Power in the Pulpit | Matthew 8:28–34

Intro: Thank you Leighton for being here tonight and leading us in worship. I am excited to have everybody here again for Sunday nights. We are glad to have you back with us Leighton. We are going to continue walking through a particular book of the Bible this semester. Does anybody remember what that book is? Matthew. That is correct. If you have a Bible with you, could you please turn to the book of Matthew. We are going to be in chapter 8 looking at verses 28-34. The last passage we looked at last semester was verses 18-27. In that passage Jesus talked about how hard it was to be his follower because all that has to be left behind. But he showed it was worth it when he showed he has power over the physical world by calming a storm while his disciples were in the middle of a lake on a boat. Tonight he is going to do that even more. There’s an old expression, when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. I think that goes for Jesus too. The main idea of tonight’s text is that Jesus has proven who He is, we must chose if we want him to be part of our lives. In tonight’s text we will see Jesus power over the supernatural, and the human response. As we do here at Maynard, can you please stand in the honor of the reading of God’s Word.

Matthew 8:28-32.

Exposition: The passage begins with Jesus getting out of the boat on the other side of the lake. Remember, the last time we were together when I was here, we talked about when Jesus calmed the storm while he was in a boat. This passage picks up with them getting out of the boat on the other side. The area where they got out of was a mostly gentile area. Remember, Matthew wrote this text to Jewish audience. They would have noticed right away that Jesus was going to an area with gentiles. They get out of the boat and right away things get weird. It says, “ Two demon-posessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that not one could pass that way.” So let’s just go ahead and address the elephant in the room. Nobody thought they were are squirming in your seats like, “oh boy. What have I gotten myself into.” That’s fine I get it.

Explanation: In our society this isn’t a thing we talk about. We don’t really think about demons. But in ancient society they did. Now was every assumed instance of a demon an actual demon or were some mental illness? Who knows. But we do know that they were well aware that satan had soliders in his service. They knew there were spiritual forces at work in this world who had bad intentions. And we should understand that there are spiritual forces out there. But I don’t want that to be the main take away from tonight because that’s not the main point of this biblical account. But we should acknowledge that these things were real then and people knew it. They lived in proper fear of it. And we should acknowledge that those forces are at work in the world today, even if we don’t have to fear it. But not only were these men possessed. They were hanging out in tombns. Tombs would have been considered unclean under OT law because the proximity to dead people. But also, often times fugitives hid in these areas. So it wasn’t like the demon had driven these men to good places.

Exposition: So Jesus walks up on these two demon possessed men who were so strong that nobody could go near them. But when Jesus walks near then, they have a strange reaction. Verse 29 reads Matthew 8:29 “And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”” There are two important things to point out here right off the start. The first is that the demons recognize Jesus right away. Right away they recognize that this man they are seeing is the Son of God. That he is the one that is over all things. They are acknowledging that Jesus is Himself God in the flesh and He has all authority. This shouldn’t suprise us. James 2:19 “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” So we know that they recognize Jesus for who He is. But though the demons recognized Jesus, though they understood who he was and the power he has, that didn’t change the fact that they were far from him.

Application: You see, in the passage I read before, James was making a point that I think is important for us to remember. Just recognizing who Jesus is does not make us one of His people. No, He also has to be Lord of our lives. Romans 10:9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” You see we can recognize who Jesus is to a point. But we for whatever reason don’t want to make Him Lord of our lives. As James said, even the demons believe in who God is. But that does not mean we have actually placed trust in it.

Exposition: Another point to recognize from what we read in verse 29, is that the demons realize how this is going to end for them. The question they asked Jesus is, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” What they are referring to there is the final judgement. There was no question in their minds how this was all going to end. They understood that one day Jesus will reign supreme on this earth and that every evil force, such as themselves, will be defeated.

Application: Does the state of the world ever scare you? I mean seriously. You can look at it from a broad level. If any of you keep up with current events, the world does not seem like a completely stable place. You can look at the more personal level. Maybe your family is struggling in some kind of way. Maybe you feel the effects of bad sinful decisions others have made, maybe you feel the impact of sinful decisions you have made. Maybe you look at all the hurt and pain in the world and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by it. But one thing that even the demonic enemy of God understands is that God wins in the end. The demons’ dialogue with Jesus shows he knows that not only is Jesus more powerful than the spiritual forces in this world, but that he will one day do away with all of them. It is so easy to feel like the world could not get any better. We have to remember, Jesus wins in the end. And that means that all of those who place their trust in Him will share in that victory.

After the demons ask Jesus this, they aren’t done asking questions. Verses 30 and 31 read Matthew 8:30–31 “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.”” There is a herd of pigs that were feeding not too far away from where they were all standing. And the demons ask to go inside of the pigs. For starters, that would have once again sent out alarm bells in the original audience’s head. Pigs were considered unclean. To this day, observant jews do not eat pork because it is unclean. The demons had driven these men to one unclean place and were then going to leave there and enter pigs, who were unclean. It demonstrates just how opposed to the things of God the demons are. But they are also destructive. They didn’t just let the herd of pigs continue to eat grass and go on their merry way. Verse 32 reads Matthew 8:32 “And he said to them, “Go.” 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.” The demons were destructive. They brought destruction upon the pigs just like they did on the men. You see this demonstrates something we need to remember, the things that are not of God, the things that are sinful and pull us away from God don’t just lack goodness, they are destructive.

Application:This is something that we must remember. John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” So often we look at the things we are tempted by, and we think, what would be the big deal. It’s just a one time thing. It’s really not hurting anybody, so what does it matter. Nobody knows about it and I could stop if I wanted to. We have to remember that temptation does not exist so we will be pulled away from God one time. No, it exists because the enemy wants to pull us away from God one step at a time. And we allow the enemy to let us talk ourselves into believing that it’s really not dangerous. Remember, the whole issue in the garden of eden was that the serpent convinced Adam and Eve that disobeying God wouldn’t be as bad as God said it was. And that is the mindset that gets us all into trouble when it comes to sin. We have a hard time believing that sin is as bad as God says it is.

Illustration: It’s like when something smells bad. And somebody is like man this smells terrible. You don’t believe it can smell that bad so what do you go do? You go smell it like a moron even though the person told you how bad it smells. That’s how it is with sin. We must believe that turning away from the things of God and pursuing the things the enemy would have us pursue are bad because we see in this very passage what the nature of the

Transition : Jesus sends these pigs into the water. This is obviously a supernatural act. So what is the response of the people watching.

Matthew 8:33-34.

Exposition: Verse 33 tells us Matthew 8:33 “The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men.” I think sometimes when we read about things that happened in scripture like this that were supernatural events, we don’t really think about how incredible the event was. That was not lost upon the men who were in charge of watching and taking care of the pigs. Just think about this for a second. They were probably just sitting there, minding their own business. Jesus gets out of the boat, and we know it was probably morning time, so maybe they are just waking up, or maybe they had not slept so they are tired. Perhaps they see Jesus walking up, and then they see the guys come running out of the tombs. They probably would have already been feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing. They had probably seen the men attack people before if that’s what they were known for doing. So they probably think it’s about to get really bad. Then after talking with the demons, the spirits enter the pigs and the pigs run off the side of the cliff into the water. The men, they are fine, but the pigs are in the water drowned, just like that. I would have loved to see the looks on their faces. Just like that, the pigs they are suppose to be taking care of are dead but these men have been restored. And the men are like, we have to tell somebody. We have to let somebody know. So they go to tow, and while the pigs thing would have been a big deal because somebody had just lost some money and everyone would have just lost a food source as they would have eaten pork because this was a gentile area. Matthew tells us that in the city they, “ told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men.” They are going to town and saying you know those two men that were beating everybody up because they had the demons, well good news, they’re better. Some dude just came and drove the demons into the pig. How do they respond verse 34 says that, “And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. In Luke’s account, which speaks of only one of the men, he tells us that when they got out to the place where all this happened, that the man who had been healed was sitting at Jesus’ feet in his right mind. Now how do they respond. Do they respond like, “This guy clearly has something good going on, let’s follow him. Let’s see what he can do in our lives.” Are they so in awe at what God can do that they are desperate to have him be part of their lives? The answer is no. Verse 34 reads, Matthew 8:34 “And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.” When thy got there they begged him to leave. When they saw the power of God, they didn’t respond in awe, they just wanted him to leave.

Application: Why did they want him to leave. There are several possible reasons. The first is they were mad about the pigs. This was a food source. Somebody probably owned and sold the pigs and they had just missed out on a payday. Maybe they had just seen Jesus show he was God Himself and that he had the power over all the spiritual forces of the world, but yet they were so focused on the earthy and the costs of what had just happened they could not bring themselves to be in awe of what Jesus had just done. That may be where some of you are right now. Maybe some of you are ready to place your faith in Jesus, but you know that you have friends that may pick on you because they don’t understand that decision. Maybe you know there are sins that you would have to give up Another reason is that maybe they were scared of what the power of God may mean in your life. Maybe you are afraid of the fact that if Jesus is who the Bible says He is, that maybe your perspective has to change. Maybe you have to start thinking in terms of not just the physical, but the spiritual. Maybe you are well aware of who Jesus is, you have seen Him work and you know you need to place your faith in Him, but the thought of thinking about more than the right now and thinking about eternity scares you and you can’t bring yourself to do it. Either way, the application is the same. You see, this destruction of evil is a pretty good representation of what Jesus came to do. We all are born with a problem we can’t solve, much like the two men with the demons were. Sin separates us from God and we area all born with sin. Just like the men were driven into the tombs by the demons, we walk around in metaphorical tombs. But Jesus knew this. He came and lived a perfect life, but died on the cross for our sins. He paid the price we could not pay, and then rose from the grave, defeating the punishment and consequence of sin. By raising again he brought new life to all those who would repent from their sins and believe. The question is this, are we going to seek out the one who brings life, or are we going continue after the things that destroy. Are we going to chose the eternal or the temporary.

Conclusion:At the beginning I mentioned an old saying, when somebody shows you who they are believe them. Jesus has shown us who He is. He has shown that He is the answer to our problems. He has shown He is the one our hearts long for. He is the one that can give us a hope for all of eternity. But so often we chose to believe He is not these things because of what it would mean for our lives right now. Have you been fighting the call to make Jesus Lord of your life. Have you been fighting the feeling inside that it’s time to come home and have a relationship with Jesus. Maybe tonight is the night that you need to stop that. Maybe tonight is the night that you give your life for Him. Sin separated us from God, but through the cross, Jesus has made a way for us to be saved. He died the death we deserved to die so we could have life in Him. Are you ready to accept that gift. If you are, come talk to me tonight. Allow Jesus to be King of your heart.