Mensa Otabil - A Man With An Unclean Spirit
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Welcome to a brand new week! This week, we are starting a study from Mark chapter five. We’re going to look at Jesus’s encounter with a man who is demon-possessed. We start from Mark chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. When he had come out of the boat, immediately they met him out of the tomb, a man with an unclean spirit.
The background of the story is that Jesus and his disciples were on the Sea of Galilee. There was a huge storm; Jesus was asleep in the boat, and the boat was in jeopardy. The disciples went to him and asked him for help. Of course, Jesus came and stilled the storm. Now, they have come out of that storm to land. It’s dark, and they are in the country of the Gadarenes, where they are met by a man who is demon-possessed. The picture here is that they have come from a storm outside, and they meet a man who has a storm inside of him. How is Jesus going to deal with this internal storm in the man?
There are two things I want to point out for today. First, the passage says that the man was living in the tombs. In those days, the tombs were burial places that were hewn out of rock, limestone. So, it’s not like a cemetery today. This would be in a rocky, stony area, and the man is in the stony area among the tombs. The picture is of a man who has left the land of the living and is living in the land of the dead. In a sense, you could call him a living dead man. He seems to be alive; he seems functional, but his whole lifestyle is one of death. He’s been cut off from society; he can’t live among regular people, although he is a human being.
The reason the passage assigns to this man’s behavior and where he is living amongst the tombs is because the passage says he has an unclean spirit. Something bigger than himself had taken charge of him-an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit is essentially one that is evil or under Satan’s command. Not all spirits are clean; there are spirits that are unclean. When an unclean spirit takes control of a person, it begins to drive them to do all kinds of things that are not clean. An unclean spirit can lead a person to manifest extreme hatred, extreme anger, a lustful life, or a life full of greed and avarice.
This man is alive; if you see him, he is a human being. But inside him, there is a storm that he did not create. The storm exists because there is something else contending with him internally. Jesus comes, and the man meets Jesus. And that’s how the Bible puts it: Jesus didn’t meet him; the man met Jesus. This means he confronted Jesus; he came out against Jesus in this stony, rocky area where dead people have been placed.
Jesus has to confront this man. The picture of the man here reflects many people: they seem to be okay, but something inside them-a storm brewing — drives them into wrong places, crazy situations, and leads them to do very destructive things. We’re going to learn a few more things about this man and how this spirit harassed him. Of course, we' ll learn about how Jesus Christ, the great Deliverer, came and delivered him. I believe that if you find yourself or anyone you love in this situation, deliverance is coming to you this week.
Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, you still the storms of the sea. Come and still every storm raging in my life. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.