Law & Grace - Matthew 8:14-34 A no-star cast!

Before we get into the passage, just something I thought I'd pass along. I had spoken with Wayne about it earlier here. And that you may be aware, Holly Hills for some years now has had 75 questions that are used to as a kind of a communication and screening tool. And let's make sure we're on the same page tool. with elders. One of the interesting things that has been happening is for about the last year, Vallejo Bible Church in Vallejo, California has been using those 75 questions to interview pastors and to select who they would like to have as their next pastor. Now what's interesting is since they've been using the 75 questions, they haven't found anybody qualified.

So that's very Kind of ponderous. But anyway, I thought you might find that interesting to know. We have in the passage here today, the last half of Matthew chapter 8. We'll be working from verse 14 to 34. What Randy read for us here was most of that passage and will serve as an introduction. The chapter, as we've seen previously, consists of several accounts of Jesus performing miracles.

Why did he do that? He did that to validate his identity. He had this singular identity. It wasn't just one of a number. Singular identity is God's appointed and chosen and delegated Messiah, the designated King of Israel, born the King of the Jews. He was validating and verifying that identity before the Jews.

He had, in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, presented what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. He had presented the message of the kingdom. what he is doing here in chapter 8 is giving the validation of that message. Now that the message has been delivered, and it's not done, but it's been substantially delivered in what's called the Sermon on the Mount, now he is validating that, verifying the truth of it with people by performing miracles.

You have here Matthew 8.17 as the reference that even says Isaiah is a principal place that says that Jesus as the Messiah would be validated by what?

By the miracles that he performed. People were healed. Lepers were being healed. Demons were being cast out, etc. We give the brief reference, Matthew 29, 18 and 19. We have dot, dot, dot there. basically ran out of room. Last week's handout and message, we listed more of those kinds of passages throughout the rest of Isaiah. You can feel free to take a look at that. In Matthew 8, 1-3, as we saw last week, Jesus cured a leper and a servant, or we said it actually may mean the son, of the centurion. In Matthew 14-34, Jesus cured Peter's mother-in-law. That's a quick summary. We'll be looking at it in more detail. He cast out demons. He calmed a storm. He challenged those who would be disciples. And we'll talk more about that challenge and the reason for him doing so.

Jesus, as we saw last week, came into this northern Galilee city of Capernaum. As he came into that city, that was when he met the centurion and the centurion asked for the healing of his house member. Once there, Jesus came to the house of Peter. Peter's mother-in-law was discovered to have a fever. And of course in biblical times it was not necessarily known why are they having the fever, but the fever was obviously evidence of some problem and oftentimes other weakness and things of that sort would go along with it. Jesus then healed Peter's mother-in-law with a touch. That was all it took, just a touch.

That very evening, it says right there in the passage, the evil spirits were cast from those who are possessed by demons. We'll talk about what is a demon and how can that happen. And all those who were diseased were cured. Notice a separate designation. Those who had demons had the demons cast out. Those who were diseased were cured.

And the distinction is on purpose. Now, you also have a slide that looks like this. And we have this word here, chiasm. That's not a disease. It's not a medical condition. It's a statement of a kind of a way of saying things in written form. And let's talk about what that means. A chiasm is a mirror image in written form. That is, you have something that is introduced along a certain pattern, and then that pattern is in some way reversed in the second half.

So what we have here is the middle of this couple of verses is Jesus touched her hand. That was the pivotal point in his coming into Peter's house. In the first part of that, right before that pivotal point, Peter's mother-in-law is sick in bed with the fever. After Jesus touched her hand, the reversal of that, the fever left her. Prior to that, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying there, and then the reversal of that is what? He arose, or she arose rather. So the reversal of it, and finally Jesus came to Peter's home. Why? He came to minister there in Peter's home. The reversal of that is once Peter's mother-in-law was healed, She waited on Jesus.

So, something else we see in verses 16 and 17, a distinction we made briefly before, demon possession is not the same as disease. Some people have assumed that the gospel writers were just ignorant, full of superstition, and they assumed that those who were demon-possessed were looked upon as the same as being diseased.

No distinction between the two. But that's not what we find in the passage. Jesus cast out the spirits, the evil spirits, the demons, as we'll soon see here, the fallen angels, from those possessed by the demons. But physical illness, the disease, was recognized and healed, but not by casting out the spirits. There was a distinction. They didn't just see, oh, someone's demon-possessed, they're sick, then it's all mixed up. No, there are those who are demon-possessed and have to have the spirits cast out, and there are those who are simply diseased and are healed.

Now one of the things we pointed out briefly, and we'll point it out again here, Capernaum, where Jesus begins this account and was coming to in last week's passage, has been excavated by archaeologists, started actually over 40 years ago. And the historical documents relative to this, aside from the New Testament, have been examined. 16 times Capernaum is mentioned in the four Gospels, all four. But also in other documents of the time, these studies in general have confirmed the gospel accounts.

You know those people who come to your door, they knock on the door two by two, and they're about 18, 19 years old, and they have this little plaque that says elder. I don't know how they get that. But anyway, those guys, they represent the Mormon Church. You can ask them, you know, tell me, where is Zarahemla? One of the names of the cities in the Book of Mormon. They can't tell you, okay? When you say, where is Capernaum?

It's here. We've known where it is. It's an actual place, not made up, right? It's been excavated. Here it is. Margaret and Bob Eckel have actually been there, sent me some pictures of it, in fact. There actually was a city, and here's something interesting.

Throughout Israel, there have been found these ritual baths, these purification baths called mikvahs. About 700 of them have been found throughout Israel. And there's good reason for that, because the Jews use it for regular purification. None of them are found in Capernaum. Why? Because the rabbis decided that if you could go into the Sea of Galilee, that was equivalent, right?

So even the absence of those there in Capernaum fits the rabbi's understanding of the law and fits everything that's recorded. What we have in the account, here's an example of a mikveh bath, what we have in the account fits with what's been discovered archaeologically and historically. If someone comes to you and says, oh, no, that's just a bunch of myth and story, uh-uh. It is not myth and story. Was there a Capernaum?

Yes. Matter of fact, even was there Peter's house? Yes. We'll take a look at that here in a minute. Was there a Roman garrison to the east? The answer, yes. And the Romans had better houses, by the way, than the Jews. So when it says a Roman centurion came to Jesus, it's not a made-up story. There were Roman soldiers and Roman centurions living just to the east of Capernaum. It's real. This is not a story. This is not a myth. This is factual.

The house that likely belonged to Peter has been excavated. Here is another shot of the excavation of the town of Capernaum and right over the top of what is believed to be Peter's house. They have sort of a viewpoint and that also serves as a roof protection over the area that is considered to be Peter's house. So that would be the house where Jesus came in to heal Peter's mother-in-law. That one, right there.

Is it a story? Is it a myth? No. Not at all. Now, some of Jesus' disciples had boats. Makes sense. A number of them, not all. A number of them were fishermen. At this point, and we'll make a point of it a couple times here in the message, at this point not all of the disciples had been chosen. But one of them, obviously, Peter, had been selected at this point in time. And a number of the disciples were fishermen, did have boats and fishing businesses.

As a matter of fact, Capernaum would have been one of, not the only, one of the major places where Jesus would have operated from and where they would have had boats. So the boats were one way for them to both spend time with Christ, because imagine the press of the crowds.

The press and the demands of the crowds, it changes the character of things. Now one thing about a crowd, it's difficult to have intimacy, right? It's difficult to get to know people when all you have is the press of the crowds. It's difficult to learn things when all you have is constant interruption.

So Jesus would select times where he would get away with the disciples, and he would also get away from the disciples by himself to spend time in prayer. So Jesus gave orders, as this passage says here, To the disciples to date, this isn't dating disciples, and this has nothing to do with dates. What I'm talking about is the fact that some of the disciples have been selected, not all of them. Matthew chapter 9, the next chapter we get into, will give the example of Matthew's own selection as a disciple. So some of the disciples have been selected, not all 12. at this point in time.

He says, let's go across the sea. That way we can get away because there's a great crowd, but not all of them have boats. And so this will get us away. Jesus hadn't called all of the disciples, but he had here a subgroup. some of the disciples with him at that point in time.

You can imagine some of the other disciples called later being told about this account that we're about to read here. And let me tell you about what happened when we got in the boat with Jesus. And they would hear about this because they themselves had not been there at that point in time. We're going to see in chapter 9, Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector.

Now something that's often overlooked, people will read about Jesus making challenges like, you cannot be my disciple unless... and they'll think that that's just what Jesus said and no other rabbi said it. What I have to tell you, all of the rabbis of Jesus' time called and challenged disciples in similar ways to Christ. Now most people go, what? Really?

Yeah. There were well over a hundred, by estimates, and so far as we have record, all of them challenged people who came to them and said, I want to be your disciple. They didn't say, hey, good, let's sign you up. Glad to have you with us. The typical and traditional thing was to challenge the disciples, and we find that Jesus did that as well. Example, take my yoke upon you was something that the rabbis commonly said. Yeah, they commonly said it to people. Take my yoke upon you and I'll give you rest. And they'd also say, you can't be my disciple unless.

So what was different with Christ? Why was Christ different and not just another one of the dozens and dozens of rabbis scattered across Israel? Here's what. Here's a starter. Only Christ was deity. Only Christ would say, My Father. None of the rabbis would dare say that. Our Father was fine. My Father? Never. Except for Jesus. He alone said that. He was sent from the Father and He repeatedly said so. I was sent from the Father. No rabbi would ever say that. None of them would dare say that.

Jesus also claimed to be the long-promised Messiah. He would ask, who do you say that I am? The other rabbis would not want an answer other than you are a rabbi. Only Jesus would look for the answer. You are the Lord, you're the Christ. You're God's holy Messiah, promised from days ago. He also taught with authority and healed.

That's the last thing we saw at the end of Matthew chapter 7. You see, the rabbis love to come and leave you with a dichotomy. We told a brief story previously where the rabbis would come into, you know, here's a conflict, and they'd say, well, that's not the tradition. And then here's somebody else with a different viewpoint, and that's not the tradition. Then there'd be this great argument. They'd say, that's the tradition. And the rabbis love to leave you with, some people think this, some people think that. This may be a bit of a surprise to you.

You've heard of the group called the Pharisees. How many different groups were there within the Pharisees? Now, some may want to argue about this, but there were seven. Seven different groups within the Pharisees. And that's just the major groups. And they would argue among themselves on different viewpoints. And sometimes they never resolve the arguments. In Israel, you could go to two different sets of courts because they never resolve the argument between the courts. You could pick your court, and you could switch, too. No other rabbi volunteered to die for your sins. None of them would. None of them. would die for your sins. They wouldn't dare. Only Jesus offered that.

Now, have you ever heard somebody say, how do you write there are three twos in the English language? Well, I've done that sort of here. Challenge is two to two disciples. Right? Okay. A scribe promises that he will follow Jesus wherever he goes, right? So Jesus says, that's great! Where do we sign you up? Get in the boat, right? Jesus tells him, foxes have holes, birds have nests, I don't have a place to lay my head. Are you ready to sign up?

Is that what you want? He challenges him. Another one expresses a desire to be a disciple, but he gives an excuse. If only he would be allowed to bury his father first. Now, that may sound like a reasonable request to you, but you need to know something.

In Israel, it was a common custom during that time When you would first prepare the body for burial, as was done with Jesus and as described in the New Testament, prepare the body for burial and you'd put it in the tomb on a shelf all wrapped up with a bunch of myrrh and aloes and different things.

And after a year went by, they would take the bones out of the wrappings and put them in a separate box and bury the bones in a separate box called an ossuary. Looks like that. And it was the custom during New Testament times then to wait around for that year and not go far away from the tomb because you're also going to have to put the bones back in the box. Oh, and by the way, there's a separate ceremony for that.

And then you'd want to have that box put in special places. You see, the tradition based on Old Testament scripture was that the Messiah would come and his feet would touch, this is the book of Zechariah, his feet would touch on the Mount of Olives. So if the Messiah comes and resurrects the bodies, where do you want your loved ones to be buried, right? You want them to be buried at the Mount of Olives. So if you go to the Mount of Olives, there's places for these ossuary boxes all over the Mount of Olives.

But this is a long, complicated process. So going to bury your father was not just a give me a few days. This might take all total maybe more like a year and a half. Give me a year and a half and I'll be your disciple. Oh, I'll be devoted, but I've got to follow through with the customs.

It's God's intent that marriages and families be centered on the Lord, not that marriages and families be an excuse for not following the Lord. You see the distinction there? Many people lose sight of this fact. It is God's intent spelled out clearly in Scripture. Marriages and families are to be centered on the Lord, not an excuse for not following.

Here's Ephesians 5, 22 through 25, and I could give more of the passage, but plenty of evidence there. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, and it goes on with a basis in relationship with the Lord. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her If spiritual things are not at the center, the husband cannot love the wife as he ought.

And, right there in the next passage, immediately following, children obey your parents what? In the Lord. Not just because I said so. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of what? Of the Lord. Family relationships are to be centered on the Lord. Family, relationships, and commitments are not to be used as an excuse for not following him. Don't get it reversed. It makes a big difference.

Something else we need to make point of here. Jewish disciples versus Christian disciples. Some will try to make principles of this Jewish discipleship and apply all of those directly to us in the church. There are those who will teach in this way. Important, however, that we make a distinction.

The Jewish disciples, remember Jesus had disciples who all spent time with him only in Israel, only in the land and among the people of Israel. They were under and they were focused upon the law of Moses. Gamaliel, Paul's teacher, was a rabbi. He had, according to the records, about a thousand disciples over his lifetime.

Now, the tradition was that a rabbi must get married. And so, since Gamaliel got married late, until the time he was married, people would ask him, why don't you get married? You're supposed to, according to tradition. He said, the reason I don't get married soon is because I'm so in love with the law.

That's what Paul was raised under. The disciples of Jesus' time were under, no question about it, and focused upon the law of Moses and the rabbis made sure of it. Christians under grace are called disciples in the book of Acts. They are. But not once after that. Not even one time. Not in any of the letters from Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, all the way to Revelation. Christians are never called disciples anywhere. Not once.

Instead, here's a very interesting point. The verb for disciple is applied to us in the church as learning regarding Christ. Learning regarding Christ. Ephesians 4.20, Paul writes to the believers at Ephesus and he said, you did not learn. That's the Greek word there behind that. That's the Greek word for disciple. You did not learn Christ in this way. Very interesting.

The focus is still upon Christ, but there's not an emphasis on being a disciple like the disciples were that we're reading of in this account. Why? The difference is you are not under law, but under grace. The difference is you are learning of Christ also quite personally, but not with his body present.

Here is Philippians 4, 8, and 9, which is an example. I have here, for your benefit, the expanded and explained version of it, so that it's all quite understood. I'd like to put a focus, however, on the beginning of verse 9, which is right in the middle, and I believe underlined, both here and on your handout. The things that you have actively, and all these verbs here are active, the things that you have actively learned as a disciple, Paul writes to them. It's that word.

The things that you have actively learned as a disciple. Which tells me one thing. Are you learning here passively here? I hope not. Because actually what we find is this learning, everywhere I can find it in the New Testament epistles, is active on your part. It's active on your part. You are to take the initiative to be learning. Not just sit there in the pew and say, Vern, pastor me. Right? It's active on your part. It takes your deliberate participation. OK.

Now, boy, this is wild. Storm, sleep, panic, and peace. Would you like to choose among those? Well, we'll let you think about that. After the disciples get into the boat with Jesus, a storm arises. At such an opportune moment, Jesus is asleep. Isn't that great? When the going gets rough, Jesus gets sleeping. The disciples are in a wild panic.

Now let me think about this. Most of these guys are fishermen. Have they been out in the water a lot? Yes! For hours and days and weeks and months and years. Probably since as early as they can remember. Because it's a family business, right? They know the water. In fact, the only place they've been in a boat is probably this sea right here. They know this place like the back of their hand. Have they ever been in a storm before? Most likely.

And so, of course, you would get the idea, well, we know how to handle storms because we're macho fishermen, right? So we know how to handle the storms. So what state are they at? We're macho fishermen and we're in a panic, okay? Panic over the fierceness of the storm, the waves are going over the top of the boat.

This is getting exciting, okay? Not the excitement they want, but it's exciting. So, what do they do? They wake Jesus after Jesus openly questions the faith of the disciples. He calms the storm. Man, that was close. The disciples have their eyes open after their heartbeat starts to go down, right? The adrenaline, you know, it's kind of boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

The disciples have their eyes open marveling that even the wind and the sea obey the command of the Lord. Wow, I didn't know that Jesus could do that. It's a good thing we woke him up, right? I didn't know he could do that. I mean, healing, yeah, that's cool. Casting out the demons, that's cool. I had no idea that he could calm the storm and make the waves settle down. I had no idea.

What kind of man is this? Now we've got some questions here. About this point is where the usual pastor will say, and Jesus will be with you during the storms of life. Right? I've got a question for you. Do I have to wake him up? At some level, that's probably a good thing to tell people. But there are also some points at which we have to look at it and say, hmm, is that exactly where this thing needs to end? How about some questions here? Is it possible that Christ would die in this storm event? What do you think? Is it possible?

It's like, well, you know, hey, we have really good intents. We had a good start, you know, everything was great. I gave a great sermon, just healed several people, cast out demons. I mean, we were off to a great start, went off in a boat, and it just didn't work out. Sorry.

And they don't even call the rest of the disciples because this ain't happening. Right? So is that the way it goes? No. Why? The disciples are in the boat with Jesus and they're in a panic. Why? They're thinking, we and He, we are all going down right now. Or very soon. Right? But what happens? What happens here? As ferocious and threatening as this storm may be, even to macho, experienced, lifelong fishermen, as difficult and threatening and even life-ending as this may be, this boat is not going down. Why?

Christ will die, but He'll die at the time He appoints and says, yes, now's the time. Put the nails in. Hang me up on the cross. But not here. And not by drowning. The Old Testament multiple times makes it clear this isn't by drowning. Psalm 22 is a description of the crucifixion a thousand years before it took place. No, Christ is not going to die in this storm event. No matter what happens, no matter how it works out, Christ is not going to die in this storm event. Here's another interesting one. Here is Christ who is fully God and fully man, the man part of him is asleep.

Was it necessary that the disciples awaken the Lord? It might be something that scripture doesn't answer, but I'm not so sure that it's necessary. Can the Lord handle this without waking Christ up? Yeah. Here's the other part of it. Was it negligence for Christ to sleep? Oh, I need to stay awake, because these guys are getting a panic here in just a few minutes, and they're going to need me, so I need to stay awake. No. It was not. Let me tell you a secret. This isn't a secret, but you get the idea. The disciples needed this storm. Didn't they? The disciples needed this storm. Do you need yours? Do you need your storms? Yes. You need your storms, just like the disciples needed this one. What would have happened if they had not had the storm? Would they have asked, what kind of man is this? They would not.

We would not learn the character of God if everything was just smooth as can be. Here's another one, and I'm not sure we have a Definite count answer. How many ways could God have dealt with this situation and still been faithful to all the things he had promised and that had been prophesied? Remember, there's another account where Jesus walks on the water and has Peter do the same.

Could that have been done that night? Yep. Could be. Possible? Yeah. Could the Lord do it? Yep. Could the Lord have answered their distress even after the boat sank? Yes. Could have been. Could it be that the storm went on, the boat continued to be threatened but never sank? Yeah. The Lord could have answered it that way too. But they needed this storm. Now, here's a very important one.

Is this account a picture promise that all threats to us will safely be resolved? You might think, you know, if Jesus is in your boat, nothing's going to happen, right? That doesn't work out when you get in a serious auto accident. That doesn't work out when you come down with a disease that wasn't one you signed up for. When a financial calamity presses in on you, and it wasn't something that you brought about, it just happened.

The answer is no. We're not Christ's Jewish disciples with Christ in the boat at that time, and in the land of Israel at the start of His ministry. We're not those people, and we're not them. We're these people, and we're now. We are a different people for whom God has different plans and purposes.

So this is not a promise that no matter what happens, all physical problems will be resolved. And you don't have to worry, everything will be hunky-dory in the end. Right? That's not what this is. 1 Corinthians 1, 7-9, what has God promised? Has He promised we're going to get across the lake without the storm taking us out? No. Here is what Paul tells the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1, 7-9, it's on page one of your handout.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, jumping in the middle of the sentence, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful. What promise do you have? You are going to be confirmed to the end on the day when you go see the Lord. Who's going to make sure it happens? The Lord.

Are you as a Christian promised when you get on the highway, when you get out on those streets, you will never have an automobile accident? You don't need insurance. Right? Is that the way it works? No, it's not promised that way. But there are promises that you can take and farther than the bank, right? You can take them all the way to heaven. And those promises are, He will confirm you to the end. He can be counted on. Why? He is faithful. Not mostly faithful, not generally faithful. He's not a preponderance of faithfulness. He is faithful to the end, to the very day when you walk through heaven's gates. He'll be faithful to that. He will. Count on it. Absolutely.

Trials for us, including the storms, the storms of life, have a purpose. Trials are part of God's process of conforming us into the image of Christ. It's a conformity to which we are predestined. It's going to happen. The conformity to the image of Christ is something we are predestined to as an aspect of grace. It's gracious.

Now we have a small question and a really big answer. The small question is the one the disciples asked. The men marveled saying, what kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? That's a good question. As a matter of fact, it's a very good question. The truth is, these men would continue to discover what kind of man Jesus is for years.

Now, we're going to see in about four chapters. He is first going to tell them, guys, I've been giving you the gospel of the kingdom. There's another gospel I've got to tell you about. I'm going to be crucified on the cross for your sins, and I'm going to be buried, and I'm going to be resurrected. And you guys need to believe it. And He's going to tell them that, and it's in chapter 12, for the first time, from anything we have a record of here in Matthew. He's going to tell that to them for the first time. And when they first hear it, they just embrace it, and, oh, that's wonderful! We just love it. Oh, that's delightful. We're so glad you told us. No! What they say is, oh no! That's not going to happen! You won't give your life for me. I'll give my life for you. That's the way it's supposed to work. He says, nope. That's not the way it's going to work.

They're going to discover for years to come What kind of man this is? Even when he is ascended and he's been ascended for years, they're still going to be discovering what kind of man this is. This question that they ask here is a question of continual discovery. Like Jesus' disciples, we too can spend years, even decades, discovering him as we discover who we are. Now, so the disciples go, I'm glad that storm is over. I'm glad Jesus got a hold of things. Everything is going to be really great from here on out. And then they land the boat.

And there's these two ferocious guys up on the shore, and they're crazy. They're fruity and they're nut cake. These guys have demons in them, and their behavior is outrageous. They run around with little to nothing on, all gashed up, looking filthy, and a wild eye. Oh, two of them. These guys are really gross.

And those are the ones that approach them when they land on the shore, now that everything's fine and the waters are calm and the storm is behind them. When the storm's over, get ready for the next one, right? The demons and the men express concern that their time of torture is about to begin earlier than expected. You're not going to start torturing us yet, are you?

Now, demons are fallen angels, and you could put another little note in there. Demons are fallen angels and evil spirits. Those are three different equivalent terms. There's a quick summary on angels and fallen angels. Angels are created spiritual beings who were given a time window to choose for or against the Lord.

Satan had led one-third of those angels to rebel. Revelation chapter 12. One-third of those angels rebelled against the Lord and were pitched out of heaven. The earth is the domain of Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air. Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, and his angels, until the time when they will be cast in the lake of fire at the end of this present heavens and earth. Satan will spend a thousand years bound, right towards the end of that time, and some demons are held in the abyss, the great abyss, they're locked there until the time of judgment.

We will not go into, because we don't have but minutes left, a complete understanding of that. There is a two-page handout. A few paper copies are available, or you can download them from the website associated with this message here. So that'll give you additional insights on angels, since we can't take the time now.

So now, instead of these demon-possessed men having the demons just cast out and the demons running around, the demons say, hey, how about, you know, we don't like being without a body. How about putting us into those pigs? Well, let's see how that works out. Now, being an old farm boy, and I'm talking really old now, being an old farm boy, I could tell you stories about pigs. We don't have time for them. They're time like we've filled their trough full of hard cider. Anyway, I don't have time for that. So the demons request to go into the bodies of a nearby herd of pigs.

Some questions. Why were there pigs present at all if the people living in the area were Jews? Especially as we get from another gospel account in parallel, 2,000 pigs. Well, it turns out that there were places around the Sea of Galilee. This was one of them. They had a significant number of Romans and other Gentiles present. So there was a market for these pigs. So that made sense.

So why would Jesus grant permission for the demons to enter the pigs? They say about 2000. knowing that the entire herd would plunge into the Sea of Galilee, and the demons would be in search of new bodies very soon. Jesus, he wasn't ignorant of what he was doing. He said, yeah, go ahead, go into the pigs. And the pigs... You know? Two thousand of them! That's a lot! Okay.

For one thing, what the demons do, The demons have no opportunity for salvation. By the way, that's a very interesting thing. Christ would die for your sins and mine. The demons have no opportunity for salvation. So it's not going to get any better for them. Besides that, who cares about pigs? Right? Okay. First Jesus gets away from the crowd. Then the crowd begs Jesus to get away. Because that's the next thing that happens.

The two pig herders, of course, they have a lot of explaining to do. And of course, then the other part is, people say, well, this is quite a story. You know, where are these 2,000 pigs? Those just don't disappear. And they say, go see for yourself. They're sitting there in the Sea of Galilee. A lot of them. 2,000 of them. So the crowd begs for Jesus to leave. You see, They had several serious problems. It's the two guys who were demon possessed. I mean, they're a nuisance.

But 2000 dead pigs in the Sea of Galilee, that's a problem. It is an economic and a labor problem. All right. Yeah, you got two guys who used to herd pigs and those two guys that got employed by the pigs. But now you're going to need hundreds of guys to take care of those pigs. Otherwise, what happens? Sea of Galilee 2,000 pigs.

Huge environmental problem. Even if you don't have people who are environmental specialists, you know this is going to stink fast. Right? This is going to be really bad. As a matter of fact, this is the area where Jesus landed. There's Susita, is the city here right at the lower level. And there's another city up at the top. That's the city on the hill. Did you hear about the Sermon on the Mount? There's the city on the hill, so there's two cities right next to each other.

And they're both about to smell a lot of rotten pig unless they do something fast. There's a food supply problem. Usually you'd kill off a few of the pigs at a time. But now you got a whole bunch of pigs that you really can't eat. And all that eating of pigs you used to do, you can eat something else because you're not going to eat those, not for a while. until you get some other pigs in. You've also got other issues.

There's a mixture of Jews and Gentiles there. Imagine the Gentiles saying, guys, help us! We got hundreds and hundreds of stinking pigs out there, and we need help hauling them up and getting them out of the water and hauling them somewhere. Help us, please! And the Jews are saying, we're not touching that. There's pigs, and they're dead. Two reasons why we're not going to touch it.

So you guys, you've got to handle it on your own. Then there's the Jewish purity debates. Remember we talked about the Jews love to hold debates. I don't know how much debating you do over stinking pigs, but is it legal according to the law of Moses to get in that water with rotten pigs? Maybe not. And maybe I don't care because it stinks, right? Okay.

So as we look here at Matthew chapter 8, Jesus presented the message, chapters 5 through 7, and the validation of the gospel of the kingdom to the people of Israel. The disciples were discovering who Jesus was. And that, who Jesus was, would become more apparent to them over the decades. Jesus would be a rather constant, at least periodic, surprise to them.

Even after we believe in the gospel of substitution We too may have decades and will have eternity to discover who he is I said may have decades because who knows how long any of us has My dad's mother was in her late 80s. She was dying of cancer She came to the Lord about three weeks before she died So she didn't have decades, right? But she does have eternity You and I, we don't know. We may indeed have decades to learn who he is. We will have eternity to learn who he is. Discovering who he is means discovering who each of us is.

Since each one of us who believes has been placed into him, we were placed into Christ. We were baptized into his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, ascension, and seeding. We were placed into Him. As I learn who He is, what kind of man is this? As I learn who He is, I learn who I am, because my identity has now been linked to Him. Discovering who He is means discovering who each of us is, since He has been made to dwell in every single one of us who has placed our belief and trust and faith in Him. We're in him, he's in us. What kind of man is this? What kind of God is this? We can spend years, decades maybe. We will spend eternity learning those things. Isn't that great? Isn't that wonderful? That discovery means spiritual intimacy. It means spiritual growth. It means clarity of our new history and our identity. You realize you have a new history? You can sit there and tell your life story.

I did this and this happened to me and I went here and I went there and I did this and I didn't do that. I thought of my wife because every time she goes to the grocery store, somebody starts telling their life story to her. Anyway, I don't know how that is. But that's what happened here.

Each of us has a new history in Christ. Have you got problems? It's a matter of growing out of our history and into His history. It's already true. But we're discovering it. We're discovering what our history in Christ means forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you've revealed here. We thank you as we look at this passage, what marvelous things you did.

Even to pass along the message, we need those storms. There is a discovery of who you are along the way. And Lord, we want to be like the disciples in saying, what kind of man is this? And not like the ones on the shore in the city that they went to, please go away. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity you've given us and that we here have said, yes, Lord, we believe in you. Now teach us what kind of man and what kind of God you are. Teach us, Lord. And we ask that in Jesus' name. Amen.