Matthew 8:28-9:1 | "A Lost Opportunity"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Please take your Bible if you have one or your device and open it to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 8.

Matthew chapter 8.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

We've been working our way through Matthew's gospel.

If you are visiting with us, we we do this.

It's how we approach God's word, is just doing it consecutively.

That way we we can't take our own comfort and skip over a passage that we would rather not deal with.

We're forced to deal with whatever comes next.

And in so doing, the Lord in his providence arranges everything and he speaks to our lives in the way that he deems best.

And so this morning we come to an amazing passage of Scripture in Matthew chapter 8, beginning in verse 28.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

Before we look at this passage, I'd like to ask you a question.

I'd like you to ponder in the back of your mind as we go on this morning.

Suppose, suppose Jesus came to town?

Really, seriously, suppose Jesus came to town.

Would you give up your source of income?

Would you give up your source of monthly income?

Would you give up your retirement if it meant that a couple of people could receive eternal life?

Would you give up everything that you have if it meant one person could receive eternal life?

I want you to think about that this morning.

The scriptures say when Jesus came to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs.

They were so fierce, so dangerous that no one could pass that way.

And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us, O Son of God?

Have you come to torment us before the time?

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.

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 herdsmen fled, and going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus.

What an amazing thing.

And they begged him to leave.

They begged him to leave their region.

Amen.

I want to take a moment here before we dive into this to sort of recount where we've been in Matthew's gospel.

I'm going to try to give you some tools to help us remember where we've come and what Matthew wants us to see all along the way.

So let's take a review all the way from chapter 1 to chapter 8.

And no, I'm not going to spend a lot of time here.

Don't worry.

We could, but we're not going to.

Let's go all the way back to chapter 1.

Now you might remember chapter 1 from your Bible reading.

If you're reading through the Bible in a year, you've probably recently spent some time in Matthew chapter 1, and that is the whole bunch of names, right?

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

The genealogical record of Jesus.

And that chapter is all about showing the royal lineage of the Messiah.

All of those names are there for a reason, and it's to show Jesus belongs to the line of David.

He is able then to rule on King David's throne because he comes from King David.

He's not just any king, however, he's not just any human king.

He is Emmanuel.

He is God with us.

So if you want to remember Matthew chapter 1, all you need to do is remember one word and it'll help you.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Remember the word royal.

Chapter 2, the word to remember is Magi.

Jesus is a Jew.

He's a Middle Eastern Jew.

And yet, who are the very first people to come and worship him?

More than that, they spent months traveling across a desert to find a newborn king.

And when they got to him, they bowed down and they worshiped him.

Reminding us of John chapter 1, where Jesus came to his own, his own people, but his own people rejected him.

John 1 · chapter mention

They did not know him, they did not accept him, they did not receive him.

But instead, Magi came to see him.

Chapter 3 is all about preparation, where Jesus prepares to go out into ministry.

Now this is a little bit different in chapter 3.

You will see that what we have here is John the Baptist.

But what is John the Baptist all about?

If you look at chapter 3, verse 3, it says, John is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.

Chapter 3 is all about John coming and fulfilling Scripture to make ready the way of the one who we see in chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Then we move to chapter 4.

Chapter 4 is all about temptation.

Jesus came to this earth, and the very first thing that he really encountered was 40 days of temptation.

Satan, in essence, not leaving his side, facing temptation so that he could say to you and to me, I've been there.

I've been there.

I know what you endure.

And I can sympathize with you and I can help you.

It's all about temptation.

At the end of that section, Jesus then began his public ministry, going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Then it says, His fame spread throughout all Syria.

And they brought him all the sick, all afflicted, all oppressed, and he healed them all, and great crowds follow him.

So what does he do when he sees great crowds gathering together around him?

He teaches them.

He says, Sit down, sit down, I want to teach you.

So the king, the promised king, the prepared king, the tempted king comes and he teaches.

And at the end of that section that we call a Sermon on the Mount, everybody is just agape.

Their jaws have dropped because they're astounded at the authority with which Jesus teaches.

They're saying, our teachers, our rabbis, our scribes, they don't teach like this.

This is not what we hear.

This is different.

So Matthew then plays off of that.

And all of chapter 8 and going into chapter 9, he says, you need to notice Jesus has all authority.

Not some, not a little bit.

He's not just a human king from the line of David who rules over all Israel.

No, this is the divine king who rules over the universe.

You want to see what that looks like?

Go out into a boat on the Sea of Galilee where he stills the storm with words.

Reminiscent of Genesis chapter 1, where he brought into creation all that is with words.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

With words.

Jesus challenges misperceptions about himself as a human being.

He says, I'm not just a human being.

Yes, I'm the Messiah, but I'm much more than that.

And so just as the scribes, I'm sorry, the crowds in chapter 7 were astonished at his teaching, the disciples now are afraid and astonished at Jesus' power and authority, and they're wondering out on the Sea of Galilee, who is this man?

No, really.

What sort of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?

So you can see what Matthew's doing.

He wants us to see who Jesus is.

But that's not enough.

There's an important connected element to understanding who Jesus is.

And that is your response.

When you see the might and the power and the authority of Jesus, the Messiah, God's promised one, Emmanuel, God with us, how will you respond?

As they approach the other side of the lake, then in verse 28, a single question is resonating within the disciples in their hearts and minds.

Who's this guy with with us in the boat?

Who is he?

Who really?

Who is he?

Yes, of course, we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised one.

He's the savior of Israel.

We know that, we believe that, we trust in that.

But what sort of man rebukes the winds and the waves and they obey him?

Our children struggle to obey us.

Who is this that the wind and the seas obey him instantly?

If you have ever wondered at any time in your life who Jesus is, then I'm glad you're here.

If you've ever questioned anything about Jesus, this passage of Scripture is for you.

And aren't we all sort of questioning something right now?

Aren't we all questioning and wondering something about our world?

It feels out of control.

Feels like we are out of control.

We've lost a sense of stability.

In some sense, we're all asking questions of some kind or another, and we're sort of wondering who is in control.

Does authority over all of this out of controlness really truly exist?

Matthew intends to prove to us that Jesus has an ultimate authority and power over everything.

Now we we are naturally impressed with Jesus' power to shut down a storm system instantly.

Been doing some remodeling work in my kitchen, and I'm instantly impressed when I flip that breaker switch and I have the power to shut off the electricity.

I feel powerful in that moment.

Jesus shuts down an entire storm system like that with words.

But now, now we move into something that should astonish us even more.

If you haven't seen Jesus yet, be ready to be astounded.

Think of this as a field trip.

We're gonna go on a field trip.

Across the lake is the region of the Gadderens.

Your Bible may say Garressenes.

In fact, most translations today will have Gadderenes in Matthew and Garressenes in Mark and Luke.

And that's okay.

Don't worry about that being a contradiction.

It's really not a contradiction.

This is an area where there was a community called Gerasa that was fairly close to the Sea of Galilee.

A little bit further away was another community called Ghedara, and the sort of like the county was known as Gedara.

The community was Gerasa.

So to refer to them either way is appropriate.

Some people may have even referred to it as both.

But what's happening here is they're crossing the lake from Galilee to a primarily Gentile area.

Think of it as a foreign mission strip.

This is a large lake.

Compare it to one of the Great Lakes, maybe, if you can think of it that way.

And across the lake is a Greek region, a Roman region, a Gentile region, known as the Decapolis.

Decopolis is a is a word that means the ten cities.

There were ten primary communities in this area.

And this area was part of that.

So it was full of pagan people from a Jewish perspective.

This would have been been labeled on the Jewish map with the word unclean across it.

Remember that word?

Unclean.

They go across the lake to an unclean area.

And they enter, for all practical purposes, a business district.

A business district where in this district they raise pigs.

What was the word you were supposed to remember?

Unclean.

Pigs were unclean.

Terribly unclean to Jewish people.

No one could pass this way because there were two demon-possessed men coming out of the tombs.

This would have been an avoided area by Jewish people because of the cemetery.

What's our word?

Unclean.

A Jewish person would avoid a cemetery unless he had to be there for some reason.

Apparently they're near an area where there is a set of burial places.

And don't imagine our typical cemeteries today where we have a relatively flat area and tombstone sticking up.

This is a hilly area that is filled with caves, whether they're man-made or otherwise.

So it's a hilly area where you have holes in the ground where families could be buried.

And probably what's happened is there are some empty ones, some open caves where these demon-possessed men have taken up residence.

Unclean.

Unclean.

Two men come out to meet them.

Again, don't be confused by apparent contradictions.

Mark and Luke mention one.

They mention one.

That's not a contradiction.

It's simply that they focus on one, most likely the one that was changed spiritually by the Lord Jesus.

Two came out, two were freed from demons.

One of them apparently had a spiritual renewal, a spiritual rebirth.

And this is not some go across the border and come back kind of mission trip.

Because these are dangerous men.

Matthew uses a word that we're translated here as fierce.

So fierce that no one could go that way.

If you look at Mark and Luke's Gospels, they will tell you that people had tried to bind these men with chains.

And they would just break through the chains.

Dangerous, dangerous men.

Mark and Luke tell us that the demon that had gone into one of these men was named Legion.

He said, because we are many.

If we just take connections here, a Roman legion at the time was comprised of anywhere between five and six thousand men.

Demons are not spatial beings, so they don't take up space.

But even just a fraction of that many demons taking up residence in these two men, they are fierce.

Well, why why are we going across the lake?

Why are we going on this field trip?

Why are we going on this mission trip?

The only answer that we have is to answer the question.

Who is this?

What sort of man is this?

The disciples have the question, and Jesus wants them to have the answer to the question.

And they're going to meet some people along the way.

Who will they meet?

Well, as they as they entered the boat in the previous section, remember Jesus ordered them, he commanded them to go into a boat, knowing that there was a storm coming that would just freak them out and scare them to death, think that they were going to die.

As they entered the boat, I'm sure they had no inkling of what was in store for them.

They were just doing what they were told.

They were following Jesus.

They were being obedient disciples.

They had no clue that they were about to be afraid for their lives and witness a most awesome demonstration of power.

They had no idea that they would be wondering what kind of Messiah Jesus was, and that they would learn an intense lesson from evil spirits and faithless people.

But that's exactly what happens.

And it begins by meeting the despicably unclean.

The despicably unclean.

Remember, the disciples are processing.

Who is this guy?

That's the question that's just bouncing around like a ping-pong ball in their brains.

Who is this?

Why are we going over there?

But who is this?

So they're wondering about Jesus.

They follow him into an area that's despicably unclean to any Jewish person.

Any good Jewish religious person would have shuddered at the thought of any rabbi, any teacher taking his students to that place.

Surely, surely, this is not the place to teach.

Taking taking your students into a place where they're in danger of their very lives is not the best place to learn.

This is not the place for Jesus to heal and this certainly isn't the place to find the answer to the question.

What sort of man is this?

We're told that these men are demon-possessed.

We need to understand that demons are evil spirits.

They are evil angels.

They're angels who have rebelled against God and who are now completely and totally sinful.

They are opposed to God.

They are opposed to his work in this world.

But as angels, they are created beings who are subject to God.

Answer to God.

They're not greater than God.

They're not more powerful than God.

They are not omniscient.

They are not omnipresent.

But to the Jewish mind of Jesus, they are the epitome of unclean.

Everything about this account screams unclean.

Everything screams, don't go there.

Nothing good comes from there.

We're told that these men are demon-possessed.

Literally, it's demonization.

They are demonized.

So it involves some kind of indwelling of unseen spirits in such a way that an evil spirit is able to make full use of a person's physical body.

Somehow a spirit invades the human body in essence, rendering the human spirit unable to respond.

Now, it appears in Scripture that the degree to which an evil spirit can exercise control seems to vary a little bit.

But we must understand that as Jesus and the disciples encounter these two men, it's not the human spirit that we're hearing.

It's the demon.

It's the evil angel that speaks.

Some people, especially liberal religious scholars, will argue that when we read of something like this, that's not really what's happening.

They'll say that, no, this is not really any kind of supernatural thing at work.

It's just that they didn't know better.

They didn't have categories of describing things like we do today.

They would say that the truth is that this is some kind of mental illness that's expressing itself in various ways.

What we need to understand, though, is that the Bible makes very clear that the people of the New Testament regularly and very carefully distinguished between sicknesses and illnesses and the kinds of things that were brought on by demon possession.

If you look through the Bible, it's very clear that they understood there's a difference.

In this particular case, the evil spirits imparted superhuman strength to these men so that even chains could not hold them.

They're so strong, they're so fierce that no one could make use of that road any longer.

Now, what happens to your business if your street is shut down?

Clearly impacted, right?

This is a business district.

They're raising pigs.

What if nobody can come along that road anymore?

So these demons are impacting the community.

They're making a significant impact for the negative on this region.

And when Jesus and the disciples reach the shore, it's not so much human beings coming out to meet them, but the evil spirits driving the men too.

And it's clear by the speech who's really doing the talking.

What do they say?

What have you to do with us, O Son of God?

Have you come here to torment us before the time?

I want you to notice something very important here.

This is only the second time that the phrase Son of God has been used by Matthew.

At this point in eight chapters, we've only seen it twice.

This is the second time.

The first time is in chapter four.

What's chapter four?

Temptations.

Who's doing the tempting?

Satan.

The first time we see Son of God attributed to Jesus, it is by Satan himself.

The second time, it is by his minions.

That ought to be a clue to you as to not just the identity of the Lord Jesus, but who can really see him as he is.

Remember that demons are evil angels, they're supernatural beings.

They exist in the spiritual realm.

And according to scripture, they were created to serve God.

And as such great and powerful beings, they have access to heaven.

Apparently, according to Job chapter 1, they still have access to heaven, where they accuse us, God's people, before Him all the time.

Job 1 · chapter mention

James tells us they know God.

Due to their rebellion, God expelled them from his heaven, and so now they they make their home in creation.

This is where they rule.

Jesus crosses the sea, gets out of the boat, and says, Here I am.

Here I am.

What we need to recognize is that these demons, these beings, know God.

They know him.

They know who Jesus is, they know his true identity.

How ironic is it that the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee are wondering and asking themselves, what kind of man is this?

And the answer comes from demons.

Look at what the demons know.

First of all, they know they know that there's a distance between them and Jesus.

Not spatially, not in space itself, but authoritatively and even positionally.

When they come to him and say, What have you to do with us?

That's a way of speaking in that language of saying, Why would you have anything to do with us?

That's not normal.

They acknowledge that Jesus is more than a mere man.

He's the Son of God.

That's in essence claiming he is God.

There, in their presence.

They're saying, What have you to do with us?

You familiar with the Psalm, kiss the Son, lest he be angry with you and you perish in the way?

This is a way of the demons saying, please be kind.

Please be kind.

They know that Jesus is to be obeyed as the judge.

Have you come here to torment us before the time?

Look at that.

Their understanding of judgment is better than most Christians' understanding of judgment.

They acknowledge, they say, a time of judgment and torment for us is coming.

It's not supposed to be here yet.

Why are you here?

We understand that God has a time set.

They know that God's kingdom has arrived before the intended end of the age.

His kingdom has invaded their territory in a way obscured to most people, but recognized by the evil one and his minions.

They know that their eternal judge has arrived in space and in time on the scene ahead of schedule, and they're a bit confused.

Why are you here?

What are you doing?

Look at this a little bit differently, perhaps.

The book of Jude, Book of Jude and verse six, says, The angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, God is kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Even this very moment, there are angels who have so rebelled against God that he will not let them loose.

He has them confined.

Maybe these demons are saying, You're gonna do the same to us?

Is that why you're here?

But regardless of how we understand it, notice what it says about Jesus.

Who do these demons believe Jesus is?

What do they believe about him?

What can he do to them?

Notice that they have a very clear eschatology.

That is a view of end times.

They know that their time to work against God among human beings is limited.

They know it's not going to go on forever.

They know there's a time of ultimate judgment and ultimate justice.

It's coming, it's real, it's scheduled.

It's on the Google Calendar.

They know they will lose.

They know Christ will win.

They know God has it planned.

They also know that Jesus has come to free the two men of their satanic binding.

Notice their statement.

Verse 31 if you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.

There's an important aspect here of Greek grammar.

They're not addressing the possibility of Jesus casting them out.

They're not saying, you know, if you decide to do this, then this.

Instead, they're addressing the certainty of it.

It's a way of saying, we know that you're going to do this.

So since you're going to do this, would you please send us into the pigs?

And they beg him.

They beg him.

And in the same way that we see the wind and the waves submissive to the Lord Jesus, these evil spirits are submissive to the Lord Jesus.

You see, Jesus doesn't merely have power over sickness and diseases going all the way back to verse 16.

He doesn't merely have authority and power over all of nature.

He has power and authority over the supernatural forces that exist in this world.

They bow to him.

Jesus gives a one-word command, go.

Leave now.

What's their response?

They came out.

There was no why.

It was they go.

There's all kinds of questions left unanswered.

Why did the demons come to Jesus in the first place?

Why didn't they go and hide?

Why didn't they stay in the tombs?

Why did they ask to go into the pigs?

Why does Jesus honor their request?

You know, our curiosity can be piqued by all kinds of questions.

But in the end, we can't allow ourselves to be distracted from Matthew's singular intent.

We have to see the demonstration of power and authority in the Lord Jesus.

Do you know that pigs are not naturally herd animals?

So are you sure you've seen those internet memes about trying to herd cats?

It's not too far off with pigs.

They don't naturally gather together in herds, and yet these herdsmen are trying to do just that.

And so to say that they acted as a herd is basically to point out that there's another force at work.

This isn't normal.

This is not the way things regularly work.

These evil spirits go in one instant from having control and authority over two men to having control and authority over pigs.

And so great was their control that the pigs drowned in the lake.

Did you know that pigs can swim?

It's true, pigs can swim sometimes for quite a ways.

These are powerful beings who instantly and with a one-word command submit to the Lord Jesus.

Here we see a direct confrontation between two spiritual powers.

Those who are regularly exerting influence and control over the realm of creation are forced, in a word, to submit to the will of the Creator who is in their presence.

If only human beings would recognize Jesus to the extent those demons did.

If only we would obey him instantaneously as the demons did.

If only we could perceive the end, the eternal judgment for sin as clearly as they spirit do you possess?

That of the sovereign creator, the savior, Christ Jesus, or the one who enslaves you to sin and death.

One's more powerful.

Only one bears ultimate authority.

Mark tells us that there were about 2,000 pigs in this herd.

That's a lot of pigs.

I've been on a handful of pig farms in my life and worked on a pig farm a little bit.

That's a lot of pigs.

That's a lot of pigs.

That means, though, that this herd of pigs would have been hugely significant to the local economy.

Now, for a Jewish audience, the loss of a herd of pigs would have been reason for a party.

That's great.

Fantastic.

Get rid of the unclean, right?

For the owners of this herd and the entire community, that's not the case.

This is likely a community herd.

Where every family in the community in the region had some pigs in the herd.

Go back to chapter 8, verse 16.

That evening they brought to Jesus many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

Sicknesses and diseases obey him.

Then in the next section, there's some apparent disciples, or people who want to be disciples, who seem to have more important things to do.

When Jesus challenges them with the really significant aspects of following him, of being disciples, they seem to have more important things to do.

And then the storm instantly obeys, the demons then instantly obeys.

There's an immediate response to the person and the authority of Jesus, except by people.

Now notice briefly the wondering disciples observing the fearful workers.

The herdsmen, verse 33, fled.

And going into the city, they told everything.

But especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

How many herdsmen were there for two thousand pigs?

We don't know.

We're not told.

But it's plural, right?

There's more than one.

However many that there are, they are fearful.

They fled.

Mark very clearly says that they were afraid for their lives.

Why were they fearful?

Of what were they afraid?

Well, we can, I think we can identify that they were afraid of Jesus.

Sort of asking in their own minds the same question as the disciples.

Who is this guy?

And if Jesus did that to my pigs, what's he gonna do to me?

They're afraid, I think, of the consequences.

One of the times that I was most afraid in employment circles, my boss had gone out and purchased a Toyota pickup for my use on the farm, on the ranch.

I've been driving that vehicle back and forth to town, to home, and back for a week.

And then I hit a deer.

First deer I've ever hit with a with a vehicle.

It just destroyed the front end of that little Toyota pickup.

I was afraid of what my boss was gonna say.

Thankfully, he was a kind man and he laughed and he said, So that's your first time, huh?

I'm not so sure that I would respond that way if Herdzman came back and said, Um we lost the pigs.

What?

They're gone.

All of them.

They're fearful, but they're also faithless.

See, they ran away from the power and the authority of Jesus.

What's Matthew teaching us?

He's showing us and revealing to us again and again and again.

Here's who Jesus is.

Do you understand?

Do you see him as mighty, as authoritative, as the one who is over all?

Then why would you run away from him instead of running to him?

They feared their bosses more than they feared Jesus.

They were more astonished by the death of pigs than they were by the authority of Jesus and the changed lives of two men.

That's all we see.

That's all we see about those fearful workers.

In verse 34, we then see the wondering disciples encountering the faithless community.

The people caring for the pigs rushed into town, telling everything.

And the news, of course, spreads like the hottest gossip, right?

Behold, Matthew says, the whole city comes out.

Why is the whole city coming out?

Because the whole city owned the pigs.

The whole city knew those two demon-possessed men.

The whole city knew how dangerous they were.

The whole city knew how they had impacted that road down to the sea.

They knew all about this.

So when the men and the herdsmen, whoever they were, came and told them about everything that had happened, but especially what had happened to the two demon-possessed men, they come out and they come out to see Jesus.

Remember, what's happened here, this impacts specifically those two men, right?

Those two men are primary impacts of the work of Jesus.

From there, the herdsmen are impacted, and then the community is impacted.

You might say that every person who has a vested interest in those 2,000 pigs has come out to see Jesus.

You might say that this is like a large company with investors scattered all across the country, suddenly going bankrupt in an instant, causing hundreds or thousands of people to lose out financially.

You think your 401k's taking a hit.

These folks likely lost everything.

See, to the townsfolk, Jesus was simply a traveling magician who healed a couple of people while taking a shot at the community in the process.

But notice the priorities of Jesus.

Saving two men, maybe one if that's what this is all about.

Mark and Luke.

But impacting those two men was more important to Jesus than building up the financial stability of the community.

Ensuring that people were impacted by the gospel was more important than fixing their culture.

Mark tells us that these people were afraid of Jesus.

If he sent their pigs into the sea, what else was he going to do?

What if he comes to town?

What if he comes out of the fields and actually comes into town?

What is he going to do?

Now what's fascinating here and incredibly, incredibly sad, is that this community prefers their pigs over healthy, sane people.

They would rather have the two men demon-possessed, cutting off access to the sea and the road than have Jesus.

They prefer their economy over submission to Christ.

They prefer their bank accounts over the glory of Christ bringing healing and salvation to those who are demonized.

We have demonized men, we have fearful workers and a faithless community.

And if we look all the way back to verse 16, 17, 18, and following, not once, not a single time do human beings respond in worship or obedience to the Lord Jesus.

He displays his authority and his power again and again and again.

But hearts are not softened and minds are not instructed.

Instead, it's demons who declare his deity.

It's demons who obey his word.

Now, Matthew doesn't include the rest of the story.

Don't listen to Paul Harvey on that one.

Go to Mark and Luke.

You'll find the rest of the story, but the rest of the story is not important to Matthew's point.

Matthew's point is not about the men.

Matthew's point is about Jesus.

Do you see Jesus?

Do you see who he is?

Do you understand his position in this world?

He displays authority again and again and again.

Now Jesus told this man, at least one of the men who was changed, who trusted in him, who believed in him, to go home and declare what God had done for him because he begged Jesus to be able to follow him, to go with him, and Jesus said, No, don't go with me, go home.

Go home and tell everything that God has done for you.

And he did.

If we pull that in, that rest of the story in, we see that those who were rescued from slavery to sin and demons responded to Jesus in faith and demonstrated that faith and loving obedience, but the fearful ran away.

The fearful ran away.

And some received a rebuke about their worldly idolatry.

And those who received the rebuke about worldly idolatry begged him to leave.

Because they lost their herd of pigs, Jesus suddenly becomes unbearable to them.

Is there anything that if you lost it, Jesus would become instantly unbearable?

Puritan Thomas Brooks wrote, They had rather that the devil possess their souls than that Jesus should drown their pigs.

They prefer their swine before their salvation.

Ouch.

You see, Christ becomes unbearable to those who cling to this world and to the things of this world.

And Jesus is showing his disciples again and again and again, I am not of this world.

I've come to rescue you out of this world.

And I have the authority and the power to do that.

Would you be happy?

Would you be full of joy if Jesus came to our community?

Jesus, Jesus, just so you know, if you answer yes to that, then you need to know that Jesus might step into your life and destroy your economy.

He might take away your job.

He might take away your retirement.

He might give you COVID.

All he wants is to bring a few people to saving faith and eternal life.

He came to seek and to save the lost.

Would that move you to greater faith and greater worship and greater obedience, or would you beg him to leave you with your pigs?

Which do you hold more closely, your economy and your financial status, or deliverance from slavery to sin and death?

Would you invite revival?

Would you invite a restoration of the Spirit's movement to people coming to Christ by the droves if it meant living in an economic downturn?

Consider the Ephesians who were so stirred up by Christians coming to Christ, because in the book of Acts it says so many Christians came to Christ out of cultic magic, black magic, that they gathered together all of their magic books and all of their paraphernalia and they burned it.

And it enraged the people of the city of Ephesus because it says, Well, there went our business.

Jesus, please leave.

Go away.

I want you to know that Jesus says, disciples will be like their Lord.

You will face rejection if you choose Jesus.

It will come.

You see, Jesus is preparing his disciples to go out in pairs to minister all across the land.

He's preparing them to send them out on their own mission trip.

He's getting them ready for that.

Most, he's telling them and showing them will not respond with grace and acceptance and love.

Instead, most will say, We don't want your kind of good thing here.

Go away.

Leave.

Bibles are being burned in public.

But remember our survey.

Chapter 4 and the temptations, Jesus said, I've been there.

Whatever you're tempted by, I've been there.

Now Jesus says to his disciples, you're going to face rejection because you've chosen me.

I've been there.

I've been there.

But what this really comes back to is that what you believe, what you hold to be true, what you hold to be right and eternal about the person and the authority of Jesus Christ will determine what kind of response you have, not just to him, but in our world.

My friends, proclaim Christ.

Proclaim freedom to those bound by sin and Satan.

Through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, because your time to do so is limited.

The demons know that.

Now Jesus in verse one of chapter nine goes back down to the shore.

He gets into a boat and leaves.

And when Jesus leaves, when Jesus leaves you, there's an element of judgment.

When Jesus hears you say, no thanks, I don't want you, I'd rather have my pigs.

Thankfully, God is patient.

And he wants all to come to repentance.

But repentance starts, and these demon-possessed men are evidence of it.

It starts with answering the question: who is this man?

Listen to the demons.

They'll tell you.

They'll tell you.

The demons demonstrated by word and obedience that Jesus has all authority and all power as the God of creation.

And Jesus demonstrates by power and authority who he truly is.

And we then are commanded to fall down and worship of him in full knowledge and understanding of his deity, of the one who said, I'm not going to hold on to my deity at all costs, but I'm going to willingly, of my own choice, set it aside temporarily so that I can come and I can die for you to rescue you from your slavery, your bondage to sin and Satan.

Let's join at least the one who said to Jesus, Can I follow you?

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus.

What an astounding image of who you are.

Make your word real to us.

Make your the depth and the power and the import of your word alive in us so that we might see you.

Give new life to someone today because they hear your word and see you and respond to you.

We thank you that you, the Lord of all, would care for us enough to save us.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.