WEBVTT 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:02.640 Matthew chapter 8. 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.599 We'll be in verses 28 down to the end of the chapter. 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:09.279 We'll be finishing our study in Matthew in this chapter this morning. 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:11.759 Next week will be Easter Sunday. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:17.199 We'll be in 2 Corinthians 4, looking at the power of the resurrection from there. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:26.719 And let me encourage you all if you're able to attend the 8 o'clock service next week just to make more room for the number of visitors we have. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:30.559 I mean, come whenever you want to, but they asked me to say that, so I say it. 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:38.240 If you come to the 8 o'clock, you beat the Methodist to Easter brunch. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:42.960 Let me pray for us before we begin. 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.840 Lord, we do ask for your mercy to be upon us. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.119 We know that if we relied on our own strength to understand your word, we'd be left in the darkness. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:57.840 If we relied on our own initiative to achieve spiritual life, we'd be left dead. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:05.599 But we're thankful that you leave us not to our own strength or to our own will or devices, but rather you give us light through your word. 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:12.319 You give us light through your spirit who causes our souls to become alive through faith and causes our eyes to see truth in your word. 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:17.120 So we pray that what we read this morning would cause us to grow more into the image of Christ. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:19.120 We ask this in Jesus' name. 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:20.079 Amen. 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:35.519 So Matthew 8, we ended this morning, but it has been a really surprising chapter filled with one unpredictable scene after another, one really outlandish attestation of Jesus' authority after another. 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:47.200 If you remember, this whole chapter is flowing out of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthews 5, 6, and 7, where Jesus claimed for himself the authority to reorient the world around himself. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:02:01.120 He came preaching a gospel that he said would go to the Gentiles, a gospel that would go to those who were Romans, who didn't even know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he came saying that you could put your faith in him and you'd be saved. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:08.080 And he came to the Jews saying, You've heard the Pharisees say, you've heard that the Torah said this and that and the other thing, but I say to you something different. 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:10.879 And so he he changed the whole religion of the Jews. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:17.439 He discarded it and replaced it with his own teaching, his own direction about what it takes to have eternal life. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:23.919 And so the question at the end of the sermon, at the end of Matthew 7, is who exactly does he think he is? 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:29.039 Who has that kind of authority to reorient the world around himself? 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:48.400 And then Matthew 8 and Matthew 9 is a series of miracles, a series of, in some cases, teaching, radical teaching, and unprecedented miracles that establish that Jesus Christ has the authority to tell you what you're supposed to believe. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:50.560 That's the point of these miracles. 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:55.520 And as I mentioned, they were one really outrageous one after another. 00:02:55.759 --> 00:02:57.439 It began with him touching a leper. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:02:59.120 Who touches a leper? 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:04.000 You know, even today, nurses will put on the hazmat suits and everything. 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:06.560 Jesus touches the leper and heals them. 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:23.599 And then from there it goes to a centurion, a Roman centurion, an officer in the Roman military who has a slave who's sick or a servant who's sick, and the Pharisees go to Jesus asking for a favor for the Roman centurion because the centurion built the Jewish synagogue. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:26.800 I mean, it's absurd, but it's what happens. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:30.400 And Jesus, of course, heals the centurion servant from a distance. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:32.479 Doesn't even go to the house. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:51.439 Followed by Matthew saying that Jesus did miracles to show that he fulfills probably the most well-known, the most significant, the most important messianic prophecy there is from Isaiah 53, that he took our sins and our sorrows, he took our trespasses and our diseases on himself. 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:54.639 That's ascribed in verse 17. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:11.680 And then after that, Jesus tells people that they need to surrender their life and follow him, that he is more important than their relationship with their family, that he's more important than their relationship to comforts, that it's better to follow Jesus and sleep on a rock than have a nice house. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:18.639 That it's better to walk away from your family and follow Christ than to keep in a good relationship with your family without Christ. 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.199 I mean, who says that kind of thing? 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:33.120 Jesus does, and of course, last week he's on the stormy Sea of Galilee with the boat being sunk by the wind and the waves, and he gets up and dismisses the wind and the waves. 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:37.680 And says, I'm trying to sleep over here. 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:40.319 And they go away. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:48.480 Leaving the disciples seasick, leaving the disciples filled with fear. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.639 And this morning we encounter, again, another one of these miracles. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.720 It's almost like this chapter has peaked too early. 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:01.600 After each one of these paragraphs, you think, can something more outlandish happen next? 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:03.040 And the answer is always yes. 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:04.480 With Jesus, it's always yes. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.240 It's always going to get crazier. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:08.639 And that's what happens this morning. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:20.879 So far, to put it another way, we've seen Jesus' authority over disease with the leper, over distance with a centurion servant, over prophecy with him fulfilling Isaiah, over people by him telling him people to surrender their lives and follow him. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:24.959 We've seen his authority over the natural world with reeking the wind and the waves. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:28.639 And now we see his authority over the supernatural world. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:33.759 He establishes that he has authority over even the demons. 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:39.920 Let's read the passage together, beginning in verse 28 down through verse 34. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:40.720 I'll read it for us. 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:45.040 He came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:51.439 Two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:54.959 And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us, O Son of God? 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:57.839 Have you come here to torment us before the time? 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:07.759 Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them, and the demons begged him, saying, If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs. 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:09.839 And he heard them. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.600 And Jesus said to them, Go. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:18.319 So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:26.399 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:33.120 And behold, all the city came to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:38.560 If you remember, this happened after the crossing of the Sea of Galilee. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:45.279 Jesus had been ministering in the Capernaum on the west, really the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee. 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:48.959 The crowds had forced him into the water, and now the crowds have forced him to cross. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:50.720 He's getting away from the masses. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:53.040 He crosses the sea at night, rebukes the wind and the waves. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:58.560 There would have been this little flotilla going with him, other boats Mark and Luke describe, going with him across. 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:00.720 There was, you know, an entourage that was following him. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:07.839 John lets us know that many of the Jews headed out on foot to get around to catch up to Jesus, but he gets there ahead of all of them. 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:09.680 He's there with his disciples. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:11.120 This is the Gadarenes. 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:12.480 This is the decapolis area. 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:13.519 It means ten cities. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:16.160 It's a little province in the Roman Empire. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:20.800 It used to be part of Israel, but Pompey separated it from Israel and made it its own area. 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:24.240 It's almost entirely Gentile, meaning most Jews aren't there. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:32.000 The Sea of Galilee, picture like a, you know, an oval, and at the bottom end of it is the city of Tiberias, which the Romans built upon a graveyard. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:34.399 Jews would not pass through Tiberius. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:48.160 So if you were in the Sea of Galilee region and you wanted to get to Jerusalem, you'd have to go around Tiberius and down the Jordan River, or maybe even out to the Mediterranean towards Carmel and down towards modern-day Tel Aviv and then up to Jerusalem. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:55.120 If you went the other way around the Sea of Galilee, there's the Jordan River that goes north, and that's how you'd go up into Syria or modern day Lebanon. 00:07:55.360 --> 00:08:08.800 But if you were to cross it and go across it, those are the heights up there, the mountains up there, and this is where the Syrians used to launch rockets in our day and age over the top of the heights down towards the Israelites over the Sea of Galilee. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.279 This is all, you know, Israel now owns a buffer there. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.839 And that other side is very desolate. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:21.040 There's these cliffs, hills there now, and now there's a little two-lane highway that runs along the back side of the Sea of Galilee, but it doesn't really go anywhere. 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:25.439 Remember, it's the the sea is a circle, and there's really nothing on the opposite side of it. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:27.680 So you would you wouldn't really need to drive over there. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:32.240 There's some like little hotels there now, is why tourist buses are the only thing over there. 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:41.120 In Jesus' lifetime, there'd be no reason to walk along that side unless you lived out there and you were part of the Decapolis, and even then you would just head up into Syria. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:50.240 If you wanted to get back into Israel, you could go down towards Siberius, or you could go the north way and up over the top of it, and that's that little road that's there. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:52.799 But again, this is mostly Gentile area. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:58.320 Jesus heads there now, crosses the sea, and finds himself in Gentile territory. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:00.559 In this decapolis. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:07.279 What he finds there, it says in verse 28, is two demon-possessed men who came out to meet him. 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:11.279 Now, Mark and Luke tell the same story, and they add some other details. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:14.559 You take all three of the stories together, you get really a full picture. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:17.360 And that's the way the New Testament works with the synoptic gospels. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.720 By the testimony of two or three witnesses, every fact is established. 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:25.440 And so all three of these witnesses provide their own corroborating details to the account. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:28.240 Matthew lets you know there's two of these demon-possessed men. 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:33.360 Mark lets you know that one was more strong or more severe than the others. 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:36.559 Luke lets you know that they were running around naked. 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:37.679 They weren't wearing clothes. 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:46.000 Mark said that the people tried to put them in chains, and that one of them in particular kept breaking off the chains, and that one would grab stones and would cut himself. 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:52.960 He was self-harming himself to deal with the pain of suffering that he was going through because he was demon-possessed. 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.759 Because this hill there, the graves, they didn't bury in the ground. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:09:59.279 I mean, it's pretty much a rock there. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:03.759 They would have these caves and they put the bodies in the caves there, and these men were living in the caves. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:09.279 And it's a steep hill down to the ocean there, or down to the Mediterranean, I mean, sorry, down to the Sea of Galilee there. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:15.120 And you couldn't pass that way underneath them, Mark lets you know, because these people would run down. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:18.720 In fact, Matthew says that at the end of verse 28. 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:23.120 So they were so fierce, these two men that were filled with demons, that nobody could pass that way. 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:27.519 They're closing off the whole passage around that side of the Sea of Galilee. 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:31.279 Again, it's not a very busy road. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:35.279 Nevertheless, if you lived over there, you're now trapped. 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:46.960 You can go down one way through the Sea of Galilee by the Sea of Galilee and cross the Jordan to Tiberias, but you can't go the other way without this road unless you go all the way up into Syria and around the back side of it that way. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:53.039 So this is a serious issue that these Gentiles are dealing with, these demon-possessed men. 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:57.440 Now the word demon-possessed there just means that they're demonized the word. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:59.519 It means they have demons afflicting them. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:05.840 I don't think it's a technical term to mean the demons are in them, although certainly the demons do possess them, the demons take over their voices. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:09.759 Here Mark lets you know and speak on their behalf. 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:19.759 But these demons are hounding them, attacking them, taking over their bodies, making them miserable people. 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:30.320 These people are are, you know, the devil has robbed them of their dignity, robbed them of their their modesty, they're running around naked, robbed them of their sanity, robbed them of their homes. 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:32.960 They're living out abandoned in the wilderness. 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:41.679 Mark lets you know when Jesus crosses, he sees the tomb in the distance, and Jesus tells the demons to get out of them. 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:48.399 And what happens then is that at least one of them runs down the hill at Jesus. 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:49.519 I mean, imagine the scene. 00:11:49.600 --> 00:12:09.279 He's off the boat, he sees the men coming out of the graves, and Jesus knows they're demon-possessed and tells the demons to leave him, and so the man runs down in his his anger and in his energy down the hill and throws himself not onto Jesus but at his feet. 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:15.919 This is the spiritual showdown that we encounter here. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:31.360 A ferocious and wicked, demonically possessed man, a second demonically possessed man as well, the first one strong enough to break strains, stronger than any posse in the region who certainly would have tried to capture him, and he hurls himself at Jesus. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:41.440 That's the conflict in the devil that the devil's opposed to Christ, but here this demon-possessed man flings himself at Jesus' feet. 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:44.559 And what follows is really an outrageous scene. 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:45.919 Let me give you an outline to go through it. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.600 Three graveyard surprises that attest to Jesus' authority. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:51.600 Or three cemetery surprises. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:53.919 Homeschooling alliteration there. 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:59.600 Three cemetery surprises that affirm Jesus' authority. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:05.039 I'm giving you this as the outline because the most common word in this passage is the word behold. 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:06.480 You see it three different times. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:08.480 It's a word that indicates surprise. 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:10.559 Matthew's saying, and check this out. 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:13.519 That would be the Jesse Standard version, would be check this out. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:14.799 You're not going to believe this. 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:15.440 Get a hold of this. 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:22.000 And this is a word that Matthew uses a lot in his gospel to indicate a surprise, surprise, but he uses it 11 times in this passage. 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:23.200 Matthew 8 and 9. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:28.240 11 times Jesus does one surprising thing after another to show his authority. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:30.320 And in this passage, it's used three times. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:34.159 There's really three surprises that await us in this passage. 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:35.919 Let's look at them one at a time. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.960 The first surprise is a surprising confession. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:40.480 A surprising confession. 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.840 As I mentioned, these demonically possessed men run down. 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:46.879 One of them flings himself at Jesus' feet. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:48.159 Mark lets you know. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:49.840 They meet Jesus. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:56.799 Verse 29, they cry out to him, What have you to do with us, O Son of God? 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:59.519 Have you come here to torment us before the time? 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:00.879 And there's that word, verse 29. 00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:02.639 Behold, check this out. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:06.639 They come to Jesus and they call him the Son of God. 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:10.960 Now that's not normal. 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:14.000 Son of God is a very precise phrase. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:16.240 It's a Trinitarian phrase. 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:18.879 That God exists in one being. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:22.480 There's one essence that is God, there's one being of God. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.840 But God exists in three persons. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:32.399 The Father is the first of the three members of the Trinity, and the Father has an image of himself. 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:40.240 The essence or the being of God has an image of itself, and the image is exactly like the Father in every way, shape, or form. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:51.840 The Father pictures himself, and in every way, shape, and form, all of the essence of the Father, all of the nature, all of the attributes, all the glory, all the excellencies of the Father are embodied in this image. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:53.840 But the image is a separate person. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:58.159 Just like if you have your own image of yourself, that image is different than you are. 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:01.440 It's not you, it's your image of you. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:04.000 But with the Father, that image is perfect in every way. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:14.480 It's exactly like him in every way, shape, and form with all of his attributes, including the attribute of life and eternality, eternal existence. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:16.240 He's the eternal God. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:21.519 Except it is the Son, a second person of the Trinity. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:29.840 The Father and the Son are identical in every way, shape, and form, except the Father begets or generates the Son. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.519 And the Son is begotten or is the Son. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:37.360 That's why we call the first member of the Trinity the Father and the second the Son. 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:39.840 This is an eternal existence, an eternal arrangement. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:43.440 There was never a time where the Father was without the Son, or he wouldn't be the Father. 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:45.519 There was never a time where the Son did not exist. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:47.519 This is eternally in the past. 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:51.519 Now demons know this. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:55.840 Demons recognize the Son of God when they encounter him. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:58.320 They've seen him before. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.519 Demons were made by the triune God. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:12.399 The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, together, the three persons of the Trinity, sharing the same essence and glories and attributes of God, together they created the universe, together they created the angels. 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:13.919 Together they created the earth. 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:15.759 Together they created Adam. 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:18.399 And the devil wanted control of the earth. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:20.559 He wanted to be the one that reigned on the earth. 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:23.360 And so the devil rebels against God. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:29.519 When God makes Adam and gives the earth to Adam, the devil rebels against God and wants it for himself and goes and attacks Adam. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:31.919 And a third of the angels go with the devil. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:44.159 A third of the angels rebel against the authority of God, and rebel against the authority of the Son of God as well, rebel against the love of the Holy Spirit, rebel against Adam, and they take their hatred out on the earth. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:45.759 They go after Adam. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:51.120 And ever since then, that third of the angels has been attacking mankind. 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.639 They don't have a particular Christological agenda. 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:58.399 It's not that they're only attacking Christians, that they're only opposed to Christ. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:01.360 They are opposed to Christ, but they're opposed to people. 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:09.759 Angels, fallen angels, hate people and want to inflict harm and suffering on them in any way possible. 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:20.480 Nevertheless, the devil and all angels, fallen and unfallen alike, know who God is. 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:24.240 They recognize who the Son of God is. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:32.880 So far in Matthew's gospel, you've only seen one other time where Jesus was identified as the Son of God. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:43.519 In the wilderness. 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:44.880 And there it was conditional. 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:51.359 The devil says, if you think you're the Son of God, if you really are the Son of God, then command these rocks to turn into bread. 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:56.720 If you really are the Son of God, then fling yourself off the top of the temple and let the angels catch you. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:58.480 If you really are the Son of God. 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:05.839 That was the devil's temptation, causing Jesus, if he's able to, question his own identity as God incarnate. 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:12.000 And of course, Jesus resists the devil and says it is written, You shall serve God alone. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:17.440 Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the Father's mouth. 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:19.039 That's Jesus is resisting the devil. 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:23.119 We'll hear the demons likewise recognize who Jesus is. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:25.119 And they confess that he's the Son of God. 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:30.240 And he's not going to be confessed as the Son of God again in Matthew's Gospel until Peter says it. 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:33.599 We declare that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:39.359 I mean, if you're curious, and I was curious, I looked at this phrase in the other gospels this week. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:44.319 In Mark's gospel, Mark 1, verse 1, the author Mark identifies Jesus as the Son of God. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:49.680 But after that, it's the demons that say, Jesus, you're the Son of God in the synagogue when they're being cast out. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:54.400 And then in Mark's Gospel, it's not again until the centurion at the end of the gospel. 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:58.480 The centurion who's overseeing the crucifixion of Christ calls in the Son of God. 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:00.319 That's it in Mark's Gospel. 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:05.759 In Luke's gospel, it's the devil, of course, and demons, but Luke adds one other. 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.319 It's the Pharisees at Jesus' trial. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:13.200 And they say, Is it true that you're the Son of God? 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:15.680 You remember Jesus' response? 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:18.079 You say that I am. 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:20.319 Turns it back against them. 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:28.720 So Jesus is certainly the Son of God in human flesh, but this is such a profound level of truth that it requires supernatural revelation to understand. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:35.759 That's why when Peter confesses that Jesus says, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my father is in heaven revealed it to you. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:40.640 You don't you don't get there without an understanding of the supernatural spiritual world. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:46.480 Well, fortunately for the demons, they have that understanding. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:51.200 You know the infrared goggles or the night vision goggles let you see at night? 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:55.599 The demons have spirit vision goggles. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:00.319 They can look around and they see a person's spiritual condition. 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:04.720 And here they recognize Jesus as the incarnate Son of God. 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:10.000 And they say to him, What do you have to do with us? 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:11.680 Stay away from us. 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:13.599 Don't we have some kind of deal? 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:22.720 And now I wish the Bible said more about this, but if you get systematically the relationship between demons and God in the Bible, you can come up with a pretty comprehensive picture. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:28.240 A third of the angels rebelled against God and take out their hatred on mankind and attack mankind. 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:34.880 A subset of those angels, so not all third of them, a subset of those angels cohabitate with people. 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:36.880 This is back in Genesis 6. 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:40.400 And they encounter the wrath of God for that. 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:47.440 God floods the earth, destroys the earth because of it, and takes those cohabitating angels and puts them in prison, what I call angel jail. 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:55.920 Puts them in chains, in angel jail, where they will be held in the angel jail until they are thrown into the lake of fire at the end of time. 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:07.759 But the rest of the demons, so the fallen angels that did not cohabitate in Genesis 6, they are allowed dominion on this earth to afflict and attack people on this earth. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:10.240 And that's what they spend their time doing. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:17.759 Now it seems that they can afflict and attack anybody they want to. 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:29.680 However, for people that belong to God, for one of these people that are in a right relationship with God, by faith, they're one of God's children. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:35.119 It seems that demons and the devil need to ask God's permission to afflict them. 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:41.839 And you see this in Job, where the devil wants to go after Job, but he must ask God's permission first. 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:50.480 Or you see this with Peter when the devil wants to go after Peter, and he must first ask the Son of God's permission to sift Peter. 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:58.640 You know, Christians cannot be possessed by demons, only only non Christians can, because the demons can't cohabitate with the Spirit of God in a person. 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:02.079 But the demons say Can most certainly afflict even believers. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:08.079 The demons can attack believers, they just can't possess them, but they can only do so with the express permission of God. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:14.240 But on the other hand, with non-believers, they all are subject to the devil. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:20.640 Demons can attack whoever they want to if you're dealing in the category of non-believers. 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:28.720 But it seems that they spend most of their focus attacking those who are outside of the influence of Christ. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:35.839 This matches what you see in the world today, I mean, especially in the New Testament, by the way. 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:41.039 There's I can't think of a single example other than Judas being filled with Satan's spirit. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:46.400 I can't think of a single example of a demon-possessed person in Jerusalem. 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:49.279 The focus of the Jewish religion. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:55.759 Because they're following a false religion and they've been turned over to their own false worldview. 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:05.279 It seems like demons focus their attack on people in more rural or underdeveloped areas, or I don't know what the politically correct term, less advanced or economically developed areas. 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:06.960 And you see that today in the world as well. 00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:14.640 There seems to be a lot more demonic activity in the overt way, like this kind of way, like demons taking control of people and causing them self-harm. 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:20.799 You see that more frequently in more remote and underdeveloped parts of the world than you do in our own culture. 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:30.640 I think in places where money is a God and success is a God and economic development is present, the devil is content to let people just pursue that. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:33.440 They don't need demonic involvement to harm themselves. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:38.480 And that seems to be the case here. 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:45.279 Jesus finds these two people out in gatherings, out in the decapolis, out in the gentile territory. 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:49.200 Now, God is allowing these demons free reign of the world. 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:54.400 In fact, Ephesians 2 even describes the devil as being the prince of the power of the air. 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:13.599 And then at the end of time, after the tribulation, seven-year tribulation, described in Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus says, after that time, he'll set up his kingdom on earth. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:27.119 And after that kingdom, Matthew 25, 41, Jesus says he will come back and he will take the demons that are in chains, and he will take the demons that have had free reign of the world, and he will throw them into the lake of fire that was prepared beforehand. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:30.400 So that happens after the kingdom, after the tribulation. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:31.759 That's all future. 00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:37.440 So imagine the demon's surprise right here. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:46.079 Here they are minding their own business in Gentile territory, a long way away from the second coming of Christ. 00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:49.599 They know that Christ's first coming is coming for forgiveness and salvation. 00:24:49.759 --> 00:24:52.240 His second coming is coming for judgment and wrath. 00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:55.759 They know they've got time to afflict people, they've got time to harm people. 00:24:55.920 --> 00:25:00.720 So here they are minding their own business out in Gentile lands. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:04.720 And lo, who do they encounter but Jesus? 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:07.759 Do you see their surprise? 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:10.559 That's why he's running down to him. 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:13.359 I mean, what do you no disrespect, sir? 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:14.799 But what are you doing here? 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:19.279 I thought we got to do this kind of stuff out here. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:21.200 That's their attitude. 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:24.000 And they're scared, too. 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:26.720 Have you come to torment us before the time? 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:29.359 Demons know that their end is hell. 00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:32.079 Demons know that they will end up in the lake of fire. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:38.160 Revelation 20, the lake of fire is prepared for the demons for their own destruction. 00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:42.319 But these demons thought we had, you know, we had a deal. 00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:45.519 Don't cohabitate with people, and we get to harm people. 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:54.799 And I said earlier, demons today, demons do still possess people, they do still attack people most frequently, and in my experience in the underdeveloped worlds. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:26:03.039 But you see things in the news, like even in the United States, and you see, I mean you think of like a school shooter kind of person, or you think of somebody like Dr. 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:07.920 Gosnell kind of person, and you think, what kind of evil can be in a person? 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:13.440 Like it just succeeds, in my understanding, a human's capacity for evil to do that kind of thing. 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:24.240 I never want to underestimate the power of sin in an individual, but it would not astonish me in the least bit to find out that people like that are demonically possessed. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:25.759 That would make sense. 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:29.119 But here Jesus encounters these two men. 00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:30.480 They're demonically possessed. 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:36.400 But notice that the demons here, they recognize Jesus as the Son of God. 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:37.759 And they have good theology. 00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:38.240 Do you notice? 00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:40.160 They have good eschatology, these demons do. 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:42.880 They're premillennial, pre-tribulational demons. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:46.000 It's not time yet. 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:47.519 It's not time yet. 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:48.799 Where's the tribulation? 00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:49.599 Where's the kingdom? 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:50.880 Come on, Jesus. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:54.240 Well, that's the first surprise, a surprising confession. 00:26:54.400 --> 00:26:57.759 Second surprise, a surprising destruction. 00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:01.440 A herd, verse 30. 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:04.160 Of many pigs was feeding some distance from them. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.079 Now it's there pigs are a ways away. 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:09.200 Remember, people can't get close to these two demon-possessed men. 00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:10.160 They're in the graveyards. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:12.319 Pigs don't graze in graveyards here. 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.359 The whole thing is rocky, and pigs aren't, you know, they're not out really in grass. 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:17.440 They mostly feed on slop kind of thing. 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:21.519 But there's a massive herd of pigs, a ways away from the graveyard. 00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:23.039 And again, you can go to this area. 00:27:23.119 --> 00:27:25.519 It's a, you know, the only people that go there now are American tourists. 00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:28.480 Like Israelites look at the area and roll their eyes, see the tour buses going out there. 00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:29.839 I mean, it's desolate out there. 00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:30.799 It's up on a hill. 00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:32.319 There's nothing up there. 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:41.200 But you could imagine how the graveyard would is the caves are below, and the pigs could be a long way away on top of the hill, but it is a very steep hill. 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:46.319 And the pigs could be all the way up at the top of it, and they'd get their slop up there, and they're not going to escape anywhere. 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:48.960 I mean, they couldn't get down the cliff. 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:54.640 So there they are, away from the demon-possessed men, top of the hill. 00:27:54.880 --> 00:28:01.200 The demon spies them and say, if you cast us out, the demons are begging Jesus, by the way. 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:04.880 You've got these praying demons here, begging the Son of God for something called praying. 00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:14.640 These demons are praying, begging God, saying, if you cast us out, and this is in the what's called a first class conditional in the Greek, you can tell the answer is yes. 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:18.400 Like if you cast us out, or when you cast us out would be a better way of translating it. 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:23.119 Because Jesus began this, not in Matthew, but in Mark and Luke, Jesus started this by casting the demons out. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:24.640 So they know they're on their way out. 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:26.480 Their bags are packed, so to speak. 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:27.839 They're on their way out. 00:28:28.319 --> 00:28:33.839 But they say, When you cast us out, can you send us into the herd of pigs? 00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:38.480 Now that is a very strange request. 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:43.519 Why would the demons want to go inside a herd of pigs? 00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:51.359 Well, there's lots of answers commentaries give about it and the commentaries debate about it, so I'll save all the time and just give you the right answer. 00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:58.880 The right answer is I have no idea. 00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:00.400 That's the right answer. 00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:04.079 I have no idea why the demons want to go into a herd of pigs. 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:06.400 I mean, I don't know demon psychology here. 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:09.680 They want to go into the pigs. 00:29:09.839 --> 00:29:10.799 The pigs are gonna die. 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:12.960 Remember that they go into the pigs here. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:15.039 Jesus says, go. 00:29:16.160 --> 00:29:18.400 And they came out and they went into the pigs. 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:23.680 By the way, in Mark's gospel, Jesus asked the demon what his name is, and he says legion, because there are many. 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:24.160 How many? 00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:26.640 Well, apparently at least 2,000 of them. 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:32.720 So Jesus sends these 2,000 demon spirits into the pigs. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:37.920 Behold, the whole herd rush down the steep bank, swine dive here. 00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:45.359 I mean, come on. 00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:48.480 That's called low-hanging fruit. 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:51.920 And they drown in the waters. 00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:53.839 So these pigs are dead now. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:58.319 So did the demons know that the pigs would drown if they went into them? 00:29:58.480 --> 00:30:00.720 I have no, again, I don't know what the demons knew. 00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:03.920 If the demons knew the pigs would drown, why did they want to go into them? 00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:09.839 When you look at Luke, Luke's gospel, it seems to say that demons like to be inhabiting people. 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:12.319 They like to have a home. 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:14.240 They're disembodied spirits. 00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:21.599 You know, they don't have a personal on the earth, a personal fleshly presentation, and so they're they're more comfortable inside of people. 00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:31.279 And, you know, Jesus even says to the Jews, you come across somebody demon-possessed and you clean up their life on the outside, and that sends the demon away, and he comes back and brings seven of his friends. 00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:33.519 His second condition is worse than his first. 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:35.920 And so that's the nature of a works righteous religion. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:45.920 A works righteousness religion finds somebody who's demon-possessed and teaches him how to clean up his life, which the demon is happy to have the life cleaned up and brings back more friends. 00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:52.559 By the way, today in our culture, you find somebody demon-possessed and you just over-medicate them and lock them up in a mental institution. 00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:55.680 I mean, seriously, that's what happens today. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:30:59.839 These demons, they want to be in a body. 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.960 Jesus is throwing them out of this one. 00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:04.720 And look, there's pigs. 00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:06.319 Are the demons being irrational? 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:08.480 Have they thought this through? 00:31:08.799 --> 00:31:11.119 Did they just want some form of destruction? 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:14.640 Did they know that it would hurt this economy if they killed all the pigs? 00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:15.359 I mean, maybe. 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:16.160 I have no idea. 00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:18.240 They're demons, but demons go in the pigs. 00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:19.440 The pigs all die. 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:22.400