Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Demons, Pigs, and Jesus | The Gospels | Mark 5:1-20

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

How does sin affect us? Who is Legion? Are you sharing what God has done for you? In today's episode, Keith shares how Mark 5:1-20 reminds us of the binding powers of sin. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Want to learn even more about the Gospels? Tune into Not Just Sunday. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 5:1-20

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I came across a book with an intriguing title. The title was, I wish I'd been there. And the book was written by several historians, each kind of writing a chapter about historical events they wish they'd been at. Some said, I'd wish I'd been there when Lincoln was shot, or I wish I'd been there at the Salem Witch Trials. The idea is that these moments in history were so powerful, so meaningful, or maybe just so

exciting that I wish I'd been there to take it all in. If a sports magazine did something like this, they might say, I wish I'd been there when Jesse Owens won four gold medals in front of Hitler in the 1936 Olympics. Or I wish I'd been there when Lou Gehrig gave his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium after having been diagnosed with what was later called Lou Gehrig's disease. When you read the Bible, are there times when you find yourself saying, I wish I'd been there? Well, there's probably a lot of those. But one of those for me is when Jesus heals the man possessed by a legion of demons in Mark chapter 5. Here's how it starts. They went across the lake to the region of garracines. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.

This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons with his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. As soon as Jesus and the disciples get out of the boat, here's this strange solitary figure approaching them. The man is bloodstain. He's scarred naked. It's clear that he's a madman and he's rushing toward them. The description of this man is one of the saddest descriptions of human wretchedness in the entire Bible. How do you deal with a man who is a threat to himself and others. In those days, it would have been common for people in the town to bind a man like this

with chains. When the chains failed, they probably drove him away into the hills to live among the tombs. This man is a picture of what sin wants to do to us. First, sin hurts you. It's clear. It's destroying this man, and sin will destroy your life. Sin isolates you. This man lives by himself. He lives in the tomb. even when he was alive he was consigned to the land of the dead sin will isolate you it will cut off relationships that you have relationships that are important to you and finally sin hurts others there are always social consequences to our sin our sin doesn't just affect us but it affects our family our friends co-workers if you're in a school or on a team it affects those as well verse six when this man saw jesus from a distance he ran and fell on his knees and

front of him. The man sees the boat approaching and he immediately recognizes Jesus. So he runs down to the shore. Now there's going to be a confrontation. Demonic spirits versus Jesus. Satan is doing all that he can to interfere with Jesus' mission. Verse 7. He shouted at the top of his voice, what do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Isn't it interesting that the demons know who Jesus is better than the crowds? the demons here call him son of the most high God. Verse 9. Then Jesus asked him, what is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. Legion was a Roman military term for a large unit made up of thousands of soldiers.

Verse 11. A large herd of pigs was feeding on a nearby hillside. The demon begged Jesus, send us among the pigs, allow us to go into them. He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs, the herd, about 2,000 in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. So Jesus commands the demons to leave this man and then gives them permission to go into the pigs who promptly run down the side of the cliff and into the sea. The fate of those pigs showed the ultimate intention that those demons had for the man that they had possessed. This is what sin and Satan always want to do in your life. They want to destroy

you. Sin is something we should never play with. Verse 14. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, dressed in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

The reaction of the locals is pretty surprising, isn't it? I mean, here is this man that they had deemed crazy, that they were all scared of, but now he's been healed. He is in his right mind. When people see how Jesus changed this man's life, you might have expected revival, like mass celebrations, mass conversions, but that's not what happened. Instead of rejoicing and repenting, this changed life leads to fear. They beg and plead for Jesus to leave them. It's a sad verse, isn't it? But he kind of shows the natural condition of the human heart? A person can see a miracle, but it won't soften their heart. Maybe the townspeople were affected by the financial loss that the pigs represented. I mean, when the pigs

killed themselves, so did their livelihood. Either way, though, they're more afraid of Jesus than the demoniac. They want Jesus to leave. But I want you to see also that the people prefer the pigs to Jesus. The heart that rejects Jesus is deceived to the point of foolishness. that you want pigs more than you want him. Verse 18. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. This man, now that he's been healed,

wants to be Jesus' disciples. So he wants to get back in the boat with Jesus. Verse 19, Jesus did not let him, but said, go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis, that's a group of 10 cities.

he began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and all the people were amazed. This man whose life had been changed watches as the townspeople are begging Jesus to leave. And you can imagine how shocked he is that they are rejecting Jesus the one who healed him. So as Jesus gets back into the boat, this man goes, I want to go with you, Jesus. But Jesus says, no, you can't come. And I'm sure the man was very confused. The townspeople were probably angry with him because they'd lost their livelihood with the But this man's thinking, there's nothing for me here in this town anymore. Jesus, you changed my life. I want to go with you. But Jesus says, instead of coming with me, go home and tell everyone how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. And that is exactly what this man did. Verse 20. So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and all the people were amazed. When Jesus later returns to this same region, he is

received in a completely different way. He just gets a whole different kind of reception. It's a far more welcoming reception. The people are glad to see him. Why the different reception? Probably because this man who'd been possessed by demons, but was healed and in his right mind, have been telling people how Jesus had mercy on him, how Jesus had healed him. We have a tendency to make things too complicated. Let's keep this simple. We need to learn from this man that we should tell people our story and what the Lord has done for us. The right response to the gospel is to share what God has done for you with other people. Will you pray with me? Jesus, you have had mercy on us. We were caught up in sin. We were blinded by sin. We were in love with sin. Sin was destroying our lives.

And you came and you opened our eyes and you changed our heart and you rescued us from the power of sin. And now, Father, we want to thank you. We want to follow you. And we want to tell everyone in our life how you have had mercy on us. Give us the grace that we might be bold in our witness to Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen.