In preaching through the Gospel of Mark, I came to chapter 5:1-20, the person possessed by demons and delivered by Christ. Rather than concentrating on the demon part, I choose to concentrate on the power of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver us from Satanic power and control. Without Christ living in you (Col. 1:17) you have no protection from those spiritual forces that C.S. Lewis so cleverly described in Screwtape Letters. When you trust in Christ, 1 John tells us “greater is the One in you than the one in the world” (meaning, Christ lives in us and Satan has no power over us). Thus we have the promise of our Savior, that He will deliver us from that type of bondage. Of course, we can choose to jump into that type of bondage … the kind of things that we all face as human beings, the habits and addictions that come us so easily. In saying that, we know we have a choice in the matter. We can choose to follow our Savior, or choose to follow our own sinful desires.
In the case of the man in this passage, we find that when he was delivered, he wanted to join the band of disciples and be near Christ. But our Lord told him to stay put, and tell the people of that entire region the ‘great things the Lord has done for you” (NKJV). We can draw numerous applications for this, the least of which is that we need to testify to the greatness of God in delivering us from the power of Satan to control us. And to say this humbly, we need to recognize the weakness in our own lives as being able to “no” to those things that we know are evil.
One last observation, the demons recognized Jesus as “the Son of the Most High God” (Hebrew name: El Elyon). This is very significant, in that we learn to the true identity of Christ early in the Gospel! He is God in the flesh. One can only imagine the impact that must have had on the disciples. And for us, the impact is that when we think of who is that “lives in us” (Col. 1:17 “Christ in you the hope of glory”), we should immediately worship and praise Him. He has delivered us from Satan, our selves, and from the power of sin. What a wonderful Savior we have!
