what the only appropriate response to an encounter with Jesus is.

10. Mark 5:6 • But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, • And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.

11. Mark 5:7 • And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? • I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

12. This is an Authority Issue Mark is stacking a series of stories to prove Christ is as much God as Yahweh is God

13. Mark 5:7 • I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

14. Torment (or a variant) Is found 22x in 20 verses in the NT

15. Torment Occurs 4x In Luke 16:19-31 The Rich Man and Lazarus

16. Revelation 20:10 • And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

17. Fear of Torment Is a Legitimate Reason to Come to Christ

18. Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

19. Proselytizing Turn to 2 Corinthians 5:11

20. Mark 5:8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

21. Mark 5:9 Jesus asks the question obviously for the disciples benefit. • And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

22. Mark 5:10 We don’t know why the demon[s] did not want to be sent to another country, but even this statement magnifies the authority of Christ. • And he [the demon] besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

23. Mark 5:11 • Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

24. Mark 5:12 • And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

25. Mark 5:13 permission Permission is an authority word. • And forthwith Jesus gave them leave.

26. Mark 5:13 • And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

27. Mark 5:14 • And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.

28. Mark 5:15 This is not the same man. • 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.

29. Question Do you need to have an encounter with Christ this morning?

30. Mark 5:16 This is another Mark 1:28 event! • And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.

31. Mark 1:28 And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.

32. See the Depravity of Man What will America be willing to give up to fix economic problems? Why? $ Mark 5:17 • And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

33. Saved People Want to be w/ Jesus Mark 5:18 • And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.

34. Instructions to Us Mark 5:19 • Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

35. This man’s encounter with Jesus makes him an entirely different person

36. Mark 5:20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

37. Is it a Secret? Matthew 10:32–33 • Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. • But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.