The Man with the Unclean Spirit
Mark 5:1-20

One day the Lord Jesus traveled by ship to a country of the Gadarenes, it was the same day that Jesus calmed the wind and the waves.

And when he came out of the ship, right away there came to him a man with an unclean spirit, a devil, whose home was among the tombs, and no man could tie him up, no, not even with chains, because he had often been tied up with chains, and they had been torn apart by him, and no man could tame him.  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.  But a wonderful thing happened, when he saw Jesus far off, he ran and worshipped him, because he believed that Jesus could help him.

And the unclean spirit  cried with a loud voice, and he said "What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the most high God?  I plead with you by God, that you torment me not."  For Jesus had said to him "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit"  Even the unclean spirits know that Jesus is God.

And so Jesus asked him "What is your name" and he answered saying "My name is Legion, for we are many." And he pleaded with Jesus  that he would not send them away out of the country.

Now there was there nearby the mountains a great herd of pigs feeding, and all the devils pleaded with Jesus saying "Send us into the pigs that we may enter into them".  And so Jesus gave them permission.  And the unclean spirits went out of the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd of pigs ran very quickly down a steep place into the sea, (there were about two thousand pigs) and they were drowned in the sea.

And the people who fed the pigs ran away, and told what had happened in the city and in the country.  And everyone came to see what had happened.  And they came to Jesus, and they saw the man that had been possessed by the devil, and had all the unclean spirits inside him, but now he was sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind, and the people were afraid.

And the people who fed the pigs told the other people what had happened to the man, and also what had happened to the pigs.  And so the people began to ask Jesus to leave their home.

But the man that Jesus had driven the devils out of went with Jesus and pleaded with Jesus that he could stay with him.  But Jesus said no, and instead said "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and that he has had compassion on you".  And so the man departed and began to tell in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him, and all the men that heard did wonder at these things.

Memory Verse:  Mark 5:19"...tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and has had compassion on thee."

Questions:
1.  What was wrong with the man?
2.  Why do you think he came to Jesus?
3.  Why did the spirits ask Jesus not to torment them?
4.  Why did Jesus tell the man to go home when he wanted to stay with Jesus?

Answers:
1.  He had an unclean spirit inside him (a devil)
2.  Because he knew and believed that Jesus could help him.
3.  Because they knew that Jesus was the Son of God and had power over them.
4.  Because Jesus knew that the man would tell everything that had happened to him and that more people might believe that Jesus was God.

Vicki C. Gross/Aug.'02