Unrecognized Deliverer
Unrecognized Authority • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 5 viewsThe most unlikely group recognized Jesus' authority, while those who most benefited from Jesus fail to see the goodness of Jesus' authority
Notes
Transcript
Unrecognized Deliverer
Unrecognized Deliverer
Please open your Bibles to Matthew 8:28. And as you do so, let me briefly introduce you to the context of what we are about to hear from the word of God.
we are in the second set of three sets of miracles that take place in Matt 8-9
Each of the three miracle sets contains three stories.
First set
Jesus healed the leper
Jesus healed the centurion’s servant
Jesus healed Peter’s mother in law
After these three miracles, Jesus was recognized as a healer.
But right when people begin to have a grasp as to who Jesus is, there is confusion as to what it means to follow Jesus. And we read the first discourse on discipleship
And now we find ourself in the second set of three miracles
Jesus calmed the raging sea - The disciples response: there is confusion as to who Jesus is…
Today we will see the second miracle in this set:
28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 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?” 30 Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. 31 And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” 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. 33 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.
As we begin, it is helpful to talk about demons for a short while
Tonight we are dealing with a passage that is about two men who are controlled by demons…
This is a strange idea in modern western world…
we think of demons as those things that are depicted in fictional horror films
or as the figment of one’s imagination where there it the angel on one shoulder and the demon on the other
We picture demons creatures with horns and pitchforks from film, media, and text emojis… but often are tempted to think nothing more of them
But make no mistake… demons are real. And they are our greatest enemy.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Illustration: Mr Beast or Oprah Winfrey
Can you imagine a person being offered an extravagant gift for nothing and rejecting it?
Tonights text is about people who will reject the greatest gift one could ever receive… but this point isn’t made clear immediately so let’s jump into the text and see where Matthew takes us
28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.
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?”
1. Jesus is fully recognized as the Son of God by the least likely group.
1. Jesus is fully recognized as the Son of God by the least likely group.
Up until this point, has anyone fully recognized Jesus?
No…
Up until now Jesus has been recognized as a healer and a great teacher but beyond these things, the identity of Jesus has remained a great mystery to all who have encountered him…
But who has gotten the closest so far?
It was the centurion…
Jesus speaking to the centurion said:
7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Note, Lord here does not = God… but one who is above another…
1. The Centurion, a man who himself is of great power recognizes that he is under Jesus authority for he calls him Lord
2. The centurion also recognizes, that he is so far beneath Jesus in terms of rank that he is not even worthy to have Jesus come to his house
3. He recognizes that Jesus authority is so great, that even sickness will submit to his word…
10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
Super strange… the least likely person to identify Jesus up to this point would have been this gentile centurion… and yet Jesus says that he has greater faith than anyone in Israel (or those who should have recognized Jesus and believed in him)
And then the people who we would most expect to recognize Jesus are seen having no clue who Jesus’ identity is. And those people are Jesus’ closest disciples
We saw this last week when the disciples’ display a lack of faith that was revealed when they were afraid of the storm… and the disciples lack of faith here is strongly contrasted by the faith of the Centurion…
And worst of all after Jesus calmed the storm Matt says this of the disciples:
27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Are you kidding me?
They still don’t know who Jesus is?!
With this in mind consider the demons’ response to Jesus upon seeing him and I want to point out three things that the demons rightly identify about Jesus:
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?”
What to they recognize about Jesus?
Jesus is the Son of God
So while the disciples were left confused as to the identity of Jesus, the demons give us the clearest and most accurate recognition of the identity of Jesus.
What does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God?
Well to help understand this, remember a similar title that Jesus used to refer to himself just two weeks ago during Jesus’ discourse on discipleship.
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Son of Man has significant meanings from Dan 7:13
13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
Prophetic language… but it is describing a figure in the heavens… who’s form is that of a man
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
While the son of man is a title that is about this future king who will have authority… but it is also a title that highlights that Jesus is a human…
Jesus was born from the womb of a woman…
His mother was as you and I are.... that is tainted by sin just like the rest of mankind.
In fact, Matthew opens up his gospel with a genealogy that we all might be tempted to skip over, but it’s important to recognize that Jesus’ has a family tree… but here is where Jesus identity is being made explicitly clear by the demons:
For the demons see Jesus and they call him this:
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?”
So my dad’s name is Ron… that makes me the son of Ron…
But Jesus Father is the eternal God who created everything that has been made…
God created the heavens and the earth, and all that dwells in it....
Do we begin to understand what it means for Jesus to be the Son of God?
It means that Jesus isn’t just the son of Joseph…
Jesus does not find his beginning in the womb of Mary…
But his “origin” is of the eternal God who has no beginning and no end…
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So when the disciples are in the boat
27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
We are given an immediate answer here in the beginning of this next verse:
Jesus is more than a mere man, for he is the very Son of God who has always been… who is not created, but is eternal having no beginning and no end, and everything that has been created was created trough Jesus. Jesus is the coeternal Word who was with the Father before anything that is ever was.
Let’s continue; what else do the demons identify about Jesus?
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?”
2. Jesus will torment the demons
Let’s not be confused as to what this word “torment” means…
This is not Jesus acting with cruelty towards something that doesn’t deserve it…
This use of torment here in Matthew isn’t like our use of the word torment that may be associated with a cruel unkind or abusive action.
This word torment was used earlier in this same chapter by the Centurion when as “suffering” with regard to the servant who was suffering terribly…
And so what we should recognize is this: Sin and satan causes suffering and torment to all of creation, and God will judge and afflict satan and his demons for all the destruction that they have caused.
And the demons know that Jesus will not clear them for their rebellion against his authority, but instead he will subdue them in judgment
And this leads us to the demons’ next observation and our next point and that is this:
3. Here we see that the demons recognize that they cannot do anything apart from Jesus permission
30 Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. 31 And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” 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.
2. Jesus has authority over a great army of demons.
2. Jesus has authority over a great army of demons.
It’s easy to spot if you have a red letter Bible… but notice how in this entire passage that we are studying tonight, Jesus only says one word…
in v34, Jesus says go… and the demons leave
Here we have demonstrated what is described earlier in Matt 8:16 that Jesus cast out demons and spirits with a word…
Such is the power and authority of Jesus.
But we get a clearer glimpse of how great the power of Jesus is over the demons when we observe the power the demons have over people…
First of all notice how many pigs these demons possessed:
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.
Mark records this event this way:
13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
This is an army of many demons that fills these pigs…
And their power was such that the entire heard of around 2,000 pigs was possessed by these demons
Next, recall the beginning of our text tonight:
28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.
Notice how powerful the demons are…
These were such dangerous and formidable demons that no one could come near the tombs that these men occupied…
So first of all, notice, that these two men were controlled by demons. And it would appear that there was nothing these two men could do about their condition.
But not only that, but even the entire city that comes out at the end of this passage would not even come near to these men in there demon possessed state.
The people are afraid of the demons… but notice this:
The demons pose no threat or danger to Jesus.
While the people are afraid of the demons,
the demons are afraid of Jesus.
James tells us
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
The demons, while they believe in God and know who he is, hate what they know about Jesus.
That is this:
They are under his authority…
They will be judged by him
For he is the perfect Son of God who is redeeming all of creation from the power of sin and death…
So the demons do well to shudder
And since the demons fear God, we have no reason to fear them!
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I want to draw attention to the power of these demons, not to strike fear in your hearts of such powers… but rather so that we all might magnify the power of our God who casts out armies of demons with only a word.
Such is the authority of Jesus
His power is such that sickness obeys his voice
His word carries authority that even the winds and seas obey
And Jesus’ authority is so great that he cannot even be opposed by the greatest armies of demons
Let’s continue
33 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.
3. Those who should have rejoiced over Jesus’ work reject him instead.
3. Those who should have rejoiced over Jesus’ work reject him instead.
The Gadarenes had everything to gain from Jesus being with them… These two men who were demon possessed were delivered.
Remember, these demon possessed men had a dangerous reputation among the people here such that they avoided them all together.
Surely as the news spreads we would se a second wave of followers of Jesus much like we saw earlier in Ch 8…
16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.
But this is the very opposite of what happens here among the Gadarenes.
34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.
When the whole city comes to Jesus, it is not with the hopes of being healed or delivered, rather, they came to Jesus only in hope of having the deliverer leaving them… and it would seem that they ask Jesus to leave, primarily because of the loss that they experience due to the demons going into the pigs and destroying them.
This story has striking similarities to Job’s story
In Job, you have Satan asking God for permission to afflict Job.
and God grants Satan this very request
And Satan causes Job to lose his wealth, his family, and even his very own health…
And what was Job’s response?
Did he curse God
Did he tell God to leave him?
But here we see the Gadarenes are faces with a similar test, except for them they are offended by the work of Jesus such that they beg Jesus to leave.
What is the point of all this?
As the revelation of Jesus’ authority increases, so does man’s rejection of Jesus.
What would cause a person to reject the greatest treasure that they could ever receive?
Well though they feared the demons, Luke tells us that they feared Jesus…
But it would seam their fear of Jesus was not a godly fear that is the beginning of wisdom.
Rather their fear was a one that recognized that Jesus’ authority would cost them everything…
And they were right, as we saw this earlier in Jesus discourse on discipleship, that following Jesus comes at a great cost…
But what they failed to recognize that though following Jesus comes at a cost, Jesus is also the greatest treasure that they could possibly have.
Here is the tragedy:
the Gadarenes loved the pigs, more than people who were oppressed by demons
They loved their source of money, more than they loved the men who had been delivered
These people loved the things of the world, more than they loved the things of God.
And so they rejected the Savior of the world
And the tragedy is that this is no different than what the rest of the world does to Jesus and the message of the gospel:
Jesus calls us to repent and believe, and yet instead what we so often do is remain in our sin, because we love our sin more than we love Jesus
We hear the word of God much like those who heard Jesus teach in Jn 6
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
John summerizes the problem this way:
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Again,
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
But instead of obeying him, we hid our sins… and run away from righteousness…
May this not be the way that we are…
but instead may we run to Jesus, for he is the our deliverers, our savior, and he is worth following no matter what the cost…
So may the God open our eyes to see the beauty of Jesus, and the repulsiveness of our sins
And having our eyes open we not be offended by Jesus and the gospel, but may we cling to him.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.