Sermon Tone Analysis

Pigs or People

Matthew 8:28-34

 

/When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him.

They were so violent that no one could pass that way.

“What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted.

“Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”/

/Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.

The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”/

/He said to them, “Go!”

So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.

Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus.

And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region/.

| “I |

t’s here!

Should we tell Mike?”

The words were spoken in hushed tones by a grief-stricken pastor’s wife to her husband as we sat around the kitchen table in a rural Kansas town.

“He’s a mature Christian.

He can handle it,” was the confident reply of that pastor.

My curiosity was greatly elevated.

Inwardly I was crying out, “Tell Mike!

I have some grave reservations concerning his maturity!”

Shortly that woman’s face distorted and her voice altered.

The words which were shortly uttered through her lips were blasphemous and vile as she raged against the True and Living God.

To say I was startled is mild understatement.

Her husband began to rebuke the demon which was even then tormenting that poor woman.

I prayed mightily and soon the woman returned to a semblance of normality.

Later, after the crisis had passed and a semblance of order was restored to the home, this couple explained to me a tragic story of demon torment.

This woman suffered from a life-threatening cancer and was referred by her doctor to the medical school where I was in training.

She was placed on an experimental regimen of drugs.

Wishing, as is so common with those afflicted such serious ailments, to take charge of her own destiny, she sought out a group who promised healing from the cancer through prayer and faith.

As she began to invest time in their services she became convinced that she needed the experience they claimed to be universal and mandatory for all Christians in order to experience the fullness of the Spirit of God if she ever hoped to be healed.

Eventually she received what they insisted was the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

At first she experienced a sense of deepest contentment each time she exercised her new “gift”.

With the passage of time, however, she discovered that she had scant control over when her “gift” would manifest itself.

In time she realised that a spiritual power was controlling her and though she experienced a degree of contentment and deep pleasure whenever she was controlled by this power, she began to speak in English and not in a “heavenly” language.

As time passed she discovered that she had not been praising the Lord, but instead she was blaspheming the Lord Christ.

She became alarmed because, though she enjoyed the pleasure which accompanied her experience, she had no control over either the timing of the experience or the words which would be uttered through her lips.

She was horrified to think that she was demonically tormented.

That woman did at last find release from her torment.

It was not the first time that I had encountered individuals whom were quite likely tormented by demonic powers, but it was one of the more dramatic instances of such encounters for me.

Demon possession, spiritual torment, is not something which is restricted to the pages of the New Testament.

It is a condition which is likely misdiagnosed or undiagnosed, even ignored in our day.

We are too sophisticated to ever imagine that such a thing could happen.

Among the people who met Jesus during His days in the flesh were two men who were demon-possessed.

Today, we would likely say they were mentally ill, emotionally distraught or socially maladjusted.

The Bible is quite clear in stating that they were demon-possessed.

Uncomfortable though we may be with such assertions, the divine diagnosis is given and their subsequent deliverance would tend to verify the accuracy of that diagnosis.

Though at least one of these men was restored and made whole and later employed to great blessing in the cities surrounding that area, the focus of Matthew’s account is the response of the townspeople to Jesus’ act of mercy.

Have you ever spoken with a demon-possessed individual?

I have, on several occasions.

The situation is disconcerting, but more disconcerting still is the response of those who are aware of the individual’s strange behaviour.

We tend to grow accustomed to aberrant behaviour and ultimately we extend a measure of acceptance.

When the individual is delivered and their behaviour is transformed, we find that we are often uncomfortable with the transition to normalcy.

We can live with a measure of chaos if we think we have some control over the chaos; we are uncomfortable with one who rules over such aberrant behaviour in a manner we cannot explain.

Chaos becomes familiar, and the familiar is comfortable; and change always threatens our ability to cope.

In fear and distress the townspeople requested Jesus to leave their vicinity.

Their reaction to the changed condition of the demon-possessed men betrayed their fear of one who possessed power over their condition.

In effect they chose pigs over people.

The pigs they kept in contradiction of Jewish law were apparently held in higher esteem than were two men who constituted a dire and continual threat to their society.

Join me in study of this incident to discover whether God has a message for us in this day.

The Account as Related in the Gospels – The parallel accounts of this incident are recorded in the Gospels of Mark and Luke [cf.

*Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-29*].

These accounts provide us with a somewhat more detailed description of the encounter between the Lord of Glory and the dark forces of spiritual wickedness.

Matthew, however, provides the unique insight that there were actually two men united in misery, and that each of the two was released from their pitiful condition.

The other Gospels, however, are focused on the fact that one of the men was not only released from his anguish of soul, but that he became a worshipper of the Lord who had set him at liberty.

What happened to the other man, the one who was released but of whom nothing more is stated either in our text or in the parallel passages?

If he was a believer in the Son of God, perhaps he testified to the Lord’s grace.

We can hope so, but the fact that nothing more is said of him would lead us to believe that though delivered from spiritual torture he was not freed from spiritual bondage.

We must understand that simply because an individual is freed from spiritual tyranny does not mean that such a one will be brought into spiritual liberty.

Freedom from immediate torment by demonic powers does not necessarily translate into freedom in Christ.

Let me explain.

On one occasion Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees and teachers of the law to provide a sign to convince them that He was the Messiah.

He cautioned them that it was a wicked and adulterous generation which asked for a miraculous sign.

Then He added this information which may speak of the second man set free of demonic torment.

/When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.

Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.”

When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.

Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there.

And the final condition of that man is worse than the first /[*Matthew 12:43-45*].

Now, back to the story.

A busy schedule of ministry had exhausted the Saviour; and He, together with the disciples, got into a boat to cross over the Sea of Galilee beside which they had been ministering.

Jesus promptly fell asleep, but whilst He was sleeping a violent storm arose and the boat was threatened by the waves.

The disciples at last wakened the sleeping Saviour who rebuked the storm.

Instantly, the waves ceased their boisterous assault against the tiny barque, the winds stilled, and the sea was glassy calm.

Arriving on the other side of the lake, the tiny band of evangelists was met by two demon-possessed men, violent and fierce.

One, the one which would later seek to follow Jesus as a disciple, was so fierce that he could not be bound, for he would break chains and bands of iron.

He wore no clothing and together they lived in the tombs with the dead.

As Jesus neared they began to cry out, for the demons knew Jesus.

That the demons recognised Jesus should not surprise anyone familiar with the Word of God.  James informs us that the demons believe there is one God – and shudder [*James 2:19*]!

The term which is translated /shudder/ could be translated more literally to indicate that /their hair stands on end/.

Believing there is a God and believing God are two entirely different things, and though the demons know there is a God, they do not believe God.

The parallel passages make their recognition of the Master even more dramatic, for though both recognised Jesus as the Son of God, at least one of the men fell to his knees before Jesus, and his address was to /Jesus, Son of the Most High God/ [*Mark 5:7*].

Those of our world who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord reveal an ignorance more dark than that of the demons, for the demons know Him to be Son of the Most High God.

The demons which infested these two tormented men not only recognised Jesus, but they also knew that He shall at last prevail.

The demons know that they shall be thrown into the lake of fire.

Thus their terrified cry as the Master nears, Have You come to torture us before the appointed time?

All the evil powers which plague our world shall at last be removed and cast into the lake of fire.

John saw that day, and the saints of God draw encouragement that evil shall not prevail.

The Word of God encourages us to remember that /death and Hades [shall be] thrown into the lake of fire/ [*Revelation 20:14*].