Mark - Lesson 7...Continued from page 1

DAY TWO:  A Worshipping Demon?

Please carefully read Mark 5:6-9 and answer the following questions.

1.  What did this man do as soon as he saw Jesus (v. 6)?

2.  It is unlikely that the demon force in the man actually worshipped Jesus; while the Greek word can be translated worship, it primarily refers to doing homage to someone because of their position.  How does the demonic force in this man cry out to Jesus to demonstrate this (v. 7)?  What does James 2:19 add to this?

3.  Why was the demon force reacting like this (v. 8)?  What did Jesus ask of the demoniac, and what was the response (v. 9)?

NOTE: The demon’s response implies a vast demonic force within this man.  The size of a Roman legion numbered 4,000 to 6,000 men, but here it should be understood that there were a lot of demons inhabiting him, not necessarily that many.[vii]

4.  Who knows how long this man was been driven and tortured by this demonic force, and the demonic “spokesman” had the nerve to plead with Jesus not to torture them!  There are mixed views about the role of demon possession today, and whether these people were merely having neurological problems or some mental illness that Jesus cured.  Yet demons are real.  They are the forces of Satan, helping to carry out his plan for the destruction of man.  Jesus clearly taught in the Gospels that demons can possess those who don’t believe (for example, Matthew 12:45, Luke 11:24-26).  A teaching popular in the 1980s and 90s, and I suppose today still, was that believers too can be demon possessed, so one’s problems can conveniently be blamed on everything from the demon of acne to the demon of Zingers!  This is not true. However, it is true that Satan through his demonic forces can tempt, oppress, and oppose the believer.  If you don’t believe that, as someone once said, try opposing him for a while!  But Christ has authority over us, and His Spirit is within us, who gives us protection from such demon possession.  We may possibly actually judge these fallen angels at the return of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:3)![viii] 

Read at least some of the following passages and record what else you learn from them about the limitations of Satan and his minions, and the security of the born-again believer from being possessed by demon forces.

Daniel 10:10-14; Ephesians 6:10-13

1 Corinthians 2:12; 6:9-11; 2 Corinthians 4:1-4

1 Peter 5:8, 9

1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:4; 5:1-4, 18

Scripture Memory:  Try to fill in the missing words in the blanks below, by memory if at all possible, and then review the passage several times today.

“Go __________________ to your friends, and tell them what _________________ things the Lord has ________________ for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”  Mark 5:19b, nkjv