They Implored Him To Leave: Change

Matthew 8:28–34 LEB

And when he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from among the tombs met him, very violent, so that no one was able to pass by along that road. And behold, they cried out, saying, “What do you have to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a long way from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. So the demons implored him, saying, “If you are going to expel us, send us into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go!” So they departed and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed headlong down the steep slope into the sea and drowned in the water. Now the herdsmen fled and went into the town and reported everything, including the things concerning the demon-possessed men. And behold, the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they implored him that he would depart from their region.

This is not the first time that we have seen demons.

We know that if you look at the scriptures and you take them seriously you can’t help but acknowledge that there are demons.

Some things we call demons are not really demons they are the results of past actions. Dealing with our demons, our choices and the choices of others have an effect on us and temptations arise from those choices where we didn’t choose so wisely

Not just temptations but also pain, and suffering, and hardships And we call those our demons

But that isn’t really a demon

Demons are spirits that whisper, lie, cheat, claim to be gods, claim to be the truth

But in the end they are evil

And here we see that they can possess a person and even give them great strength

It is because of abilities like that that people seek to control the spirits. Magic, Witchcraft, Amulets, Voodoo.

The practice of trying to control the spirits goes back a long, long ways.

I know that some people say that these type of things are false and imaginary and not real. Well I can’t know for sure, But I don’t by it. It has lasted too long in my opinion.

But the problem with these things is that they are about control when Jesus is about giving up control to him Become under God and through him we get more authority than we ever could through any other source.

Even the authority to cast out demons.

He we see that Jesus cast out demons into a herd of pig and they kill themselves

Matthew 8:34 LEB

And behold, the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they implored him that he would depart from their region.

And behold the whole city came out to meet Jesus and they implored Him to leave

That’s an interesting I want to focus in on that last verse. Here we see Jesus do something good. He cleans the cancer from this region. They couldn’t even come past the area and now they can. He has healed this man. He has freed him. He has freed this area from the problem. But they still ask him to leave.

Why?

Why ask him to leave after he freed them?

Reminded them of their slavery

Scared them with His authority and power. Worried them about backlash from the demons

What is the reasoning?

I Believe it was a combination of things But in the end I think it was change

Jesus was doing things that changed the social order that changed the way things had been. They were used to the man. I bet they even bragged about him. There’s a man in my home town that … Like showing off your scares. Proud of your problems.

My knee is so bad …

Change is scary especially when we don’t really understand or see why.

Here Jesus does something to change things in a way they didn’t really understand. So they wanted him to leave.

How do you feel about change?

We all know change happens for good or for bad. Often both. We know that times are different than they were and with that change comes

How do you feel about change in church? or change in your self?

We resist change and it’s natural.

but sometimes we need to change. We have habitual sins. We have bad habits. We have wrong ideas we have destructive tendencies and at first you didn’t even notice them they were subtle like that room began to clutter up and it would be cleaned and then it became worse than the first time, like the man who became demon possessed probably didn’t happen just over night but grew until there were many in him and we have problems to that once we become aware of them we need to change, but change is difficult and we do the work that is required to make it happen

we don’t like change and even when it is good we don’t really want it to happen.

Jesus does that for us. He changes things, But sometimes we ask him to leave

Change always involves lose

Safety

Comfort

Security

Relationships

Competence - feel less certain of you self

Purpose

Lose of even bad things is difficult for us. We have to let go of old to grab on to something better.

Next Steps

When you know change is happening plan. All plans will change when executed. but planning helps make change easier.

wedding, Church, whatever

We don’t want him to How do you feel about change?

Pray