THE FEARFUL AUTHORITY OF JESUS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 17, 2020 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: June 17, 2020 from Luke 8:26-39

Theme: Jesus’ authority over the spiritual realms provokes either fearful rejection or faithful service.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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There is a man in heaven that I look forward to meeting. There are—of course—many people I look forward to meeting when I get to heaven; but among them will be one man in particular.

One reason that I look forward to meeting him is because he is one of the first urban missionaries of the New Testament. Jesus completely transformed his life, and then sent him back to go on a multiple-city tour of his own region—to his own people—to tell them all about what Jesus had done for him. But another reason I would like to meet him is because of the amazing degree to which Jesus had transformed him. Jesus had made him into a calm, sweet-spirited, dignified witness for himself. But before Jesus had met him, he had been a nightmarish monster. In fact, I think his story is one of the most remarkable transformation stories in the Bible. His transformation was so powerful that it caused the people who witnessed it to be terrified—of Jesus!

We don’t know this man’s name; but we find his story in Luke 8:26-39. And because of what we find there, we might call him the former demon-possessed maniac of the tombs.

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It’s important to see this man’s story in the context of Luke’s Gospel in which it is found. In the latter half of Chapter 8, Luke was sharing some stories about the authority of the Lord Jesus. In verses 22-25, we were told of Jesus’ authority over circumstances and over natural forces; and this was demonstrated to us in the story of how He commanded the wind and the waves of a storm to be still. Later on, in verses 40-56, we’re told of Jesus’ authority over sickness and death. Jesus raises a young twelve-year-old girl from the dead. And on the way to doing so—He also healed a woman who was plagued with an illness for twelve years. And now, between those two stories, we’re told this one. It’s the story of how Jesus demonstrated absolute authority over the spiritual realms. Even an army of evil spirits is helpless before Him.

Now; the devil is real. The demonic world is real. Jesus spoke of them and treated them as realities. But Jesus also spoke of his authority and power over them. Jesus was once teaching about the devil; and He said;

No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house (Mark 3:27).

Jesus is the stronger one who plunders the goods of the devil. He did this completely at the cross; and we’re told in Colossians 2:15 that He “disarmed principalities and powers” and “made a public spectral of them, triumphing over them in it” And how we respond to His greater authority over the spiritual forces of the demonic realms says a great deal about our own spiritual condition before Him. Will we turn to Him who has such power? Or will we flee from Him in fear because of our unbelief?

This is illustrated to us in this man’s story—who I look forward to meeting one day.

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Now; let’s go back to the beginning of his story—and to the time when Jesus first met him. Note first …

1. THE PATHETIC CONDITION OF THE MAN (vv. 26-29).

We’re told of what happened after Jesus had calmed the wind and the waves of the storm;

Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee (v. 26).

The name of this place is sometimes translated “the Gerasenes’. I have seen this country. It’s on the far eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. It is a steep, hill-covered land; and when you see it, you can easily imagine herds feeding upon it. We’re told that Jesus had said to His disciples, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake” (v. 22). And it appears that the only reason Jesus said this was so that He could meet up with this poor man.

And meet him He did. Look at what a condition this man was in. Verses 27-29 tell us;

And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!” For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness (vv. 27-29).

It’s hard to think of a more pathetic human being than this. He was demonically possessed and tormented. How he came to be in this tragic condition is something that we’re not told. We’re told that he was “a certain man from the city”; and it may be that something of the life of that city had drawn him down into the depths of spiritual bondage. And because he had dwelt among the tombs, he was—from the standpoint of the law that God had given through Moses—a perpetually unclean man. He had been in this condition for a long time. He lived inhumanly. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that he was ‘exceedingly fierce’ and that people could not safely pass by where he was. And in Mark’s Gospel, we’re told that he frighteningly cried out day and night, and cut himself with stones. He had superhuman strength; so that no one could bind him. He would simply break the chains and shackles apart.

We might look at such a man with horror and great pity. But let’s remember that he was a living illustration of our own condition apart from the grace of Jesus. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2;

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:1-3).

Now; no one could deliver us from our spiritual bondage but Jesus. He alone has the power and authority to bind the strong man, and plunder his goods, and deliver us from the kingdom of darkness and make us citizens of His kingdom. When the demonic forces in this man saw Jesus, they cried out in unified terror and said, What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!”

They cried out like this because Jesus was commanding them to come out of the man. And this shows us …

2. THE SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY OF THE LORD (vv. 30-33).

Verse 30 tells us,

Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him (v. 30).

It wasn’t just one demon in the man. One would be horrible enough. But this was an army of demons. A Roman legion was composed of 6,000 soldiers; and so it may have been that there were that many demons who had taken possession of this man and who were tormenting him. And notice what they said to Jesus;

And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss (v. 31).

The abyss is a place of temporal judgment for those spiritual beings who are destined to be cast into the lake of fire. It is spiritual ‘Alcatraz’—but with no ‘Escape From’. It is a place of torment for the demonic world; because, in Matthew’s Gospel, we’re told that they were afraid Jesus was going to ‘torment them before the time’.

Apparently, demons would prefer to be almost anywhere than in this dreadful place called the abyss—even in pigs. And so, Luke tells us;

Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them (v. 32).

Swine were unclean animals to the Jewish people. And the fact that the demons asked to be sent into them is an illustration of just how unclean these demonic beings were. They’d prefer to be in pigs rather than in the abyss. But note that they couldn’t go into the pigs without the permission of our Lord. And so, Jesus—showing the greatness of His authority—gave them that permission.

Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned (v. 33).

What a sight! The pigs had been calmly feeding along the fields when—suddenly—the whole herd stampeded madly down the hillside, over the steep hill, and into the water! There have been people who have suggested that the man was not really demon-possessed. They say that he was only psychologically demented. But the sudden rush of the pigs into the lake was proof that this was not so. What a shocking scene it must have been—particularly to the herdsmen. We’re told in verse 34;

When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country (v. 34).

Now; all of this would have demonstrated the greatness of Jesus’ authority. It would have shown His power to mercifully deliver anyone who is oppressed by the devil. And you would have thought that people would have rejoiced in Him.

But no. It’s then that we encounter …

3. THE DISTORTED FEAR OF THE PEOPLE (vv. 34-37).

I say “distorted” because the people—because of a heart of unbelief—were suddenly afraid of the wrong thing. We’re told;

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. They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed (vv. 35-36).

The sight of seeing this formerly-terrifying man now sitting calmly at the feet of Jesus—and knowing that it was by Jesus’ command that the demons all left him and entered into the herd of pigs—made them even more terrified than they were before. They ceased being afraid of the man, and were now terrified of Jesus.

Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned (v. 37).

Jesus will not stay where He is not welcomed. And I think this is one of the most remarkable parts of this story! Even today, people can talk about all of their ideas about Jesus. They can put Him in a manageable box. But when they encounter Him as He really is—when they read about the greatness of His power and authority as it is declared to us in the Bible and shown to us in the transformation of the lives He has touched—when they realize that He is powerfully able to deliver even them from their sin if they will just trust Him—they realize that He is not who they thought He was. Some will fall before Him in worship. But others will flee from Him in terror.

Perhaps this is because of what it says in John 3:18-21;

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:18-21).

Well; the former demoniac didn’t flee. He was grateful. And as we go on to see, he became …

4. THE FAITHFUL WITNESS TO THE CITY (vv. 38-39).

He wanted to become one of Jesus’ disciples and travel along with Him. Luke tells us;

Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him (vv. 38-39).

Jesus had a better calling for him; and sent him back to the place he came from—from the ten cities that were together called ‘the Decapolis’—and made him a missionary to his own people. He proved to be a very faithful witness too. We’re told in Matthew 15 of a time when Jesus came back—later on in His ministry—to that region;

Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel (Matthew 15:29-31).

And do you notice this man’s own testimony to the greatness of Jesus’ authority? Jesus told him to go back to his people and tell them of what great things God did for him. And we’re told that he went and proclaimed throughout the whole city “what great things Jesus had done for him.”

He knew who Jesus was.

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When we encounter the enemy of our souls, we encounter someone who has greater power than we do. But when we encounter Jesus, we encounter Someone who’s power and authority causes even the devil and the demons of hell to tremble in fear.

Let’s not you or I fear Him, though. Let’s not hold back from coming to Him. Let’s let Him deliver us from the clutches of the enemy of our soul.

EA