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For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another (Romans 12:4-5).

What comes to mind when we think of a church?  Quite naturally, we picture a building where one goes to worship on Sundays.  The English word “church” is derived from the Greek adjective, “kyriakon,” meaning “belonging to the Lord” - “Theology for every Christian.”   It may refer to (1) the Lord’s people in general, (2) any particular group of the Lord’s people, or (3) the building in which the Lord’s people worship (I Cor. 11: 20, Rev. 1: 10).

The Greek word for “church” is “ekklesia”  meaning “called out, summoned out or gathered.”  So Christians are “the called-out ones” - an assembly separated unto God.  Interestingly, the church is sometimes referred to without the use of the word itself.  We see this in I Peter 2: 9-10: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light:   Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 

And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.  2 And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,  3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:  4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.  5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.  6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped Him,  7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.  8 For He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.  9 And He asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.  10 And he besought Him much that He would not send them away out of the country.  11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.  12 And all the devils besought Him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.  13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.  14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country.  And they went out to see what it was that was done.  15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.  16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.  17 And they began to pray Him to depart out of their coasts.  18 And when He was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed Him that he might be with Him.  19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.  20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel  (Mark 5: 1-20)

These verses describe one of those mysterious miracles which the Gospels frequently record - the casting out of a devil.  Of all the cases of this kind in the New Testament, none is so fully described as this one.  Of all the three evangelists who relate the history, none gives it so fully and minutely as Mark.