Stories of Healing Pt 2

And read verse 9 with me. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, for holy is the Lord our God. Lord, I do thank You that You are holy and that You are enthroned. Father, in the world that we live in, it's so good to know that we have a sovereign God, the King, who is coming. And so, Lord, prepare our hearts for Your coming, I pray. Lord, I ask that as we spend time in Your Word this morning,

that You would do the work that You see fit in each and every one of us. Lord, that You would convict us where we need convicted, comfort us where we need comforted, and Lord, encourage us where our hearts just simply need the encouragement of Your Holy Spirit. And we just thank You, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. We are blessed to have with us this morning

Jim Butler from the Gideons. He's going to come up and share just a little bit about the ministry of the Gideons and what God is doing through the work of His Word. I feel like I'm back home again. I have such a great time here. I see some new faces, though, and just in case you aren't familiar with the Gideons, I'll tell you a little bit, very little. We're an organization of about 250,000 men

across the world, and we give Bibles out and print Bibles in about 200 different countries. And we come and try to get mucho dinero from you. And it's such a privilege. It's always been one of the great churches. You can almost mark with my offerings how much the Word of God means to a church. And I remember going, well, I won't tell you that story. But it's wonderful to be here.

I think when I was a kid, I was a little bit like, when I was here last, I mentioned that we'd had a big year locally with all the medical people and the policemen and the firemen and sheriff's officers, everybody in their capacity. And if they had secretaries, if they had people to clean up the place, rest homes, whatever, we gave scriptures to everyone we could there. And, of course, we usually go to the motels and we go to the church. And we go to the church.

And we go to the church. And, yes, motels now. When I grew up, it was hotels. And then we'd go to the prisons and different places like that and give out scriptures on a yearly basis. It was a great year a couple of years ago, but then the bottom fell out when the pandemic came along. And a lot of churches have closed their doors, some permanently, some just close them because it's the weather

or the weather is not good. And I think we'll even have a little message on fear here today. I was fortunate enough to hear. I don't want to give it away, though. Is that me echoing? Somebody's phone. Aha. All right. I do want to tell you, as you already know, that we believe as an organization that God's word is the single most important thing there is in the world.

Nobody can get to heaven unless they hear God's word carefully elucidated. It has to be properly done. But that's why I can tell you're here because you hear God's word properly done. And, you know, it's the only thing I know that's perfect. I won't give you my usual line there, but the Bible claims to be perfect. It's the only thing that can convert a person

from a sinner into a saint. And it's nice to know that we have a guarantee with that because Jesus said, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will never come into condemnation, meaning ever, never, never, never, never, ever be judged. And there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So with that being said, I usually read some letters and then stand at the back.

And when the service is over, I take an offering. And yet the main thing I want you to think about is the prayers that are necessary, just like those demons that were cast out or couldn't be cast out by the disciples because they didn't envelop it in prayer. And so we ask that you'll pray. Pray for the young people in schools who are deprived of Bibles today and things like that.

And so that there'll be open doors where now the churches are diminishing in number. And in fact, I talked to some people in the earlier service that had come from Crossroads. And then there's the, what did I say? The Quaker church up there and different places like that that have closed their doors. And so I want you to pray for them permanently. Now, instead of reading the letters,

I have a video. And I'd like for you to just listen to it with a thing in your mind is, is God's Word really enough? Is it powerful enough? And when you get through with this video, I think if you have a dry eye, you'll know the answer to that.

That's the doggone third time I've watched that thing and I cry every time I watch it. What a story. And that's why we give great place to the Word of God here at Calvary Chapel. I know we had sound issues. I hope everybody was able to hear that. I see some moist eyes, so I think most of us heard it. So open up in your Bibles if you would to the book of Matthew chapter eight.

Matthew chapter eight. We're gonna look at some of those stories today because we're looking at part two of stories of healing out of Matthew chapter eight. We said that Matthew chapter eight and nine both dealt with primarily stories of Jesus' healing as a part of his ministry. We said that Jesus went about everywhere preaching the gospel, teaching the Word, and healing all those who were sick.

And so we have seen some of the preaching and the teaching, but now we've been looking at the healing. And so we pick up in verse 18 of chapter eight, and this is what it says. Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. Then a scribe came and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes

and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, permit me to go bury my father, first to go bury my father. Jesus said to him, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. Now as we pick up in verse 18, it really is the beginning of a story that we will not actually finish until we get down to verse 28, because Jesus has been doing great work.

He's been performing miracles and he's been teaching, and he decides there's another place that he needs to go in order to share the ministry that God has given him. And so in order to share this ministry, he needs to go over to the other side of the sea to a land of the Gadarenes. So he says, boys, we need a boat. So these are fishermen, they have a boat, and they're getting ready to go.

And so as they're getting ready to head down to the boat, he comes across these two disciples. Now this first story that we're gonna look at really doesn't have a lot to do with healing, but I think residually speaking, it's because of the healing ministry that he'd been doing that we have this test of what discipleship really looks like. And so there's two guys that are gonna come talk to him. One is a scribe and the other is just referred to as another of his disciples.

And so this scribe comes to Jesus and he says something very interesting. He says, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Now it's kinda cool because Jesus has been doing amazing things, right? His teaching is powerful. We were told that at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. When he was done, people were amazed at his teaching because it was with power and great authority,

not like the scribes and the Pharisees. And so this scribe has heard the teaching of Jesus and he's attracted to the authority and the power of the teaching of Jesus. But not only that, he has seen the healing that's taken place. He has seen the miracles and he's somewhat attracted to all of the miraculous things that Jesus is doing. And so without thinking too much about it,

he makes this very impetuous statement and says, teacher, I'll follow you wherever you go. You can picture the scene, right? Jesus and his group of 12 heading down to the boat and as they're heading down to the boat, somebody coming up to him and saying, I've seen what you've done. I wanna go wherever you go. Now, if it were me, being me as a human being, I would go, great, come join us.

We're about to go across the sea. You're not gonna believe what you see over there. It's gonna be great. Join us, it's gonna be fun. But that's not what Jesus does. Jesus instead challenges him with a statement. Because you see, as excited as this guy is, the problem is he hasn't really thought out the commitment that he's about to make. And so Jesus will not tell him,

it's wrong for you to say, I'll follow you wherever you go. Instead, what he tells him is, you need to count the cost. So Jesus tells him, listen, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air, they have nests. The son of man doesn't have anywhere to lay his head. Now, many have taken this to say, oh, because Jesus was so broke down poor, he couldn't even afford a place to live.

Listen, I don't think that's what's being said here. As a matter of fact, we see that Jesus could not only support himself as a carpenter if he wanted to, but was also supported by many of the women in the ministry that had followed him. It says they supported him financially. It's not because Jesus couldn't afford a home. It's because Jesus chose not to live.

Instead, he was constantly staying with all the people that he was ministering to because he didn't want his time to be pulled away by caring for a home. He wanted his time to be well spent in the ministry that God had given him. And so when this guy comes to him and says, I'll follow you wherever you go, he says, you need to count the cost. You need to count the cost and realize it could cost you everything to follow me.

Now, when I was in Bible college and I read stories like this, I would think to myself, gosh, I don't know if I can really follow Jesus. I'm not ready to give up all of my earthly possessions and maybe live as a homeless person in order to follow Jesus. And I would get a little bit nervous and a little bit worked up about it. And then I remember when the Lord began to show me the balance of what he was actually saying here.

Because what Jesus is telling this guy is not that what he needs to do is go sell his house and now live as a vagabond amongst the people. He's not telling him he should quit his job. He's not telling him he should sell all of his earthly possessions. Instead, what he's telling him to do is to live a life that is completely and totally surrendered unto the Lord.

A life that says whatever else I'm doing is not as important as the one thing I need to do, which is serve God with my whole life. Because you know as well as I do, the greatest ministry that you have is sometimes in the midst of your job. But you need to view your job in a different way. You need to stop viewing a job as a way in order to build your own kingdom.

You need to view a job as a way that you can build God's kingdom. You see, that's being willing to surrender all. Perhaps God is calling you to leave behind your desires to continue to move up in the corporate ladder and instead be content where you are because where you are right now is the place where you can best minister the gospel of Jesus Christ. Perhaps he's telling you to leave behind your desire to buy a new car every two years and instead be content with the one that you've got and focus your energies and efforts on serving Jesus Christ.

You see, there is a surrendered heart that goes along with counting the cost and following Jesus wholeheartedly. Have you counted the cost and is your heart fully surrendered? Because that's what he tells this scribe that he needs to be willing to do. You know what I find interesting? We don't know how this scribe responded. We're not sure if he was like, that's a great idea,

I didn't really like my house anyway, I'll come live with you. We don't know if he followed Jesus wholeheartedly or if he was like, gosh, that's a little too extreme for me, I need my financial security. We don't know how he responded. In my mind, do you know how he responded? This is not gospel truth, this is just Ryan's mind. You can imagine the excitement he had in his eyes

when he came up to Jesus to tell him the news that he was sure Jesus would greet with welcome arms. You can imagine how deflated his face looked when Jesus told him just how much it would cost him. You've got to understand, this may mean it could cost you money, it could cost you everything that this world calls precious. And I bet at first he went and walked away.

You know why? Because sometimes we have to decide, is it really worth it? Is it really worth the fact that this world will no longer be my home, this world will no longer be my treasure, the things of this world will all of a sudden lose their glamour and lose their desire and lose their shimmer as far as my eyes are concerned. I have to be completely willing to say, it doesn't matter what I drive, it doesn't matter where I live, it doesn't matter where I dress, it doesn't matter where I work, what matters is I'm following Jesus with my whole heart.

Because that's the cost of discipleship. Well there's one other guy that comes up to him, so he finishes that conversation and this man is identified as another of the disciples. That's the only identification that's given to him, is another of the disciples. But this guy has to learn a lesson and that's to put Jesus first. Now this other, another of the disciples,

would have been one who was following Jesus. Again, probably heard the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Had been knowing and following Jesus in all of the things that he was doing, and yet he was trying to decide, do I really want to follow Jesus wholeheartedly? And he says, hey listen, here's what I need you to know. Permit me first to go and bury my father

and then I'll follow you. Let me first go and bury my father. Now I don't know about y'all, but without an understanding of Eastern culture, we would have a hard time really grasping what he means here. Because in Western culture, we would think that that means his father's laying in the morgue right now and he needs to make the funeral arrangements. I'm gonna follow you.

Give me two to five days to make all the funeral arrangements I need to make and then I'll follow you. But you see, Eastern culture looked much different than that. Eastern culture meant that you promised that you would take care of your family until they die as a son. It would be your job to make sure that your parents were taken care of. So when he says that,

let me first go and bury my father, he said, first, let me handle all of my worldly relationship issues and then I can come and follow you. Let me put it in language you might understand. Let me wait for the right time. I'll follow you when the time is right. When all my ducks are in a row. I'll follow you when I've done all the things of the world that I need to take care of.

That's when I'll follow you. One commentator that I read put it this way. He said, the two key words to this entire section are the words, me first. You see, many of us think, I want to follow Jesus. I want to do what he wants me to do. But we all have a problem. You know what the problem we have is? Me first. You see, I want to take care of all of the things

that I want to do first and then I'll follow Jesus. It usually starts with somebody who has never come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I love talking to teenagers that don't know Jesus because they're like, well, I want to make sure I can have all my fun. Well, I want to make sure I can do all the things that I want to do before I come to know Jesus.

And you know what I always tell them? You'll never come to a point in time where you think, hey, there's not one more fun thing I want to do. Because the things that you consider fun, the word of God calls death. Let me first go and do this. And it's one thing when it's somebody that's not saved. It's a whole other thing when it's a believer in Jesus Christ.

I remember when my wife and I first got married and we started having the discussion of kids. Right? And when the discussion of kids comes up, you always think the same thing. Am I ready? Listen, I'm still not ready to have kids. I'm still not responsible enough for that yet. I think probably around the time I retire is when I'll start being responsible enough.

But who knows? When I'm 65, 70 years old, I may still go, you know what I'm still not responsible enough for? Kids. So finally, I remember somebody telling me something. They said, if you wait until you're ready, you'll never do it. Now that spoke to me a little bit about having kids. But do you know what else that spoke to me about? Living a life for Jesus.

If you wait until you're ready, you'll never do it. And here's the thing about the Lord. What His greatest desire from all of us that are His disciples is that we follow Him now with all of our heart. You see, God is a God who wants 100% of us now or He doesn't want anything at all. God will never be content with half of your heart. God will never be content with half of your life.

He will never be content with a lukewarm following of Him. Let me give you a little bit of an illustration. I was reading this last week in the book of Genesis and I was reading about Abraham. As I was reading about Abraham, the whole Ishmael event had just happened in Abraham's life. If you don't know the Ishmael event, go back and read the book of Genesis.

And he'd made basically his biggest mistake he'd ever made in his entire life. But the very verse after the end of the chapter about the Ishmael event, God shows up to Abraham and God tells him something. He says, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. He tells him I'm God Almighty because Abraham would need to know that for the promise that God had given to him.

But what he says Abraham needs to do is he says, you need to walk before me and you need to be blameless. You know what the word blameless there means? Literally the word blameless means wholehearted. That's the idea behind the word blameless. So what does Jesus, what does God tell Abraham he wants him to do? He says, I'm God Almighty. I want you to walk before me

in a wholeheartedly devoted way. And you know what Jesus is telling these two men right here? I'm everything that you need. But you're gonna have to count the cost and walk with me. Follow me in a wholeheartedly devoted sort of way. And as I've often done, my question for you is this. Who owns most of your heart? Maybe a better question is, who owns that one part of your heart?

Because I would venture to say that many of us that are sitting here today would say, I believe in God. I believe in Jesus and I want to follow him. And maybe most of our heart belongs to Jesus. But I also know that there's a really, really good chance that 25% of our heart still belongs to me. Still belongs to that sin we can't let go of. Still belongs to that fleshly desire

that is still so important to us. Still belongs to me. And Jesus says, that's 25% too much. The cost of discipleship. Well, it's time to get into the boat now. Verse 23. And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves. But Jesus himself was asleep.

And they came to him and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said, Why are you afraid, you men of little faith? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed and said, What kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Now, I've shared this with you before. If I'm a disciple of Jesus,

I never get in a boat. That's just all there is to it. Every time they get in a boat, you know what happens? A storm comes up. It's just like the fact if I ever become a famous rock star, you know what I'm ever doing? Flying in a plane. It's just a bad idea. Like the odds are against you at that point in time. You're famous. You're a rock star. Plane? Not going to end well.

Disciple? Boat? There's going to be a storm. So they get into the boat. And as they're getting in this boat and going across the sea, bear in mind that these are seasoned fishermen. In other words, it's not their first rodeo. And a storm blows up all of a sudden on the sea. Now, I've never been to the Sea of Galilee, but I read a lot about it this week. The Sea of Galilee sits about 685, I think,

feet below sea level. So it's really warm on the Sea of Galilee. And it sits in a little narrow ravine where there's one little place where the wind can come through. Above the Sea of Galilee is a place called Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon gets very cold. Apparently, people actually ski there in the wintertime. So it gets really cold at the top of the sea. That's why it's called

Mount Hermon. Now, we're from Kansas, and we know what happens when cold air hits warm air, right? There's a thunderstorm. And so that's exactly what takes place. You see, the cold air comes blowing down off of Mount Hermon, catches the warm air coming off of the water of the Sea of Galilee. A storm blows up. And so that's exactly what it says happens. It says,

there arose a great storm on the sea. I kind of prefer the New King James in this one because it uses the word tempest. A great tempest arose upon the sea. I feel like if the weatherman was telling me that a storm was coming and he said, take cover, there's a great tempest coming, I would take him incredibly more seriously than I usually do. I would probably not go out on the porch

to see what's going on. I would go, that is a tempestuous wind. I'll go to the basement. Anyway, so I'm going to use that from now on. But this great storm that rose up, the word tempest there actually gives us our word seismic because that's what the Greek word means. You know what the word seismic carries with it? The idea of an earthquake. So we're given the idea that this storm

was not just your average storm. The entire earth was shaking because this storm was so great. Now, when we know what Jesus is going to the other side of the sea to do, which is to deal with the demonic, there are many commentators who feel like perhaps there was more to this storm than just wind blowing down from the top of Mount Hermon. Perhaps there was something very demonic in nature about this storm.

Scripture doesn't say, so we can only assume, but one has to wonder. At any rate, this storm was so great that these seasoned fishermen were absolutely terrified. Because notice what's happening to the boat. So the storm arose on the sea, verse 24, so that the boat was being covered with the waves. The idea in the Greek here is that the waves kept washing over top of the boat

and the boat was filling with water. In this entire time, I want you to take note of what Jesus was doing. But Jesus himself was asleep. That's a man after my own heart right there, right? Like the whole place, the whole building's burning down and he's napping in the corner. I love this because this shows the humanity of Jesus when he was here on earth. You see, Jesus would wake up early in the morning,

spend time with his father, which was so necessary for his life, and then he would hit the ground running because he was not there for the ease of his comfort. He was there to do the work of the Lord. He was living out what he just told those two disciples that they would need to do. He had counted the cost and he was following wholeheartedly. And because of that, physically he would get tired.

So the boat is rocking, it's filling up with water, and I don't know how you picture this boat, but it was not a large boat. I googled some pictures of these and maybe five, six guys could fit in this boat. It wasn't some kind of a yacht. And so it was a really small boat, so Jesus curled up in the front of the boat, undoubtedly would have had some water splashing up on him.

That's how asleep he was. But do you know what else I love about the fact that Jesus was asleep? It's that Jesus was not worried. I'd like to say that one more time because I think it's important for us to pay attention to. Jesus was not worried. What are you worried about today? Do you know that whatever you're worried about today, Jesus isn't worried about it.

He cares about you. He cares that you're worried about that. But he's not worried about it. You see, every time these storms would take place, Jesus was always asleep. Do you notice that? Now, while we don't have Jesus amongst us right now, and we don't see him asleep up here on the stage right now, that'd be trippy, wouldn't it? We don't see him asleep on the stage right now.

Where is Jesus currently? He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Why is that important? Well, I don't know about you, but when I worry, do you know what I do? I pace. I walk all over the place. I wear holes in the carpet practically. I remember two years ago when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, and they were losing the entire game up until like the last two minutes of the game,

and I'm watching the game, and my dad and I both, who we have very similar personalities, we're like passing each other as we pace. What are they doing? You know, because I was worried about it. And imagine when real life circumstances come up, I'm really good at pacing at that point in time. Jesus isn't doing that. You know why? Because he's not worried. I think that's a really good word for somebody

that's here this morning, is that Jesus is not worried. And so Jesus is asleep there in the front of the boat, and the disciples are totally freaking out. And so they come to him, and they woke him up, saying, save us, Lord, verse 25, save us, Lord, we are perishing. You can kind of picture the disciples, right? Like Peter's at the front of the boat telling everybody what they'd done wrong

and what they needed to do right. John and James are probably in an argument about who should do what. Andrew's the only one bailing anything out of the boat because Andrew was always the guy that just quietly did what needed to be done. Meanwhile, Jesus is asleep like a little baby at the front, and finally they're like, we're gonna die. Save us, we're perishing.

So they go and they wake Jesus up. I think this is how it happened. What is going on? Right? He just woke up from sleep. Dude slept through a storm. You know he was out heavy, right? Jesus was a heavy sleeper. And so he's kind of getting his bearings about him, like what is happening right now? What is happening right now? And he looks around and they're like,

we're gonna die! And how does Jesus respond to him? He said, why are you afraid, you men of little faith? Now Jesus rebukes them at this point in time. Why does he rebuke them? Now if you just read this at face value and didn't do a little digging, you would think that Jesus was upset simply over the fact that they were afraid. I actually don't agree with that.

You see, there's lots of places in scripture where people are afraid, but Jesus never once rebukes them for their fear. Fear is a very natural thing. There's nothing sinful about being afraid. There at times can be everything healthy about being afraid, right? Why don't I do stupid things? Because I am afraid of getting hurt. Why don't I jump off the roof of my house?

Because I am afraid of getting hurt. At that point in time, fear becomes the healthiest thing I can have. So I don't think he rebukes them for being afraid. All of the circumstances around them would tell them, this is a fearful situation. Maybe he rebukes them because they woke him up and were asking him to do something. I don't think that's true. Jesus never gets upset that people have come to him.

As a matter of fact, we're told to present all of our requests to him. So why does he rebuke them? Because fear had just taken a place in their life that only Jesus deserves. You see, this particular story doesn't look like a story of healing. And yet, as I was studying it, I realized something. I realized that this is a story of healing. Because do you know what Jesus is about to heal his disciples of?

He's about to heal his disciples of fear. Do you know fear, if not used in the right way, can be the most debilitating thing in our lives? Fear can cause us to not do a single thing. When I was a little kid, I'd have nightmares. Vivid imagination. My youngest daughter has the same thing. I feel terrible for her. But I had these nightmares. And when I'd wake up in the middle of the night

after having these nightmares, I could not move. My body would just be stiff because I was so scared to roll over because of what might be on the other side of me. You see, at that point in time, fear paralyzed me. And do you know what I think is happening in the lives of a lot of human beings right now? A lot of people right now is that they are being absolutely paralyzed by fear.

Fear has taken a place in their lives that only Jesus deserves. Fear has become their idol. And it has completely taken over their lives. And because of it, they won't live their life as normal. Because of it, they won't allow God to use them in the way that He wants to use them. Because of it, they will never be set free from the things God wants to set them free from

because just like me, when I was a little boy and would have the nightmare, and would be so tensed up that I couldn't even roll over and see what was going on, that's how we're living our lives. And that's what these disciples were doing. You see, fear had become their idol and that's all they could see. But the second reason I think He rebuked them is because they totally forgot the truth of who Jesus is.

What had they just seen Jesus do? Well, they had just seen Jesus heal someone of leprosy, a disease that up to that point in time there was no cure for and no one had ever been healed of, at least not in the nation of Israel. They had seen Him heal the centurion's servant from long distance showing that location didn't matter because Jesus' power was greater than that. They saw Jesus heal Peter's mother-in-law simply by putting His hand on top of her hand and then they had spent the entire evening watching person after person after person come to Jesus as He healed them.

Not only that, what was the very first thing Jesus said when we started off this section? Look up at verse 18. He says,

the other side of the sea. What had Jesus told them they were going to do? Where had Jesus told them they were going? He didn't say, let's get in a boat and go to the middle of the sea. If He'd said that, I'd get nervous. That's probably where I'm gonna die. But He said, we're gonna go to the other side. You see, when Jesus begins something, He's faithful to complete it.

And they needed to believe that if Jesus was with them when they got in the boat, He was still with them in the middle of the storm, He would be the one that would get them to the other side of the sea. One of my favorite verses in all of scripture, and I didn't include it in my outline, but just write down Philippians chapter one verse six. Oh, look at that. She's so good.

Philippians, I did this first service and she took note of it. Philippians chapter one verse six. It says, and we can be confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. Until the day of Christ Jesus. We can trust that God's gonna finish what He started because He's a God who finishes what He started. And if He told you to get into the boat,

He's gonna stick with you in the midst of the storm and He's gonna get you to the other side of the sea. But they had forgotten about Jesus. And so He rebukes them. He says, why are you afraid, you men of little faith? And then He got up and He rebuked the winds and the sea and it became clear. And it became perfectly calm. And the men were amazed. He said,

what kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him? Well, now we get to our true story of healing that we've been trying to get to this entire time. And that's Jesus casting out demons. Notice what it says in verse 28. It says, when He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs.

They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. And they cried out saying, what business do we have with each other, son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. The demons began to entreat Him saying, if you're gonna cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.

And He said to them, go. And they came out and went into the swine and the whole herd rushed down a steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters. The herdsmen ran away and went to the city and reported everything including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold the whole city came out to meet Jesus and when they saw Him they implored Him to leave their region.

Now this region of the Gadarenes was just to the southeast of the Sea of Galilee. It was a region that was again predominantly Jewish but did have a heavy Gentile influence there. And when Jesus shows up, He shows up for the very purpose of Him ever going to the other side of the sea. He showed up for two people. I love that Jesus shows up for two people. Isn't that amazing?

I think sometimes we feel like, hey, Jesus will only show up if it's a whole bunch of people. But that's not who Jesus is. Let me tell you a quick story. I know I'm running out of time here. Let me tell you a quick story simply because I thought a lot about this man this week. One of my teachers in Bible college came home to be with Jesus this week. His name was Ray Bentley.

Ray Bentley pastored Maranatha Chapel in Rancho Bernardo, California. And Ray Bentley told a story to us about how he got saved. He said, when I was a kid we got to go to the movies every Sunday afternoon. It was just what we did. We knew that was the only time that my dad wasn't going to put us to work. And so we got ready to go to the movies and we didn't realize

that they had rented out the movie theater for a Billy Graham film. A Billy Graham evangelistic film. He said, we got there and my dad said, well, the only movie playing is this Billy Graham film. We can either stay and watch it or we can go back home and go to work. And he said, me and my brother said, we're staying. He said, so they show this film and he goes, I don't know why

the whole time I'm going, this film is about me. This is about me. Oh my gosh. And everything about it just touched his heart. And he knew he needed to get his life right with Jesus. He said at the end of the film they put together, this church had put together a team of people to pray with who they thought would be holy. Hundreds of people that would come forward

and get saved. And he said, so the pastor says, does anyone want to come forward and receive Jesus? And he said, you know, I think he said he was 12 years old. He said, I'm just sweating because I know I'm supposed to go down there. I know that's what I'm supposed to do. He said, nobody in the entire place stood up. He said, finally, I was like, I can't help it.

And even if it's just me, I gotta go. He said, so I stood up and I walked down the aisle and I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And my life's never been the same since. He goes, but I was the only one. He said, I would venture to say as a pastor that the pastor that rented out that theater probably thought to himself, this was a failure. Only one person got saved.

But can I go ahead and tell you what I know about Ray Bentley? He went on to pastor one of the largest churches in Southern California. And he went on to lead many, many people to the Lord. And as time went on and he continued his ministry, he started an online ministry. And he started getting letters from people all over the world who had received Jesus because of the work of him

teaching the word of God to people. And may I say part of the reason why I am up here is because of the work of Ray Bentley. And so what may seem like an absolute failure because there was only one is actually exactly the one that Jesus had in mind. And that's the way it is with these two demoniacs. So he shows up on the other side of the sea with these two demoniacs

who are there. They're demon-possessed. We're told in other Gospel accounts, both Mark and Luke, that one of them was referred to as Legion because he was filled with so many demons. They were so incredibly violent that they tried to bind them with chains and they would break the chains because they would not be bound because they were so violent. And where are they living?

Amongst the tombs. You know what we learn from that? We learn, first of all, that Satan hates life and seeks to destroy it in every way that he possibly can. Second of all, we know that Satan loves death. That's the issue that we see here. Now, I believe that demonic possession is still a real thing. I don't think it was just a Biblical thing. I think we still see it today.

I think we see it today in some of the multiple personality disorders that we deal with and some of the psychological issues that people deal with. I think we see it in some of the serial killers that we've taken note of over the years. But you know where else I think we see it? I think we see demonic oppression if not possession in some of these young folks that are wondering about wanting to harm themselves, that are wanting to take their own lives.

I think that's very much demonic in nature. And in the same way that the only thing that could set these two guys free, the only thing that can set all of these other people free is the work of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus sees them. And notice that the demoniacs approach Jesus. Verse 29. It says, They cried out, saying, What business do we have with each other,

Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? I think it's interesting that they knew who Jesus was. They knew that he was Jesus, the very Son of God. And yet all of the religious leaders who had been studying the scriptures their entire life had no idea. They couldn't identify him. But you know what? The second thing I take note of about what these demons said,

they knew what their end was. They knew that there was gonna come a time when God would not only judge the earth, but that God would judge them and he would throw them into eternal punishment. They refer to it as torment. I think it was Chuck Smith in his commentary that said, Isn't it interesting that these demoniacs have better theology than most of the Bible teachers today?

And so they cry out to Jesus, Hey, what are you doing here? Verse 30, Now there was a herd of swine feeding at a distance from them. And the demons began to entreat him, saying, If you're gonna cast us out, send us into the herd of swine. Now it's kind of interesting that there's swine being kept there because if you know anything about dietary laws, which we're getting ready to start studying on Wednesday night in the book of Leviticus, you know that one of the main things that they were not supposed to be around was pigs.

They couldn't eat pork. And so for them to be raising pigs would have made everybody in that region ceremonially unclean. So we know that this was not a region that held God's law in very high regard. And so they look and they're like, Hey, listen. See the pigs? If you cast us out, will you send us into the pigs? Why do they want to do that? Well, because demons

don't want to be unembodied spirits. They want to have a body that they can possess. Not only that, but what do they want to do with life? They want to destroy it. And if they can't destroy human life created in the image of God, then they will be content to destroy animal life, which was created by God. And so they say, Cast us into those swine. Send us over there.

And notice what Jesus says. And he said to them, Go. Now I have a red letter Bible up here. And in this entire section from verses 28 to 34, the only word that's in red is that one word. Go. I love it because Jesus doesn't even have a conversation with them. That's all he says. He says, Go. And then notice what happens. And they came out and they went into the swine

and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters. I can't help it. This is a funny scene. Can you imagine what happened with the pigs? They're all just, you know, snorting and grunting and rolling in the mud and enjoying being disgusting, maybe eating vanilla wafers. And so as, as they're, as they're rolling in the mud, all of a sudden,

demons possess them. And what do they do? I think that's what they do. I think they're, and the loudest suey you've ever heard in your entire life. Just all the snorting and that you can imagine. And they hit the hillside. You know what I want to know? How many of them went, the whole way down the hill? Right? Don't tell me you didn't think it. We all thought it.

And they go cruising down this hill and into the water. It's the first bath they'd ever had. The last one they'll ever take. And then they drown. You can imagine when they hit the water, they're like, we, we can't swim. Right? Boiled pork. All down there at the bottom of the sea. Can you imagine being the guys taking care of, so this is what the herdsmen do.

Notice what it says, verse 33. The herdsmen ran away, and I would too. And they went to the city and they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniac. Can you imagine being the guy in charge of the pigs? You're like, that's not good. We had one job. So they go back and they tell all the people in the city what had happened. Now, if it's me

and I hear that these two guys that I was even scared to go around because of how violent they were and how destroyed their lives were, if I hear that they just got set free, I'm like, praise God. They're no longer bound. But that's not the way the people of the city respond. Notice what it says. Behold, the whole city came out to meet them, to meet Jesus. And when they saw him,

they implored him to leave their region. They come out to see Jesus and they're like, get out. And get out now. Why? I think there's a handful of reasons. Again, they didn't hold holiness or the law of God in very high regard. So when someone comes who represents the holiness of God, they don't want anything to do with it. Understand that as you approach the world,

you represent the holiness of God. People of the world won't want you to do anything to them. They don't want you to do anything to them. They don't want you to do anything to them. People of the world won't want anything to do with you. That's okay. It means you're doing your job right. The second reason why I think that they wanted them to leave as quickly

as they could is because they all liked bacon. I'm just kidding. Somebody told me that after first service. They were like, well, you know why they were so mad? Bacon's gone. Like, no, duh, there it is, right? No, but the real reason why I think they were mad, why they wanted Jesus to leave, is because they just lost their source of income. You see, they didn't care

that someone had been set free. All they knew was is that they didn't have any more money. All they knew was their source of income was gone. It didn't matter that souls had been set free. It didn't matter that two souls had just come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. They didn't care. All they cared about was that they lost their income. But you know what Matthew doesn't bring up

that a couple of the other gospel accounts do? That's the state of these two demon possessed men after Jesus left. Because these two men were made whole. They were made brand new in Christ. I thought this video that Jim shared this morning was absolutely perfect for exactly what we're talking about right now. Because in the same way that this guy that we listened to

on the video said, I've been set free because of the work of Jesus Christ and because of the power of his word, so too these demoniacs could say the exact same thing. They had been set free because of the work of Jesus Christ and because of the power of his word. Because friends, that's what Jesus does. He sets us free. In the other gospel accounts, these two men say,

can we go with you? Wherever you're going, can we go with you? And Jesus said, I need you to stay here and I want you to tell everybody about what happened. I want you to tell everybody what happened in your life. You know why? Because Jesus said, I need you to stay here and I want you to tell everybody about what happened. I want you to stay here and I want you

to tell everybody about what happened. You know why? Because the greatest witness that the world will ever receive of the reality of a savior is the witness of how he has made you whole again. Amen? Let's all stand. As we move into the second week of a new year, I can sense the intensity continuing to build not only in life in general but in the world and it's so

vitally important that you continue to stay in the word and that abiding relationship with him because you're going to continue to need it. Father, we come before you and just thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for how good you are to us and I pray that you would use whatever you see fit by the power of your Holy Spirit in our lives today. Lord, draw us near to you and be with us as we go out from this place.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Let the holy joy flow through you out of the darkness into heaven. We're moving in love with Jesus and we're sure that you'll follow us as we go out toăm to competing as a That Jesus saves Raise a shout To let all the world know That Jesus saves Free at last Every debt has been repaid Broken hearts can be remade Save of the storms of life

Save through the darkest night For Jesus saves Free at last What a joyful noise we'll make As we join with heaven's songs Jesus saves Raise a shout To let all the world know That Jesus saves We'll sing it out That Jesus saves Raise a shout To let all the world know That Jesus saves Your Savior healed Restored, revealed Your Father's heart to us You rose to raise us from the grave Your Spirit lives in us To let all the world know That Jesus saves Raise a shout Jesus saves We'll sing it out To let all the world know That Jesus saves Raise a shout To let all the world know That Jesus saves Amen, amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you. We'll see you next week.