One of the first evangelists must have made a big impact just by showing up in the Gentile city where he ministered.  In Luke 8.26-39 we meet the man in his previous state – a naked, demon-possessed, chain-breaking, desert tombs dweller. 

Just as in the previous verses (Luke 8.22-25) where Jesus had shown mastery over nature (specifically a raging storm on Lake Galilee) here we see his ability to control other feared forces.  After Jesus sent the demons into pigs who then charged into the lake to drown (thus combining three things the Jews knew to avoid: deep puddles, pigs, and poltergeists), the delivered man was “seated at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.”

The townspeople saw the former demoniac and were afraid.  The people from the surrounding country were so filled with fear that they asked Jesus to leave.  The saved man begged to go with Jesus but the Master gave him a different mission, to “return to your home and declare how much God has done for you” – a version of the Great Commission!

The people to whom the Man of the Tombs witnessed were formerly afraid of his wild, uncontrollable nature.   Then they were afraid of the one who could control the Wildman. And now, the calm, changed man was proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”  Just as it is today, some of the Saved with the roughest backgrounds make the best evangelists.

We can’t know for sure, but I suspect this man kept up with Jesus’ life, responded to the Gospel, and made disciples wherever he was.