It's a great privilege to work our way through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that saves men for eternity. Men are lost, men are going to hell. It says, unless one confesses and believes in Jesus Christ, they are condemned already. But if you have believed in Christ, then you have received life eternal. And the Word of God tells us that we have become then sons of the living God. It's an amazing transformation that God does in us. It says that we were something else, but now we are new. We have become new creations. Old things have passed away, but now we have become something quite different. And I just want to somehow convey to you that this is happening all over the world. And as you would expect, probably when you come back from a trip, that's kind of on your heart. But in small little huts and villages and in great huge cities, the word of God is being preached and men and women are turning and believing in Jesus Christ. And it's a great, great, great privilege to be His people and to be able to study His Word this morning. Now, we started in the book of Matthew, and one of the first things we wanted to identify was what was the purpose in Matthew's writing. And the overall theme of Matthew is to proclaim that this Messiah, this Jesus Christ, is the King. That is what he keeps on pointing to throughout the gospel that we've been working on so far. If we remember back at the beginning, and I just want to refresh us so that we kind of keep all of this together so that they're not isolated pockets of information, but this is the gospel. In the beginning, Matthew 1 through 4, we saw Jesus's kingly entrance into the world. So many fulfilled prophecies throughout the Old Testament came to life in the birth of Jesus Christ. There were angelic announcements to Joseph and to Mary. There was visions, visions given to these people about this young boy, this baby that would be born. There were astronomical signs. There was a star pointing to his location. There's never been anything like this. There were foreign dignitaries that came from thousands of miles away to pay homage to this child king, the one who would be king. And there was a local political king, a Herod, a governor, so to speak, that was full of jealousy and hatred and committed great acts of murder upon the children two years and younger in the area of Bethlehem. And it was an entrance like none other, and it pronounced to us or announced to us that this is something different. This child is born to be a king. And then in chapters 5 through 7, Jesus responding now to the great hordes of people that are surrounding him everywhere he goes. They've seen his miraculous power. He is like none other. He is taught with authority like no other. And they've gathered and he goes up on this hillside and he begins to speak to them. And there he announces what this kingdom of his is going to be like. And he says, first of all, in verses 1 through 12 in chapter 5, this is the character of my people. Then he begins to talk about the impact of those people, his kingdom people, what kind of impact they will have on this world. Then he speaks about their obedience. And then he talks about the heart of his people. And he uses this phrase six times. He says, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you, he was bringing a radically new approach to who God is and that they could have relationship with God. No more of this legalistic stuffy traditional stuff. where you prayed and it went nowhere and you performed acts and it got you nowhere. He was proclaiming a new covenant to the people. He talked about the sincerity of his people. He says there must be no hypocrisy at all, not in my people when they give or when they pray or when they fast. No hypocrisy, there must be deep sincerity. And then he struck at the hearts of many of us and he began to talk about the treasures of his people. His citizens would pursue him above any worldly treasures. His citizens would trust him. above any security that this world has to offer. And then he spoke about the humility of his people in their judgments and in their servings, how they should respond and the pursuit. What would they pursue? What would be the first thing in the minds of these people? He said, they will continually ask, seek and knock to enter my kingdom and then to be sustained and to grow in that kingdom. You don't just ask, seek, and knock to get in. It's a continual asking, seeking, and knocking as we grow in this Savior, Jesus Christ. And then towards the end of that message, you begin to talk about the single-mindedness, the single-mindedness of His people. There were two roads. There are two ways. There's two gates. One, most people go into. And it's broad, and it's easy, and it's wide, and it's very comfortable. And that's what people like. They will go down that road, and there's no road signs, though, that tell you this is a wide, broad road, but it's very short, and it will end in your destruction. Then he talked about the narrow way, and it was only, as he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Only through the narrow way will men enter into the kingdom of God. And it is not easy. He said, it is hard, it has trials, it has difficulties, but He will be with you there. And the end of that road, the destiny of that road is eternal life, where there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. The old order of things will have passed away. That's where that road leads to. Then He spoke about true and false prophets, good and bad fruit, true and false professions of faith, and true and false foundations for our life. He made his kingdom so clear there and so deep and now beginning in Matthew chapter 8 Jesus begins to take dominion over each of the regions of the kingdom of this world. If you've watched any of the great leaders of the past you've seen them begin to conquer and they conquer country after country after country. Basically one at a time and expand their dominion. And in many ways, that's what we see Jesus doing here in chapters 8 and chapters 9. He will conquer these areas. In Matthew 8 and 9, Jesus claims His absolute authority over all creation. And He does it with nine miraculous demonstrations. He shows His dominion over the spiritual realm. He shows His dominion over the realms of creation and nature. He shows His dominion over all humans, sickness, disease, injury, and even death. He has dominion over death. He gives life. He takes it away. And He has dominion over all things. Now, after coming down from that mountain, where He had given His monumental sermon on the mount, Jesus healed first of all an individual leper and a centurion servant and they both had something in common. Both of them truly believed he could do this and they had faith and Jesus healed them. Then he visited his disciple Peter's home. And when he was there, he healed Peter's mother-in-law from this deathly fever that she had. And she bounced back immediately. I remember Brad speaking on that. It's not like... I was sick for several days, and I didn't all of a sudden get up and start doing everything. It took a while to get better. But this woman got up and began to serve everyone. God restored her to complete health. And then that same evening, That same evening at that same home, Jesus began to heal and cast out demons from the many people who were drawn to Him. They were drawn to Him like moths to a flame. They saw this light, this truth. Now as was almost always the case, the great miracles drew in huge throngs of people all around Jesus. But crowds did not motivate Jesus. He could take them or leave them. Sometimes He used them. Sometimes He left. That's what He does here. This time Jesus directed His disciples to get into a boat and head across the Sea of Galilee. But before He steps into that boat, He was stopped by both an inquiring scribe and another interested disciple. And then He clearly maps out the costly life of being His disciple. They were anxious to get on board and He says, This will take everything. You must give your life to follow me." And their decision? We will have to wait to glory till we know. We don't know how they decided. They were faced with the truth from Jesus Christ. And after having set sail, a great tempest, a violent, as Tom described, a shaking storm, It literally overwhelmed their small little fishing boat. It said that boat was covered with waves. And the terrified disciples, with their thin veil of faith shredded, they cried out to Jesus. And where was he? He was sleeping in the stern of that little fishing boat. Let's look at Matthew 8 and we'll pick up there at verse 25. Then his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us! We are perishing! But he said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose, and he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey him? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, that it is God-breathed, and it is living and powerful, and it's sharper than a two-edged sword, that it's a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. It's a light to our path. It's an ointment. It's a mirror to show us our lives. It leads us to you. Lord, I pray that you would fill these words of yours this morning with your Holy Spirit. Please speak through me. Please overcome my weaknesses and my inabilities and Lord speak to the people and to myself through your word this morning. Show us your dominion, your power, your glory as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We don't deserve to see it Lord. You have only done this by your kind grace, your mercy. So please feed us as hungry children. Amen. Exercising dominion over sickness and disease. Dominion over the demons of Satan. Even over the winds and the waves. The very unstoppable forces of nature. Jesus demonstrates to the world that he is king of all creation. What will he conquer next? One commentator said, Matthew's interest in this account is in showing the authority of Jesus. And so he concentrates on his confrontation with the demons, not on the men who were the battleground. Personal details are thus almost entirely omitted. Now we've talked about that already, that several of these accounts of Jesus are described in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew and Mark take a deeper look here. and they have a different focus. But as I opened, the focus of Matthew is to show the dominion of Christ, that He is the King of kings, and that He will rule sovereignly. So we're going to look at it, and we're not going to go into some of the depth that you would find in Mark and Luke. We'll pull some of that in where I felt like it was necessary. But we want to understand this as Matthew was writing it, so that we see this picture as it is given to us in the Word of God. Verse 28 says, When he had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. Now the other side is really, he's going from Capernaum on the east side of the, excuse me, the west side of Galilee, and he is going approximately six miles to the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee and it's to this town called Gadara and the other side when that's used in chapter 14 and 16 it's interesting when it says to the other side in all of those instances he is going from either a Jewish to a Gentile or from a Gentile to a Jewish And I'm not sure how much importance that has, but there is something that happens there and that phrase is used to show a dramatic move from Jesus from one place to a next and what is going to happen there. And he goes into what's called the country of the Gergesenes. Luke and Mark called it the Gadarenes. I think James in ESV I think has said Gadarenes as well. And so is this a conflict? Well it's not. This included not only the town of Gadara, which is in that area, but the area on the northeast shore of the whole Sea of Galilee that was called the country of the Gergesenes, as much as why in this version it says the country of the Gergesenes, not to a specific city, but to a region. And this region is also interesting because it butts up against the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Picture the Sea of Galilee here, and it's on this Eastern Shore, whichever side you see this in a mirror, and along this whole area too is what's called the Decapolis. Deca is ten. Decapolis means an area, region of ten cities. And we'll read about that occasionally in the New Testament. And in Mark and Luke it comes into this story, although it doesn't in the book of Matthew. And when he arrives there, in this setting there are two demon-possessed men. Now Luke and Mark speak of one man. Why is that? Well, there are different explanations. Neither Mark or Luke specifically say that there was only one man. Perhaps Luke and Mark placed their focus on the one man that was most aggressive and possibly the spokesman for the two. But really we don't have any clear reason to know why there were two here and one in the other. But we trust that the scripture is consistent and there was no exclamation that there was only one. So we've got one and one and we've got two and I believe there were two. And significantly Mark and Luke put their focus on the individual far more than Matthew does, even to the men as a group. So we're going to move on, and it says they were demon possessed. It's the word daimonizomai, and it means to be demonized. In other words, they were under some type and degree of a control of a demonic spirit. Now this is strange territory for most of us. Very few of us here and in Western culture, more sophisticated culture, have seen manifestations that we read of like we do here or like we do in other portions of the scriptures. There are different explanations for why that one may be. I don't know what to make of some of them. Sometimes it's spoken of that most of these things where it's more manifest occur in more rural areas and more areas that are less developed. One man said if these kind of things happened, if man began to act like this in our culture, we would lock him up and we would put him away. And I think there's a lot of confusion in our country. I do think that many people that have been diagnosed with certain psychological disorders or things like that, I believe some of them, at least in some partial way, may be demon-affected, demon-possessed. And I'm not saying that to dispel all other emotional issues. I'm not. But I am saying here we have none of it so-called. And I don't think that's true either. So I think there is a mixed, but if you go to places, and just like we were in Nepal and in India, certain portions of Africa, you will see many things like this happen. And there are clear manifestations that these happen. I have only had a couple of times where I thought it was something similar. One of my brothers and I, we were down in Old Town one night and a man, was hollering out all sorts of loud, aggressive, perverted things at one end of the square, and we were trying to talk with these people, and after a while the guy began coming towards us, coming to the middle where we were, and he just kept coming, yelling louder and louder. And we weren't used to this, it was not common, but I think my brother, we stood there, we prayed, we spoke to him in the name of Jesus, and there was no release that we saw from this man. But we did confront the spirit and we proclaimed who Jesus was. I don't know. There's another fellow that there's a story that may be unraveling where about four or five years ago I spoke with a man down there who told me absolutely that I am Lucifer. And he began to say that over and over again. And there wasn't any way to get him to change. And shared scripture and eventually we parted ways. But there's a possibility I've come back into contact with that man and we're just waiting to see how God will work in that. But we don't see it like we see in the Middle East in that time in the first century AD. But it was very, very much alive. What is demon possession? Well, one commentator described it this way. It's a condition in which one or more demons inhabits and gains control over a human being. Demons can attack men spiritually, mentally, and physically. In the spiritual realm, they promote false religions, demon worship, the occult, and innumerable kinds of immorality, including murder. In the intellectual and psychological realm, they promote such things as false doctrines, insanity, and masochism, and inability to speak, and suicidal mania. And these guys were experiencing that. They were coming out of the tombs. What were the tombs? Well, the tombs for the dead were dug out of the sides of the cliffs. And if you go back into this area, the modern day cliffs near the area of Cursa or Gadara still show remains of these tombs carved out of the rock in those cliffs. Now, at the time of these two men, some of those tombs were certainly sealed. Some were still open to be occupied, and there's a good likelihood that some had been abandoned. But nevertheless, in this eerie hall of the dead, these two men lived day and night. They lived in pain, they lived in fear, and they lived in hatred. Let me add what Mark chapter 5 adds. There he describes the horrid lives of these demon-possessed men, quote, who had his dwelling among the tombs and no one could bind him. not even with chains because he often had been bound with shackles and chains and the chains he had been pulled apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces and that picture broken in pieces as if he took them with his fingers and crumbled them. There was some astounding strength and neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones." And it says they were exceedingly fierce. When we get that picture, as we read this, people were terrified. They're terrified to the point that no one would even dare go near the road that passed by this area. Today, not exactly the same, but we have parts of the cities that we go out of our way to avoid. East St. Louis. Southeast San Diego. Watts. The old Cabrini-Green projects, they've been pretty much wiped out now, but they were just a rat's nest of drugs, murder, all sorts of things. Areas of Chicago, Detroit, New York City. Why? Why do we avoid them? Because bad things happen there. This was the reputation created by these two demon-possessed men for this small road near the tombs. Nobody went that way. And suddenly a conflict arises in verse 29, and suddenly these demon-possessed men cried out saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? One writer pointed out that while the disciples were crossing the lake, they were asking among themselves, what kind of man is this? And these demons come out of the tomb to tell them exactly who this is. The demons in these men cried out, it says, and that can describe an unintelligible scream. But this time the demons are screaming in fear and hatred with clear words as they run to confront Jesus. What have we to do with you? Have you shown up in this obscure place on earth from your royal throne in heaven to torture us before the time of judgment? These demons knew Jesus well. In fact, in Scripture, demons always know Him. And they know Him in ways none of His disciples or the religious leaders or anyone else did at the time. In Luke 4 we read in verse 41, And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, You are the Christ, the Son of God. The demons knew Jesus. How could that be? How could they know Jesus? Well, they knew His name. They knew it was Jesus. And that's not just a moniker like Phil or Kent or Scott or Peter. It had meaning. That name had meaning. That's why he received it. An angel had named him this in a vision to Joseph in Matthew 1, Jesus. He says, But while he thought about these things, Joseph, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. For He will save His people from their sins." They knew His name, they knew His divinity. Look what they cry out, You Son of God! This they grasped way before disciples. It won't be until Matthew 16, and we're in Matthew 8 now, before we hear Peter finally say, when he makes his confession, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Mark 5 describes one of these demon-possessed men actually running up to Jesus, and it says, worshipping Him. It means to bow down. Bow down, prostrate before Jesus. They knew His name, they knew His divinity, they knew His power, that He had power to torment and to punish them. Luke 8.31 says, And they begged Him that He would not command them to go into the abyss. James 2.19 tells us even the demons believe, and they tremble. And these demons had much to fear. They had to fear Jesus' authority. They spoke about the time, the final day of judgment. Let me tell you what's going to happen to them. Matthew 25.41, Then He will say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. 2 Peter 2 verse 4, For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment. Jude 1 verse 6, And the angels, who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains. under darkness for the judgment of the great day." The judgment of the great day. It hadn't arrived yet and these demons were terrified. But how did they know Him? How did they know all this? First of all, where did they come from? These demons were created by God. He didn't create them as demons. He created them as angels. Jesus created these very angels who are now crying out to Him. And they served him in heaven for a time. They served the king of kings in adoration and honor and glory. And then they rebelled against Jesus along with their leader Lucifer. And then they were cast out of heaven by Jesus because of the rebellion. They knew him so well. And now they know they are at his mercy. Now Matthew here gives little attention to the conversation that ensued between Jesus and the demons. More of that I encourage you to read in Mark and Luke. It does not appear that Matthew felt it was needed. in proving his case for Christ the King. So in verse 30, we come to really the climax of this account. It says, Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged him, saying, If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine. Now the swine, first of all, it tells us their way off. We don't know how far. We don't know whether it was 100 yards or quarter mile, but the point is they're a distance away. They're not associated with what's happening here at all. They may not even know anything about what's going on. And these guys are feeding these swine out there who are just grazing. And it says, that there are many of them. Now, there is some dispute, but most commentators would agree this is in a Gentile area. because there are so many swine there that's common in that portion. It would not be a Jewish area because the swine would not be allowed to exist there. There are some that have said, well, these were disobedient Jews, perhaps who were raising swine. We don't see anything about that. And Jesus has crossed over Capernaum. There's some indication that he's crossed over into a Gentile area. So I believe there were many swine because this was a majority Gentile area. How many? Doesn't tell us exactly, but in Mark 5, verse 13, 2,000 of these pigs run to their suicidal end off the cliff. So, perhaps there were 2,000 demons. There's nothing unusual about their activity, and that's important. They are simply grazing. They are distant, they are numerous, and everything is normal over there. But the demons then begged Jesus. They didn't tell him, if we get out, this is where we're going. They begged Jesus. They were at his mercy. If you cast us out, and there was no question as to if, he was not going to leave them there. They knew that. The question in the mind of the demons was where would they then go? They were terrified of Jesus's power to send them into hell immediately. And his power justifiably terrified those demons. allow, permit us to go away and into the herd of swine. Look at what's happening, such subservient attitude in the minds of these evil, wicked, powerful demons. They will do whatever Jesus says. First, they want to go out of the men and then they want to go in to the herd of swine. Verse 32 says, and he said to them, go. So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine, and suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and they perished in the water. I don't know if you have a red-letter edition of the Bible. It doesn't make any difference to me, really. But if you look at this section, how many words do you see from Jesus in verses 28 through 34? That's the power. One word from the King of Kings. And these demons flew out of their hosts, these two men, and entered in to the pigs. Notice Jesus never really even mentions the pigs, but we see instant obedience. They came out and then they went into. Unclean spirits into unclean animals. They weren't allowed into any other men. Someone might ask, well, why did all those pigs have to be destroyed? Some people are more concerned about that than others. But I believe it's clear here, and we will see that next week when we study another account of Jesus. It gives clear evidence. It gives clear evidence to the two formerly demonized men and to the herdsmen. Evidence that the demons had clearly left these men. Evidence of the destructive nature of the demons. And I want you to think about this. At any time, it could have been these two men rushing down the hill over the cliff and into the watery graves in the sea. It could have been those men. But God sovereignly, lovingly preserved them until this moment when He sought them. Jesus came across that sea to them and He arrived to rescue them. And I also think it shows the magnitude of the demons. In Luke 8, verse 30, Jesus asked the demon-possessed man, saying, What is your name? And he said, Legion, because many demons had entered him. Now, a Roman legion was roughly about 5,500 men in the first century AD. So, there's speculation it could have been 2,000, it could have been 5,500, we don't know. But there was a whole bunch of demons in those two men. Now similarly, we will see evidence in Matthew 9. I want to look at that just as kind of a parallel. Next week we will see where a paralytic man is brought to Jesus in a bed. Now what do you think Jesus does? He encourages him that he has forgiven the man of his sin. But to the skeptical and onerous religious leaders, the scribes, this was an offense and much in doubt. So to give validity to the fact that He, Jesus, has power not only to forgive sins, which everyone agreed only God has power to do, everyone, He then proceeds to heal the man and he fully heals and restores a paralyzed man to perfect health. Evidence of the power of God. Now if he had just cast those demons out and you had not seen this dramatic destruction much would have been lost in this story. And some interpret that the destruction of the swine is also A prophetic picture of the final fate of these demons in Revelation 20 verse 10 It says the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Where the beasts and the false prophets are and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever Perhaps that is a picture of what was to come But we had here in the resolution we had deliverance we had the destruction and then we have the Dominion and Jesus clarifies his dominion over Satan. And Jesus made it look so easy. Even the apostles had challenges sometimes doing this. And one time Jesus says he's come out only by prayer and fasting. But Jesus makes it look easy. He has complete dominion. But later a convoluted accusation would be made by Pharisees who knew better. But they would say this in Matthew 12, Then one was brought to him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute, and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, Could this be the son of David? Now when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. But Jesus knew their thoughts, and he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will this kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. The spiritual defeat of Satan. We think about why Jesus came to earth. And there are different scriptures that tell us things. He came to seek and to save what was lost. He came to serve and not to be served. He came to give his life a ransom for many. All of those Jesus came for and more. But there was another top priority in his mission to this earth as a man. John 12, 31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Colossians 2, 15. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He, Jesus, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. And then Hebrews 2, 14. And as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He, Jesus, likewise, shared in the same. He became man. that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage what a victorious Savior what a powerful thing he has done and then in verse 33 we have a bit of a shift here Then those who kept them, the hogs, fled, and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. You see, the herdsmen race into that nearby city, and they graphically and thoroughly tell all, not just about the pigs, which is why it sprays the way it does, but they also included the dramatic change in those men. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. They came out to meet Jesus and they come with offerings and praise and let's have a feast. These two men have been healed and delivered. We've been afraid of them for decades. No, they didn't. Luke 8 verse 35. Says, Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in His right mind, and they were afraid. Verse 34 from this morning says, And when they saw Him, Jesus, they begged Him to depart from their region. Mark 5 says, Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region. Why? Wouldn't most of us be thinking, man, we'd be thankful this is over with. I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. Some have suggested that the city was upset with the financial loss of the pig herd. But I don't buy that. There is no indication of that in any of the three accounts. No mention is made in any of the three presenting Gospels of any pig owners. at the confrontation or in any agitation because of financial loss. Luke 8.37 tells us, Then the whole multitude of the surrounding regions of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with fear. One commentator wrote, and you may find this odd, Jesus was not a comfortable man to have around. You see, Jesus would demonstrate His omnipotence and His sovereignty, and men would be overwhelmed. Mark writes in Mark 4.41, And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him? In Luke 5.7, This is Peter, bless his heart. So they signaled to their poor partners in the other boats to come and help them. Jesus had basically filled their boats up with fish. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down to Jesus' knees and said, thank you. No, he said, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh Lord. This came this morning to mind. It says, Now it was the preparation day of the Passover, about the sixth hour. And Pilate said to the Jews, Behold your king. And they cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! What do we make of this? Jesus is holy, holy, holy. When Isaiah had a vision of him, he fell down before him and felt like his whole entire being was disintegrating. Woe is me. So often we speak of Jesus to people. And they see him just like some sort of a good-natured guy who comes along and takes care of everything. And he is, but he is far more than that. And the people that knew him and saw him and experienced him went through a total rearrangement of their being. when they repented and trusted in Christ. So what did Jesus do? He got to the boat and he returned. He left them. Isaiah 55 talks about now is a day of salvation. And they missed it. They had opportunity. He was standing right there. and they wanted him out of there. And before we cast too many stones, do we want him out of there for us sometimes? So that we can continue with traditions or habits or our way of life, what's comfortable? Well, we've always thought the routines we've set in place that we don't want agitated. Go away. Don't change things. Even though we are totally Self-destructive in some of these things and I don't know I'm not talking to anyone in particular except it has gripped me that Jesus is far more imposing and Grand and fearful than I will ever imagine and yet he is exactly what David said and what Caleb said He is a father who loves his children who are broken before him who come to him and seek him A commentator by the name of France said the incident has been recorded only to show the authority of Jesus even over supernatural powers. Another wrote Matthew's purpose in reporting it was to demonstrate Jesus' authority and power over Satan and his forces. They were stunned in Mark chapter 1. Then they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, what is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him. This was a man who was in a synagogue filled with a demon. And Jesus cast him out. 1 John 3.8, He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. That's one of the primary reasons Jesus came to this planet. Matthew Henry wrote this, he said, Note, it is possible for me to call Jesus the Son of God, who called Him that in this account, and yet have nothing to do with Him. Thus many go out in profession to meet Christ for company that have no real affection for Him, nor desire to know Him. You must know Him. May we show Jesus at least as much honor and glory as these thousands of demons, where they declared Him to be the Son of God. They feared His power and His authority, and they obeyed Him immediately. But may we also rest in the mighty arms of a pure and holy God who could never have taken a sin. He could never have stomached the filth of my life if Jesus hadn't taken that upon himself and died the death of a filthy man, separated from his holy righteous Father for the only moment in eternity, past, future, because of my sin and your sin. He is holy and righteous, dwelling in inapproachable light who no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. And yet He is the Father who will bring in His children who have trusted in His Son, and He will guard them and watch over them and strengthen them. But if you do not have this ruler of heaven and earth, You see, those above the earth and on the earth and under the earth, you are subject to Him and to them. Repent and believe in this rescuing King, Jesus Christ. Proverbs 16, 15 says, in mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity. And by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. This one, has not come to this point in Matthew yet. But here's what is written of Him in Philippians 2. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, Jesus, and He has given Him the name which is above every name. that the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and of those under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There's going to be a crazy mess of creatures and people and beings bowing before the King of Kings and crying out with glory and honor, confessing that He is Lord. Some with joy and thanksgiving for eternity awaits Him in His presence. Some in utter fear because they are condemned to the abyss forever. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this scripture and we thank You that You have dominion and power and strength, Lord God, over all creation, over every person on this planet, Everyone we work with, live beside, I've ever dreamed, ever thought, ever seen. And not only that, but you have power over all of the created beings that fill the heavens and that have been condemned and brought to this planet with Lucifer. You have dominion. And Lord, we know the time will come when that will be made clear and all of this battle will be over. But Father, I pray that you would make us faithful to battle for you, whether it costs us our life, whether it calls us to move across the world, or to move into another part of town, or to go over and knock on the door of our neighbor, or somehow sit down with a loved one, or that we would speak of Christ, that you are the Son of God, that the only hope for eternity is in Christ. Lord, we cannot do that on our own. We don't have the courage, we don't have the boldness, we might even just be flapping sounds unless your spirit speaks through us, Lord. Make us humble servants of you. Thank you for these brothers and sisters so that we can gather together to worship and praise you. In your name we pray, amen.