Matthew 8 (Part 4) :28-34

Matthew chapter 8 we're doing the last section of this chapter before we move into the ninth chapter and it begins in the 28th verse there it is read along as I read it says

Wow let's pray father God open our hearts to the ministry of your word speak words of grace and wisdom and insight and understanding in Jesus name we pray amen well boy it's weird to look out and see all these guys wifeless here this morning how we're doing okay kids you've been eating all right good all right yeah macaroni and cheese isn't that tough to make the story that we're looking at here in Matthew chapter 8 is also covered for us in some of the other gospel accounts Mark and Luke also covered this story there are some minor differences in the way they present it but it's basically the same story and they all speak of what we consider a fairly frightening sort of a condition that we see frequently in the Bible and that is the condition known as demon possession where a demonic spirit actually inhabits a human host very frightening scenario we may be some of you have even seen movies you guys remember some of you who are like me as old as dirt there was a the original back in the 70s the original demon movie huh yeah that one do you do you guys remember what happened people got so freaked out when they watched the movie that there was a song on the radio by a Catholic nun that shot to the top of the charts because people were freaked out about the exorcist did you know that do you know that's what drew that drove that song other than that it was kind of a dopey song but people just really wanted to they really wanted to hear it was just the Lord's Prayer and I remember I was I wanted to hear it again so I got on YouTube where you can hear everything that you ever heard in your life and want to hear again and listen to it again and I thought wow what a weird song but it was really because of the exorcist and it's a pretty freaky sort of a thing demons are actually fallen angels they are spiritual beings created by God who acted in rebellion toward God and therefore lost their position when they joined with another very powerful cherub angel a cherubim by the name of Lucifer and they entered into his rebellion and now they are under his control Lucifer is now known as Satan these demons serve him with an aim to do whatever they can to thwart God's will and God's purpose and and and to be completely and totally honest with you there is a great deal that we do not know about the demonic realm we we know some things we don't we don't frankly know a ton and there are things that we deduce from Scripture such as the fact that it appears that some demons have the freedom to move about while others do not some of them are actually incarcerated there's a passage I'll show you here on the screen from Luke chapter 1 where Luke actually makes reference to this I'm sorry Jude didn't mean to say Luke I meant to say Jude and I say chapter 1 but there really isn't aren't any chapters such a short book but he says and the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home these he has kept in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day that's kind of interesting it seems to suggest that because they had some level of authority that they have actually been bound by God so some of them are not free to move about others in fact are free to move about it appears and harass the the children of men interestingly enough did you know that the Bible does not actually reveal specifically how a person opens themself up to demonic activity by the way you can read all kinds of books about this but but all of them are guessing there are tons of books out there on demonic activity demon possession what happens for this and that and how to get rid of them and all this but there's a great many books that are basically just generated from people's experience and what I mean by that is just they experience some kind of something whether they're working to vacate a demon from an individual or or whatever and so they write a book about it and everybody thinks that that's kind of the the standard of how to relate it to demons but but personally I don't put a whole lot of stock in things that are based on experience I do put a stock in things that are based on the authority of God's Word and there's a great deal that we just don't we just don't know what we do know is the demon possession is very real and we do know that it is not just limited to biblical times I believe that a great deal of demon you know possession is actually happening in our world today I think that yeah I you know I don't think it was limited to Bible times when demons had the freedom to do their worst I think they're still harassing even possessing people from time to time having said that I understand and you know I know that sometimes the whole subject of demonic activity really freaks people out and I just want to put your mind at ease about something and this is something that I think every Christian needs to know a true born-again child of God cannot be indwelt by a demonic spirit okay I don't care what you've heard I don't care what you've been taught if you have been taught that a believer a born-again believer can literally be possessed by a demonic spirit then what you were taught was not based on the Bible again it may have been based on what someone believed was their experience but again experience we can't depend on that all the time never once do we see in the New Testament a born-again Christian being delivered from a demonic spirit never once and there is not one shred of evidence in the Bible to suggest that it is even possible and and believe me there are many New Testament references of believers being harassed by demonic activity I'll give you that one in fact there are many many references about us our battle against demonic activity we're told to put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes we can stand we are told that we're reminded that we are aware of the devil's schemes and so you know we're told to be forearmed in that way we're told to be prayerful and watchful and diligent and to take our stand and all those other things that that that you know can take place in the life of a believer but we are never once told that you and I can be invested with the demonic spirit here's an interesting point to there's a you know demonic spirits when they do it when someone is invested with the demonic spirit because they're so evil that evil is going to come out in all kinds of incredibly weird and evil behavior now you and I are capable of evil behavior too even though we're believers do you know in the New Testament there's never one reference never one when Paul or any of the other Bible teachers Bible writers are addressing behavior in a Christian they never once suggest that it could possibly be the work of a debt of a demon never once now if if a believer can be invested with the demonic spirit at least mentioned it never once do they even suggest That a believer can have a demon not one time and believe me I've read through the New Testament lots of times So, where do people come up with this stuff? Well again, they come up with They come up with it from what they believe is experience. But here let me tell you we'll tell you one of the reasons why a True child of God cannot be invested with a demon. It's really very simple We're already possessed By the Holy Spirit now, we don't use that term. We don't use the word in possessed because it kind of carries a negative connotation But that's really what it is we use the word indwelt we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit But that really isn't even a biblical term either in fact when the biblical writers talk about the fact that you and I are Indwelt again, that's kind of a more of a theological word than a biblical one They actually use just very simple language to describe it. Let me show you one example Paul does in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 He says do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Here's I put it in caps for you. So you could see it who is in you It's pretty simple, isn't it? He doesn't use any law, you know wild theological language language to describe The the the presence of God's Spirit living in you He just says the Spirit who is in you the Holy Spirit is in you one of the most Wonderful blessings of being a child of God is that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ? We we surrender to him and we open our hearts to him He gives us his Holy Spirit to dwell in our lives and physically Physically you guys this is not we're not using some kind of weird Spiritual poetic language to say God is with me in the same way You might say that well my departed loved one my one my family member. He may be gone, but he's still with me That's really not true. It's only true if from a memory standpoint and you have this person in your mind the Spirit of God is literally in you if you're a born-again Christian And that means his character his light his grace his power his wisdom his strength everything that is You know wonderful and praiseworthy and glorious about the Lord God whom we worship is now living in you if you are a born-again Christian Okay That's why you can't be possessed by a demon you're already filled up You're already inhabited and I am so pleased You know when I was when I was a new Christian I've told you guys this story, so I won't go into the depth of it You know 22 years. I've been teaching here. You only have so many life experiences to talk about but when I was a new believer just suffice it to say I didn't have this stuff dialed in and I remember being very frightened sometimes by the work of Satan because he can put on a pretty impressive light show sometimes But I As I began to understand more about the Word of God I began to realize that his power Satan's power is greatly limited in my life in fact. I'll tell you I'll show you one of the most comforting passages I think I ever came across in the Bible. It's from 1st. John chapter 5 verse 18. I love this He says we know that anyone born of God Does not continue to sin and the one who was born of God he sought to God speaking of Jesus there look at this Keeps him safe and the evil one cannot harm him Now funny I wonder if those people who teach that believers can be invested with the demon have ever read that verse You know what if it's true That a believer could have a demon that verse makes no sense in fact. It's a contradiction If a believer can be invested with the demon then you are not being kept safe by Jesus Christ But the fact of the matter is you are being kept now. I'm not saying that Satan can't harass you I'm not saying and by the way we use the word Satan and we drop the word Satan You know he's the big kahuna You know it's in terms of the demonic realm and people always talk about the fact that you know boy Satan's just really after me You know and I always have to kind of smile, and I think wow Really the number one guys after you You must see yourself as a pretty impressive threat to the kingdom of darkness I mean, I don't you know I can tell you you know I don't Satan's never come after me his demons probably lots of times, and they've been plenty You know and and and horrible, but I I'm just not that important. You know the Satan's gonna come after a guy like me He's got plenty of his little minions. You know that he can send over us little guys. You know and try to harass Us in our lives anyway just suffice it to say though. There's number one. There's a great deal We don't know about the demonic realm, but one thing we do is that a believer cannot be invested with us with a demonic spirit Now the passage this passage that we're actually studying along with many others that deal with demonic activity do give us a lot of really Good insight into things let's go on and kind of keep reading here Let's read over the verses again And I'll kind of talk about them as we do verse 28 says

now apparently the graveyard Where you know? These men were living and they were living in a graveyard now think about that for a while It's pretty freaky but it's apparently it was in fairly close proximity to the shoreline because the text seems to give us the impression that Jesus had really No more hardly gotten out of the boat and these guys You know make their way toward him and and these these are guys for whom nothing could be done We're told that they I mean demonic possession had robbed them of their sanity had robbed them of all self-control all all You know a great deal of their humanity they they were they were pitiful they were they were hopeless and they were violent Beyond measure in fact if you have a New King James Bible there is there there's a reference made to these men saying that they were exceedingly fierce That's a that's a descriptive term. Is it not? Here's what I find kind of interesting about this is that in the midst of their violent behavior? Jesus comes on to the scene Right and what do they do? They run to meet him and When they get to him They don't attack That's what they did to everybody else if anybody else got close to that graveyard those demoniacs Which is the word what we call the individuals who are invested with the demonic presence or three? Would would would probably just run out of the graveyard and just attack them or whatever and in this case They do run out of the graveyard, but when they get to Jesus, what does it say? It says they drop to their knees I Think that's pretty interesting in light of the fact that we're told that they were so violent No one could could even come close to them and no one could could pass that way now remember these guys are under the control of Demonic spirits they are being controlled by demonic spirits and the and those spirits are Causing these men to make a beeline to Jesus and when they get there to fall on their knees and And and so what does that tell you and I about? How demons recognize Jesus well? Tells me that they recognize him as Lord They know they know exactly who Jesus is in fact You know it's been a few weeks since we were in the previous section of Matthew But do you guys remember what happened just before this? remember they were out in the boat and the storm came up and Jesus stood up and he rebuked them for their lack of faith, and then he calmed the wind and the waves do you remember that? And it says that immediately the wind died down the sea just became this just calm Glassy sort of a thing and and what did what did what did the disciples say to themselves? What did they say to one another they said who is this? Who can command the winds and the waves who is this That's what men do they question. Who is this? Do you know what demons? Do they hit their knees and they say Lord they call him Lord even though he is not the Lord of their lives they Recognize him for exactly who he is men question it demons know Demons know exactly who this man is and I think that's kind of interesting And then we kind of we hear this dialogue going on verse 29 Look what the demons say to Jesus. What do you want with us? Son of God in other words. Why are you here and they were shouting this and look at this have you come here to Torture us before the appointed time now, please understand something you are not hearing the voice of these men You are hearing the voice or the voice of the devil or the You're hearing the words of these demonic spirits who have so taken over these men now that they are using their vocal cords to vocalize their own thoughts and so forth to Jesus and You'll notice that they properly refer to Jesus as the Son of God What do you want with us? son of God They know exactly who he is and you guys know what son of God means because we've gone over it many times son of God means equal with God it has to they recognize Jesus Christ as God in human flesh and Then you'll notice something else they say the question the last question They ask is quite telling have you come here to torture us before the appointed time the next thing We see is that demons know that they're in a losing battle They know that it's as good as over They're just waiting for the curtain to come down and they know that it's not going to be good They know that when it does come down. It's going to mean judgment for them And torturous judgment and they're asking Jesus God in human flesh Have you come to start it before it's really supposed to start? Of course The fact of the matter is they're already living a tortured existence Because of their rebellion against God, but they know that there's a final judgment that is to come and so forth now It's at this point in the narrative that Matthew kind of abbreviates the story if you want to you know Read more about what took place that day and some of the interaction between Jesus and these demoniacs You have to read mark or Luke's account Because it is elsewhere that we find that Jesus Actually asked them to identify themselves and particularly one of the men and it says that the response was that We are Legion. We and that was the name that was given back You know, what is your name and the demoniac responded by saying Legion and then it says for there were many demons inside of this individual now Legion is we don't know if the name Legion has any resemblance to its meaning at that time But during that time a Roman Legion was made up of about 6,000 soldiers So whether or not we can take from this that that was the number of demons that had actually Invested themselves in One or both of them is a guess on our part suffice it to say we do know this there were many demons and that that is what the text says for there were many demons who had gone into the man or the men and So What's interesting about that though is that statement? That there were many demons is that that is exactly what Jesus Told us can happen in a situation where someone has been Has had a round of demon possession perhaps has had those demons vacated from their life for some reason But the house remains empty. Let me show you something It's we're gonna come to it here and in another couple of years in Matthew chapter 12 So anyway, let me show you this on the screen it's from Matthew 12 It says when an evil spirit comes out of a man. This is Jesus talking It goes through arid places. I have no idea what that's all about Apparently they go down to New Mexico or something like that seeking rest and Does not find it notice that a demon cannot find rest Apparently according to Jesus apart from a human host then it says I will return to the house I left however when it arrives it finds the house and this is important Unoccupied and also swept clean and put in order So whatever issues this person had had going on in their lives that invited this demon They've been taken care of and so now the demon cannot just go into that host again on its own It has to go and take with it seven other spirits He said more wicked than itself and they go in and live there and the final condition of that man is worse than the first Okay Isn't that something it's pretty amazing that Jesus would actually tell us this information because there was no way we would be able to know It apart from him telling us. I mean, this is one of those revelatory kind of passages, you know in the scripture But Did you notice that when the demon comes back he finds the house unoccupied which would seem to be an open door to go in problem is the person has gotten their life in order and It would appear that disorder is one of the things that does give invitation to a demonic spirit But this person has squared away those issues So now he has to go find some other demons to come along with him who are bigger and stronger than he So they can go in and invest themselves into that individual But I want to I want to just reiterate something that I said at the beginning you and I as born-again Christians We're occupied Okay Demon comes in next to your life and they do not find you unoccupied you are occupied by the Holy Spirit and That's that's one of the reasons why we can't have a demon as well as the Holy Spirit living within us. That is unthinkable That is just absolutely unthinkable anyway, interesting passage is it not and Interesting also to consider as we continue reading here in Matthew chapter 8 look at me with me at verse 30 it says

and this is very very fascinating to it would appear from these verses and From what we read in this the other passage from Matthew 12 the demons, you know hate being without a host it seems to be kind of I Mean Jesus told us there in Matthew 12 that when a demon is it comes out of a man He goes through arid places, whatever that means Seeking rest and finding none. So there's something about being vacated from any kind of a you know, a corporeal body that the demons find very Hard to deal with all right to the degree that these demons Even begged to go into some pigs you know some dumb animals and The rest too I think is rather Telling as far as the reaction of the pigs it says that when the demons went into the pigs that they Immediately rushed down the hillside Into the water where they were all drowned now We see a couple of interesting things from this. The first thing we see is the destructive nature of demons You know, it doesn't surprise us, you know, the enemy comes to steal kill and destroy that's the mo that's that's That's what that's what demons do They don't come to be your friend. They come to destroy you So we see immediately this destructive You know Murderous almost kind of a response that takes place in these dumb animals when when they are invested with these demonic spirits But I think what's other what the other thing is kind of interesting about this is that it seems here from this passage that these that These pigs these animals had no ability to resist You know because they're not given reason and a will like human beings are it appears that human human Lee speaking You know you and I can reason and we can resist we can even resist the Holy Spirit if we want to he'll let us And and we can certainly resist the devil the Bible even says resist the devil and he will flee from you Okay as a believer, you know so we can put up a resistance apparently animals can't do that because they don't possess that same amount of reason that same amount of Will if you if you will and so what happens when these these pigs go into these or excuse me? The demons go into the pig. It's just this immediate destruction. They have absolutely Suddenly the character of the demons is just manifested in Destruction now, it's manifested in destruction in human beings, too But again human beings can resist at least to some degree But these pigs just there was no hope for him, I mean they just absolutely you know Couldn't Couldn't resist at all The destructive nature of demons Isn't that it's almost kind of a weird paradox because they want a human host, but they can't help but hurt it and Influence it with evil and destruction because they are That's what they are Demons are destructive. There's a passage in Mark 9 that gives us some further insight. You might remember this it says so they brought the boy To Jesus here and when the spirit notice this boy has a demon when the spirit saw Jesus Look what it did it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion So the spirit was doing this and he fell to the ground and rolled around Foaming at the mouth. This is quite a scene and Jesus asked the boy's father. How long has he been like this and look at the response from childhood? He answered and look at this it has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him Isn't that crazy? That's the mo of a demon It often throws him into fire or water to kill him. So again a demon desperately wants to be inhabiting A human host But it's so destructive by nature that it can't help but also destroy That that same human host. So let's see how things play out here verse 33 look in your Bible It says those tending the pigs ran off Went into the town and reported all this including what had happened to the demon possessed men And then the whole town went out to meet Jesus and when they saw him they pleaded with him to leave their region This is their response, you know They they they're there there's been a lot of comment about Pigs and how they're unclean animals. It really doesn't apply much to our study. What we what we see here is that The people just were so freaked out about this whole thing The townspeople came out saw the situation for what it was. They slip I mean, can you imagine coming out of from the town and seeing all these Pig carcasses floating in the water. I mean, it would be a weird crazy bizarre Kind of a scene and of course as a farmer for you, that would mean you lost a huge investment But the response but they also saw something else which Matthew does not tell about here. The other writers do they saw The man who had had the demons sitting at Jesus's feet Who had had the demons sitting at Jesus's feet in his right mind They in other words, they saw the power of God and they were so frightened by it They actually asked Jesus to leave the region. They said, you know what just go just go and We know why Mark tells us the people were afraid Luke Tells us in fact, here's Luke's term. He says they were overcome with fear. Have you ever been overcome with fear? You know what it can do to you That was their response it was just too much for him to process They were so afraid so freaked out so weirded out by this whole thing. They were just like, you know, what please just go Just go Now fortunately That's not the end of the story for these people It's a pretty dangerous thing for you and I To be met by Jesus in some capacity and to respond to him by saying just go I mean, he'll let us do that He'll let us he'll let us say no to him. As I said earlier we can resist God in our lives But I find it very enlightening and very encouraging that this is not the end of the story Because Luke is the one who adds for us a wonderful notation to this story Let me put it up on the screen from Luke chapter 8. It says the man from whom the demons had gone out in fact begged Jesus to go with him But Jesus sent him away saying no you need to return home and tell everybody how much God Has done for you and look what it says here So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus Had done for him. Isn't that amazing Jesus actually now In Luke and Mark's account. There's only one man in Matthew. There's two I believe that the reason that that Mark and Luke only told about one was he was the main speaker. He was the main focal point of the the passage But This but one of the demoniacs Came to Jesus and literally begged him. Would you please let me follow you I owe you my life please let me come along and He said you know what It's better for you. If you go back to your town because these people all know you They haven't been able to even get close to you For how long? So why don't you go back and why don't you go tell him what you've done what I've done what what's happened in your life That's gonna be the most powerful thing that you can do so isn't that interesting here's a man Who nobody could touch minutes before I mean nobody could even get close to this guy And he is now gonna go back to his area and by the way he lived in the region called the Decapolis Which means the region of ten cities, so this was a huge area. This was a large Well populated region and Jesus is sending this demoniac or at least former demoniac to go be an evangelist I Want you to go tell people what God has done for you now. What's interesting about that is that we learn later on that Jesus comes back to the region of the Gadarenes and Guess what happens when Jesus comes back the people meet him with enthusiasm and excitement And it says that when he disembarked from the boat the people recognized him And they ran to him and they brought their sick to him and they asked him to heal the people you know and so what? Happened between this time and this and the next time Jesus came there was some evangelism going on by a former Demoniac who went to the people of those ten cities and said let me tell you what? Jesus did for me it's amazing and he got their attention and By the time Jesus came back to that region a second time they were more than ready to hear What he had to say and to see the power of God in In action and so the man of the tombs as we like to call him Had a huge impact on the people of his region I Want to share one more verse if I can with you because I think that this is a summary statement of What we've just looked at here It's taken out of first John chapter 3 verse 8 and it goes like this The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. I Mean that's basically what you read in that story, isn't it? Why did Jesus come and do that he said because that was his mission to come and destroy the work of the devil now that work is a huge complex difficult sort of a deal But yet Jesus came to do it and he has done it and he's continuing to do it You You