Deity On Display, Demons On The Run
Luke 8:26-39
August 5, 2018
This morning we return to our study of Luke’s gospel
After being away for a week at camp.
And that does present a small dilemma for me this week
• Because the text we approach this morning in Luke’s story is in regard to the man commonly referred to as “The Gadarene Demoniac”.
• The dilemma for me is that one of the preachers at camp REGEN preached on this very story on Friday night (from Mark’s gospel)
• So all those who attended should be well loaded to carefully scrutinize everything I say this morning.
• (My one consolation is that I’m not sure Chris and Amy listen all that well anyway)
None the less we approach this tremendous story
Here this morning in Luke’s gospel.
Always important to our understanding of Scripture
IS THAT WE KEEP STORIES LIKE THIS IN THEIR CONTEXT
So that we not only understand what happened, but so that we also understand the purpose the author had in including this story.
A couple of weeks ago I told you that
We were entering a new section in Luke’s gospel.
It is the portion of Jesus’ ministry
Where the focus has now shifted to the education of the disciples.
As Jesus ended His sermon on the importance of listening we heard Him say these words:
Luke 8:18 “So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.”
No doubt the disciples were that good soil
Who were interested in the truth of God
And therefore they were about to receive the benefit of going deeper.
And their education is simple.
Jesus is educating them as to who He is.
And all of this current education is meant to lead up to the day
When the exam will be given.
The exam will consist of 2 questions, and really only 1 is important.
Luke 9:18-20 “And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.” And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”
Jesus is driving to that point.
He is now taking His disciples deeper
To reveal to them that He is in fact “The Christ of God”
Once He reaches that point He will then take them even deeper
By revealing the necessity of His death and atonement,
BUT FOR NOW we are simply learning who He is.
And hopefully you will remember that Jesus began this course with a
CLASS WIDE FIELD TRIP.
It was a trip “to the other side of the lake”
Luke 8:22 “Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out.”
And part of the education was to begin
Before the disciples ever reached their destination.
He arranged the storm of their lifetime while He took a nap in the boat.
And of course you are familiar with the story.
• You remember the size of the storm, literally about to sink the boat
• You remember that the Lord was asleep, seemingly unconcerned
• You remember that the disciples were in a panic, waking the Lord to inform
Him of their impending doom
• And you remember that the Lord first rebuked them for their lack of faith
• And then in one of the most awesome displays of power ever seen Jesus
commanded the waves to be still and they obeyed.
And Lesson 1 was in the books.
Jesus has authority over fallen creation.
Jesus has the ability to reverse the curse.
We know that only God has the ability to command creation so who must this Jesus be?
And that was the question.
Luke 8:25 “[The disciples] were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”
This of course indicated that
Up until now they had yet to understand exactly who He was,
But in light of situations like this, they were beginning to figure it out.
WELL, THE FIELD TRIP STILL ISN’T OVER
(that occurred on the ride over)
This morning they actually reach their destination
And it is none other than a visit to a Satanic Stronghold.
There’s a thought for you!
Jesus wants to take you on a trip
And He takes you on a trip to a Satanic Stronghold
And He gets you there by the most terrifying road imaginable.
WHY?
SO THAT HE CAN REVEAL WHO HE IS.
He is about to once again put His deity on full display,
For Jesus knows exactly what waits for Him on the other side of this lake.
Let’s look at it together.
#1 A DEMONIC NIGHTMARE
Luke 8:26-27
After the storm was calmed Luke records “Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.”
• Matthew calls it “the Gadarenes” (Gadara was the largest city of the region, maybe even the capital)
• Mark and Luke call it “the Gerasenes” (Gerasa was the smaller town or suburb, most likely where this man was from)
This is not an accident, Jesus sailed right for this place.
(27) “And when He came out onto the land, He was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons; and who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs.”
Jesus purposely sailed for this location
Because He was well aware of what was occurring here.
The small town of Gerasa had a big problem.
There was “a man from the city who was possessed with demons”
• Matthew records that there were actually two men, obviously Mark and Luke
focused on the worst of the 2.
The point being that we have here a man who is under demonic influence.
“possessed” is a bit of a misleading term.
People often think of it only then as someone
Having a demon “inside” of them.
But we are dealing with evil spirits who are not limited by physical barriers.
The point is not that this man had a demon in him,
But rather that a demon controlled him.
In fact, we will learn later that
This man had NUMEROUS DEMONS controlling him.
(30) “And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.”
That is an interesting description.
• A “Legion” was a military squad.
Matthew 26:53 “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”
• A Roman legion could be up to around 6,000 soldiers.
• We don’t know how many are controlling this man, but we do know in a minute when they leave that they in turn cause 2,000 pigs to rush to their death.
In short, this is NOT Jesus VS a demon.
This is Jesus VS an entire army of demons.
Jesus and His disciples are sorely outnumbered here.
To further emphasize the size of the threat they are up against,
All you have to do is LOOK AT THE EFFECTS these demons have had
On this man and the people of the region.
Luke says that this man “had not put on any clothing for a long time”
• It was humiliation, it was debase, it was defiling, it was awkward, it was
obscene, it was immoral, and it was public
Not only that, but it had occurred for “a long time”
• Imagine the menace to society this must have been.
• Imagine as a parent always being concerned about the naked man who might
run through and ruin your celebration…
• Your children learn of this first hand…
• Your wife ran the risk of being approached by this man…
And this society had dealt with this for quite some time.
Beyond that he “was not living in a house, but in the tombs”
• He was a nomad
• He literally lived among the dead
• These people could never bury their loved ones in peace
• These people had no certainty as to where this man might be
To quote Austin Duncan from camp REGEN this man was a MONSTER.
Our society is obsessed with zombies and post-apocalyptic beings
• Horror movies are loved and embraced with all manner of evil creatures
• Society even loves super hero movies regarding heroes and villains with
supernatural power and ability
Well this guy is not fictional, he is not made up
He is your worst nightmare
Luke even gives a little MORE DETAIL in his description down in verse 29
(29b) “For it had seized him many times; and he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.”
Are you getting the scene?
On more than one occasion the towns-people had had enough and determined to put a stop to the terror this man was causing.
• You can see them gathering up a group of men with ropes and shackles and chains…
• You can see them rushing this naked man and it taking a multitude of them to hold him down while others frantically tied him up…
• And then you see him (like Samson) breaking the ropes…
• And so they try again, only this time with chains; and he breaks them…
• And they try again with shackles, and he breaks them…
We have to assume that the only reason they haven’t tried to just kill him instead of binding him is because no doubt the people knew him and pitied what had happened to him.
And so this is the saddest and most horrific of situations
• This man is beyond their control.
• He is the terror of the region.
• This entire region of cities is literally held hostage by this demonic army which dwells within this one man.
It is a Stronghold of Satan and everyone is suffering.
And it is good to remind you of the most obvious point here.
The battle is against Satan and his demonic forces,
And this is a battle against which humans are powerless.
Consider this other account of a battle against demonic forces.
Mark 9:17-29 “And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”
It is obvious that no human effort was even the slightest bit successful.
• Not even these disciples who had at times been accustomed to driving out demons could have any success here in their own strength.
• When the disciples asked why, Jesus simply responded, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”
In other words – ONLY GOD
Or consider the incident in Acts when some false prophets tried to use every trick they could conjure to cast out a demon:
Acts 19:13-16 “But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”
DO YOU SEE THE DILEMMA HERE?
We are dealing with a foe to powerful for man to defeat.
• And here everyone is outnumbered.
• It is a demonic army at least 2,000 strong and despite the efforts of everyone, this army is a terror.
That’s why we call this a demonic nightmare.
This is a problem that no man can solve.
And that is what makes the next reality so amazing
A Demonic Nightmare
#2 A DEMON’S NIGHTMARE
Luke 8:28-33
So Jesus has just gotten out of the boat,
And “He was met” by this demon possessed man.
And verse 28 is remarkable:
(28) “Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”
Luke goes on to record that the reason this man had said this is because:
(29) “For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man”
In other words,
• Jesus sailed right to this place where He knew this man to be,
• His first order of business was to stop the bully of the region.
• Jesus got out of the boat and commanded this demon to leave
• The demon possessed man responded by running up to Jesus, falling before Him, and begging for mercy.
“What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”
A couple of things I want you to recognize here.
The most obvious is that the TABLES HAVE SURELY TURNED.
• This army of demons doesn’t even put up a fight, they know they are outmatched.
Luke 14:31-32 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”
These demons are not stupid.
They know they cannot win.
The question is: WHY?
We haven’t seen this kind of respect given to Jesus by anyone yet.
• Not the disciples…
• Not John the Baptist…
• Not the religious leaders…
No one has given Jesus this kind of respect.
Why would this demon be so humbled before Him?
And the answer is:
BECAUSE THEY KNEW HIM
Now let this sink in.
• They didn’t just know Him for the last 30 years since He was born.
• They knew Him from all eternity.
Who are demons?
Revelation explains their origin:
Revelation 12:3-4 “Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”
• Demons are fallen angels.
• They represent 1/3 of the created angelic host
• They were deceived and defiled by the devil
• And they consequently fell from heaven
Are they fallen? Yes
Are they evil? Yes
But that doesn’t mean they are ignorant
They knew Jesus from BEFORE the fall.
They knew Jesus from BEFORE the incarnation
THEY KNOW WHO HE IS
And they know what He will do
And as such they are quick to announce HIS TITLE.
“Son of the Most High God”
Want me to show you another time He is called that?
Luke 1:32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;”
Do you know who said that?
That was the angel Gabriel speaking to Mary
The angels, even the fallen ones, know who He is.
Remember the first time Luke recorded Him casting out a demon?
Luke 4:34 “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!”
Mark 1:34 “And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.”
DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT JESUS IS DOING HERE?
• He is on a field trip in order that He might reveal to His disciples exactly who He is.
• He previously has not allowed demons to testify because these truths have been preserved for those who want the truth, as we learned from the parable of the soils
• But now, accompanied by those who want the truth, Jesus loads His disciples up and takes them on a field trip to encounter someone who can bear testimony to who He is.
And this army of demons universally declare Him as
“The Son of the Most High God”
And not only that, Jesus also encountered this man
So that He might demonstrate HIS COMPLETE AUTHORITY OVER THEM.
And this demon knows this as well.
“I beg You, do not torment me”
What did he mean?
(31) “They were imploring Him not to command them to go away into the abyss.”
• What you should know is that the devil swept 1/3 of the angelic host out of heaven with him.
• You should also know that not all of that 1/3 are on the loose today. Many of them are in prison.
Some are already in an eternal prison.
Jude 6 “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,”
• We learn of the demons on the days of Noah who tried to cohabitate with
human women and were thus sentenced to eternal prison.
• They will never be released and they await final judgment.
Others are temporarily in prison and in torment
• Waiting until the time of the great tribulation when they will be loosed for a
season to torment the earth.
Revelation 9:1-3 “Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.”
That picture gives explanation to what the conditions are like in that pit.
The demons incarcerated there are in absolute torment in fire.
These demons are begging for Jesus not to send them there.
And again you must recognize THE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY Jesus has.
On one hand you could say this is a testimony to His power,
But it is also a testimony to His authority.
• He is not wrestling these demons
• He is not in a cosmic physical battle
• Jesus doesn’t put on His “Iron Man” suit and wrestle this guy into submission
His authority is in His spoken word and the demon knows it.
He is begging for mercy
James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
This demon knows Jesus and he knows he is no match for Jesus, His only request is that Jesus will simply let them run away.
(this man who no one has been able even to bind with a chain)
And Jesus seemingly grants his request, at least temporarily
(32-33) “Now there was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain; and the demons implored Him to permit them to enter the swine. And He gave them permission. And the demons came out of the man and entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.”
No, I don’t know why these demons wanted to enter the pigs.
(At the very least it was a picture of total desperation to a Jewish audience)
How scared must these demons have been if they were willing to enter pigs?
WHAT I DO KNOW HOWEVER IS WHY JESUS ALLOWED IT.
Some would argue,
• Why not just put them in prison?
• Why not just send them to the abyss?
Because by sending them into the pigs,
It was a physical demonstration of exactly what He just did.
WE KNOW this man was demon possessed,
BUT there is no guarantee that the people of the region did.
It’s not like you can take a blood sample and find out if demons are present.
For all they know, this guy is just a lunatic.
And if the demons had been consigned straight to the abyss,
Who is to say that Jesus actually conquered demons here?
However, IN ONE INSTANT you have a crazy man enter his right mind,
And at the exact same time an entire herd of pigs goes crazy and commits mass suicide.
The situation is clear even to the most average of spectator.
Whatever was disturbing that man clearly left that man started disturbing those pigs.
• This was not a sickness
• This was not an illness
• This was not a mental incapacity
• This was a demonic army that was begging and pleading before Jesus that
consequently left this man.
Do you see the obvious demonstration?
Is the purpose of the field trip now clear?
Jesus just approached a Satanic stronghold
And obliterated them without so much as raising a finger.
Only God could have done something like that.
And that’s interesting since that’s exactly what the demons called Him.
And WE ARE REMINDED YET AGAIN that
This Jesus is in fact the Christ, the Son of the Most High God.
• He is the One who can undo the effects of fallen creation
• He is the One who can undo the strongholds of the god of this world
Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
This was Jesus. His power is obvious.
His power was so obvious in fact that it would later cause the Pharisees to accuse Him of being the Lord of the demons.
Luke 11:15 “But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”
They had no other way to explain His obvious control over demonic forces.
Jesus would respond to that accusation by saying:
Luke 11:21-22 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. “But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.”
In other words, I’m not “Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons”,
I’m just far more powerful than they are.
JESUS IS GOD.
And this is all to reveal His nature to His disciples
Who will soon be asked to confess who He is.
And that should be obvious to everyone who is willing to listen.
Jesus is God, and submission to Him is not optional.
But it is at this point that the story takes an interesting turn.
A Demonic Nightmare, A Demon’s Nightmare
#3 A SINNER’S NIGHTMARE
Luke 8:34-39
This has to be one of the strangest occurrences in the Bible.
• Naturally the herdsmen go and tell everyone about the event.
• The people all come out to see it.
• They see the man they could not control “clothed and in his right mind”
• They are “frightened”
• Then the eye witnesses tell the story again
“And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them, for they were gripped with great fear; and He got into a boat and returned.”
I think there is one obvious question here:
WHY?
Jesus just delivered them all from this terrible threat…
Jesus just diffused the situation…
Why in the world would they want Jesus to leave?
SCRIPTURE DOES GIVE SOME INSIGHT AS TO WHY
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
John 3:18-20 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
It is a peculiar thing why mankind who is oppressed by sin
Would so adamantly oppose the One who can save them.
The answer that the Bible gives to this mystery is this:
That man is blinded by the devil to love their sin so much that they would reject (even fear) the One who can deliver them from it.
And with that explanation this makes perfect sense.
These people wanted Jesus to leave
So He wouldn’t do the same thing to them that He did to this man.
• They didn’t want to be humbled…
• They didn’t want to be in submission…
• Their sin didn’t seem as bad to them as the sin of this demoniac and so they wanted to keep theirs…
• And since Jesus is clearly a threat to sin…
• HE HAD TO GO
That’s the only explanation I can find.
And so it becomes clear that this demoniac
Was not the only one that Satan was working on.
The only difference is that the demoniac left delivered
And the rest of this region remained in their sin.
In fact, look now at the contrast.
(38-39) “But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him; but He sent him away, saying, “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”
• This man was delivered
• He was overcome with gratitude and all He desired was to be with Jesus.
There is so much that could be said here about people who claim to be saved and yet show no gratitude and no desire to fellowship with Christ.
But that is probably for another sermon.
Here though Jesus declined this man’s request.
Jesus’ reasons are His own, and He didn’t feel the need to tell us why.
But He did leave one command for this man,
And it is the same command He gave to everyone He delivered.
“Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.”
Jesus commanded this man to become a witness.
• Go and “describe” it to your family.
• Go and “describe” it to your friends.
• Go and “describe” it to your city.
Those who have been delivered by Jesus owe Jesus that testimony.
What I also find interesting is the wording that is used.
• Jesus said, “describe what great things GOD has done for you.”
• And Luke records that the man went and proclaimed “what great things
JESUS had done for him.”
You tell me, did that man believe Jesus to be God?
Yes he did.
AND SO THE POINT THIS MORNING IS A SIMPLE ONE.
• There is no doubt who Jesus is. He is God.
• Only God can command creation, only God can command a demonic army
• He is God
And as such He is the only One who can deliver you
From your sin and your condemnation.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
1 John 3:8 “the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”
Jesus can deliver you.
He has that kind of power and authority
The means to deliverance is to humble yourself before Him,
Repent of your sin, and seek Him for that deliverance.
And if you are among the delivered, then testifying is not optional.
• You owe it to Him to share.
• He is God
• He came to save
He deserves your reverence
He deserves your submission
He deserves your testimony
James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
