Mark 5:1-20 And they came over to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.… I. THE GERGESENE IN BONDAGE. Was he not a free man, one who would not be bound by others — would go his own way? Yet he was a miserable slave (vers. 15-18). Here was one who seemed to be free, yet was really a slave. II. HOW THE GERGESENE WAS RESCUED. Could not escape himself — the evil spirit too strong. Friends could not rescue him. Hopeless until someone stronger than the devils should come — then deliverance (compare Luke 11:21, 22). Jesus not only stronger than one evil spirit — an army of them here (ver. 9). Yet see His supremacy. 1. They could go nowhere against His will. 2. Besought Him. 3. Even when He defeated them. III. THE GERGESENE AT LIBERTY. 1. Is it like a free man to be sitting at another's feet like that? 2. What does he ask of Jesus? Would it be freedom to have to follow another everywhere? 3. Jesus gives him an order; is that like liberty, to obey it so implicitly? Yes, for it is his own free choice to be, like St. Paul afterwards, the "slave of Christ" (Romans 1:1). (E. Stock.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.WEB: They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. |
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