LIVE Join our service streaming live right now! Click here to watch.
We've all known someone's birthday was coming, kept it in the back of our minds, and then realized two weeks too late that we never said a word—recognized it, but never responded. In Matthew 8, the demons who meet Jesus call him “Son of God” with more clarity than almost anyone else in the Gospel, yet that recognition leads somewhere unexpected and deeply unsettling.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
The sermon emphasizes the difference between recognizing who Jesus is and responding to him. Can you think of an area in your own life where you know something is true about God or Jesus but haven't fully acted on it? What makes that gap between recognition and response so difficult to close?
The demons in Matthew 8 acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, yet they fear him and ask him to leave. What is the difference between that kind of intellectual acknowledgment and genuine faith that leads to transformation? In what ways do we sometimes resemble the demons more than we'd like to admit?
The villagers witness Jesus cast out demons from the possessed men, yet they beg him to leave their region. Why do you think people who encounter God's power sometimes reject him rather than welcome him? What fears might drive that response, and how do those same fears show up in our own lives?
The preacher uses the illustration of a soccer player who shakes the referee's hand despite receiving what seemed an unjust red card. How does choosing to respond rightly—even when facing consequences—change a situation? What would it look like to apply that same posture toward Christ in an area where you feel judged or ashamed?
The sermon points out that unlike fallen angels, humans have the opportunity for repentance and restoration. How should that difference shape the way we view our own accumulated “red cards” of sin, and what would it mean practically to let Jesus take them away rather than assuming it's too late?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Okay, we'll reset it, there we are. Hey, let's try that again. So did everyone have a nice holiday? Hopefully, yeah. It's always a joy to see all kinds of wonderful, beautiful things exploding in the sky, isn't it? I love fireworks. You may or may not know this, but I am a pyromaniac. Yes. Oh, thanks. Yeah. You know, because there's just nothing quite like watching things explode. It really is great. And I love it. Although, as much as I love the fireworks, this year I didn't light any because I'm still a little slow to the draw and bending and getting back up. So I'm looking forward to the day I blow things up again. But I got to see some, and not just, I think many of us, we saw them not only here, but of course, there was lots of interest around the country. But one thing that really caught my attention was that it wasn't just around the country this year, with it being the sesquicentennial and so 250 years of the United States. It wasn't just here, but around the world.
The first thing I saw earlier this week that I thought was really neat was that apparently, as the landscape in our capital, where the cherry blossoms bloom, is settling and they've lost some of the trees. And so as a gift for our 250th anniversary here in the United States, Japan sent 250 new cherry blossom trees. Just a beautiful gesture to remind us of our friendship with Japan. And that was sort of the start of a really encouraging thing, which was all kinds of people all around the world, many of whom probably have never set foot in the United States, but celebrating with us. You think about that. Just neat. They know that it's the 250th birthday of America. And so what are they going to do? They're going to celebrate with their friends.
Here's some pictures if you didn't get to see. I just found myself captivated yesterday as I saw some of these. So I'm going to go clockwise, starting up at the top. That's in Kyiv. That's Mother Ukraine. And they had her all in red, white, and blue. And then, of course, there's Berlin. Very familiar sight of the gate there. It's all in red, white, and blue. The third one you may not recognize as clearly. It's not as memorable of a landmark, but that's in Dublin. And then let's see. Next, we have Budapest, Hungary. Of course, Eiffel Tower down there, all in red, white, and blue, saying USA 250 on it. Moldova was celebrating with that design next to that. And then Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan next there, all in red, white, and blue last night. And there was more. There was Barcelona, Spain. And then that hillside with the beautiful streaming flags coming down. If you look closely, you'll realize it's the American flag on the right, but on the left, it's the Polish flag. That's Poland celebrating our longtime friendship with the Poles. You may recognize the next one. That's in Jerusalem. They're celebrating 250 years of America. The castle down below is Romania, all in red, white, and blue. And then finally, that last building is in Kosovo, as they also celebrated with us. And then there were all kinds of other things. The UAE produced a birthday card video celebrating the United States's birthday, and so on. So to me, it was just kind of a neat break from all the tension in the world, all the anger in the world, that there were just a bunch of countries that just wanted to wish us a happy birthday. They knew it was 250. And what did they do? They not only knew it was 250, but they also wanted to respond to it. And they responded. And what better way could a country do to respond to another country wishing it well than to put that country's colors up and just celebrate with them? I mean, that's a perfect response.
And that got me thinking. It's good to recognize this, right? I know all kinds of things. I recognize them. And then I forget to do anything with them, or I don't do the right thing with them, right? Sometimes it really gets me on birthdays, right? I'll know someone's birthday is coming up, and it's in my head. This person's birthday is coming up. Don't forget to wish happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday. And then two weeks after the birthday, I think, I didn't wish the person happy birthday, right? Awful. Remembered all the way up to that point, but now to say, I remembered all the month before, but I forgot. I'm so sorry. I'm two weeks late, just doesn't have the same effect, right? It doesn't give you the warm fuzzies. It's key to both recognize and to respond.
And so there was that beautiful picture. And if you go on, you can find a whole bunch more. Those were just the few that I downloaded and thought, I'm going to just share some of those in case you hadn't seen them. Just really fun to see all these familiar sites around the world with people celebrating with us. Gives you a little hope maybe. Well, that recognizing problem is not just about when a country celebrates 250 years. There are nice things like that, and there are nice things that we encounter every day. But the key one, the most important thing that we needed to both recognize and respond to correctly is, of course, Jesus, right? How many people recognize the name of Jesus? And you sing a song like, I speak Jesus, and you think, okay, I know that name, but then how many people actually understand the power of the name of Jesus? What Jesus's name means? And it's smaller.
You're all kinds of people will say he's a great teacher. Even people who belong to various religious groups who ostensibly believe in someone or something with the name Jesus, but they don't actually recognize the Jesus we read about in the Gospels. So important to both recognize the name, but then to recognize him and then to respond to him. Because then you also hear those people who could tell you exactly who Jesus is, what he did, but they don't act on it. Maybe that's you. Jesus calls us to recognize and respond. Let's pray tonight that we're ready to do that.
Father, thank you for this evening. We thank you for your word, and we do pray that as we explore it tonight, would you help us to not just recognize what's going on, not just to have it stored up in our head for us to forget and remember too late, but Lord, would you help us to actually respond to it? Would you have given us the best thing that we could ever celebrate? Not just earthly freedom, but true freedom from sin. Freedom that allows us to come to our heavenly Father and to experience eternal life. And if there was ever anything worth celebrating, anything ever worth shooting fireworks off for, what could be better than that? Help us to respond as we recognize the Lord. We pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
So we're picking back up in verse 28 tonight. If you want to turn to Matthew chapter 8 in your Bible, verse 28, coming to the end of the chapter, kind of in the middle of this section that we've been exploring of Jesus doing these different healings and people recognizing or not recognizing him. But this is the end of that particular chapter. And we pick up there, verse 28.
And we read these words: And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tomb so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs. And behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.
And that's definitely a memorable occurrence. But what in the world is going on here, right? I mean, this is different. And I've heard a lot of different takes on what's happening here over the years. A lot of them are interesting, but I think a lot of times we're going right past the thing it's really about. And here's what we see in this first half, that we can recognize Jesus and still fear inevitable judgment. And demons certainly should. The demons know exactly who Jesus is. This is where, when we get into, well, I know who Jesus is. Well, knowing who Jesus is isn't the thing, right? Just knowing he's there. Maybe for a little while, about a century ago, it would have seemed like a real demonstration of faith to say, well, I know who Jesus is, because there were scholars trying to question whether Jesus actually ever really existed. However, today, even most secular historians no longer question that. Thankfully, they've come to their senses. They've looked at the evidence. It was ridiculous to suggest that Jesus didn't exist when we wouldn't apply that same approach to people who had far less impact and far less evidence to the fact that he or she lived. It's not really a testament to faith to say, I believe that Jesus really did dwell on this earth. I believe Jesus really said some of the things I'm reading about here.
The demons could do all that. And they could do all that and go even further. They could say, and I believe he does all these miracles. And I believe he's the Son of God. Up to this point in the book of Matthew, if you look, most people aren't referring to Jesus as the Son of God. The demons actually understand more clearly who Jesus is than most of the people we seem to encounter. They know exactly who he is. That's actually part of the problem. It's what James says in James chapter 2, verse 19: “You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder.” Knowing who Jesus is, knowing who our God is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not enough in itself. Simply knowing is like I know my friend's birthday and forget to say anything. Oh, well, I really do know it. I'm not just saying that. I really didn't. No, it's not enough. Notice here that the demons say that Jesus came early. What do they mean by that? Do they mean that the incarnation happened at the wrong time? No, that's not the point. Their point is they didn't want to encounter Jesus yet.
We don't get a full description in the Bible, but if we piece together the pieces, we get some sense of who are these demons. The general sense is that the demons are fallen angels. Take a look, for example, at Revelation chapter 12, verse 9: “The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.” If we develop the rabbinical tradition, if we look at some of the other ancient Jewish writings that we don't include in the Bible, we get a pretty full picture of this. It seems like an accurate, biblically faithful assumption that the demons are fallen angels. What we see here, the demons have already made their choice. They didn't have to recognize who God was. They dwelt in the presence of God, but they chose they didn't want to go that step and respond to who God is. And so they've already determined what's going to come of themselves.
It's already happened. Their complaint is, but Jesus, you came too early. We wanted at least a little more time before it happens. Give us a little more time to torment people before we ourselves are tormented. It's just a little too fast, Jesus. They're afraid that Jesus is going to bring about their fate early. Now, I suppose you could spend time trying to answer the unanswerable questions like, could an angelic being that has fallen repent? There's nothing to suggest they can. I think it's too late, but it doesn't say they couldn't. It's more of an impossible possibility because they never do. It's interesting to think, well, what if the demons actually recognize who Jesus was and said something like, we never showed them what we did. We don't want to be demons. We want to be restored. I don't know. I can't answer that question. But the reason I can't is because they don't even have an interest. All they want is, can we cause trouble a little longer before you do something to us?
And so what do they say? Well, Jesus, we don't want you here yet, and here you are. And they recognize that Jesus sees the value in these demoniacs, these possessed people, that he wants to free them from this demon possession. And so they say, well, how about we make a deal with you, Jesus? Why don't you let us into those pigs over there? It's a big herd of pigs. May the demons have anger for BLTs. We'll just go in the pigs. And Jesus is willing to let them go into the pigs. And this is where, like I said, you get into some interesting interpretive moves that I'm not sure we can fully justify because people say, well, what Jesus was demonstrating was that the people of the land were being unfaithful. They had pigs and Jews weren't allowed to have pigs. So Jesus was bringing judgment on these unfaithful Jews who had pigs.
We can't necessarily say that because it seems as though where Jesus is right now is a primarily Gentile settlement. And so it's quite possible they weren't Jews at all. And certainly if you weren't Jews, you didn't have any objection to having pigs, and people did. Could have been Jewish herders that shouldn't have been raising pigs that were, possibly, but doesn't require that. The key thing here, though, is what we often miss.
The demons run the pigs into the water, and then you say, oh, look at all those poor pigs drowning. This is PETA's worst nightmare here. A complete disaster of bacon proportions. They're in this water drowning, but there's a move that we miss in the English that's really, really interesting. You see, in Matthew's Greek, when he refers to the pigs, he refers to them as a herd, as a collective herd. When we talk about company, we don't often use plurals. So if you talk about, I went to Schnucks, and we're thinking about this collective organization. Schnucks has, right, has, not have, has great porksteaks, let's say, you want to say. Because we think of them as an entity, is an entity, and that's how these pigs are being referred to, the herd.
Yet Matthew says they died. And we read it in the English, and we just think, oh yeah, the pigs died. But Greek is much more careful about switching from singular to plural than English is. Where's the only plural in here? It's the demons. Do the pigs die? Yes, I think the pigs die. They drown in the water. But what's really in view here, in Matthew in particular, is something happens to the demons. As they encounter Jesus, and they, they once again make the wrong choice. And they say, Jesus, we just want you to go away so we can torment longer, let us into these pigs. We can cause some trouble with these pigs. Jesus says, okay. But in doing that, he gives them what they want, but they also seal their own fate.
Now, does that mean the demons cease to exist? No, I don't think so. We're told as we go through scripture, what's going to happen to the fallen angels? They're going to be tossed into the lake of fire. I think what's being referred to here is that the eternal fate of the demons simply happens sooner. They recognize Jesus. They actually speak of Jesus with bolder language than the others who are encountering Jesus up to this point. But they don't respond to Jesus, at least not in a fitting way. And because they don't respond to Jesus in a fitting way, what happens? They die spiritually.
Same challenge that we have to wrestle with. I know next to nothing about soccer. I know a lot of people are having a lot of fun right now. That's been good enough. It's sort of like seeing all those festive displays last night. It's just fun to see people having fun. But in the midst of that, I've been catching that people were really, really upset about this. I'm a baseball fan. What is all this weird terminology? This red card the other night. Anyone know about the red card? So, Follarin Balugin, I believe I'm saying that, right? Is that right? Is that close enough? I made it through once. I should have stuck with that. But Follarin, we'll stick with that. Some guy in the US team, and apparently not just some guy, I didn't know about him until this all happened, but apparently he's not just some guy. He is like the guy, right? Fascinating guy. A whole story there and how he became an American that's sort of bizarre and fascinating. And then he's just been playing incredibly for the team.
And so, the other night, if you didn't catch it, like me, they were making a play, there's a clash on the field, he stumbles over, he steps on the ankle of the opposing player. It seems clear to be an accident, but what does the ref determine? Red card, because it looks like foul play. And so, then I said, well, what does a red card mean? Why is everyone so upset about this red card? Well, it means that he doesn't get to play in the quarterfinals, right? Maybe dooming the Americans' chances at a red card. And so, I said, well, what does a red card mean? At victory and triumph here. That's a pretty good reason to get mad, right? If you follow any professional sport, you certainly see athletes get a bad call like that, and it usually doesn't go peaceably, right? Which is what really makes his response interesting, because what did he do? As he was given the red card and kicked off the field and presumably kicked off for the next game and who knows, maybe even longer. As he left the field, he did what he's made his custom. He went over and shook the ref's hand and then left. Didn't yell, didn't say anything angry. He offered a gesture of kindness and walked off the field.
He was asked about that. Here's what he said: “I've been upset. I've been happy about scoring. It's been surreal, to be honest, but for me, it was just important to stay calm. I never want to react out of anger or out of emotion. There's still a lot of people who are inspiring, little kids, boys and girls who are watching. We have to show them the correct way to handle things, even when you think it's unjust.”
Now, there is, okay, I don't know this guy, but he's pretty amazing, right? I mean, he's obviously not a hockey player. Some teeth should have gone missing by the end of all this, right? What an attitude. Here's what he figured. He's going to receive this judgment. He has no reason to think that shaking the ref's hand is going to do anything to change that. It didn't do anything to change that. He still got the red card and went off the field, but the question still was, well, how do I respond correctly to this situation? What should my response be? I'm already being kicked off. I might as well go out in a blaze of glory, right? Maybe I should go kick a player or two on the way out. Maybe I should go punch that ref or at least say some things that shouldn't be transmitted over broadcast television to that ref because he is ruining my chance at glory here, and I'm going to let him know it. I mean, it would not have shocked any of us if that's what he'd done.
But in that moment, he still had a chance to respond and respond well, and he did. When we encounter Jesus, the question is, how are we going to respond? And sometimes we say, okay, I'm encountering Jesus, but I don't really want to encounter him here, and I've already made such a mess of the situation. I'm going to go ahead and yell at the ref. I'm going to go ahead and kick the player. I'm going to go ahead and do these things because I'm already receiving judgment anyway. That's exactly what the demons say. We're already receiving judgment, so Jesus, just let us kick some more people for a while because we got the red card.
Just here's another thing that we need to remember, though, is we look at what happens to the demons. They're fallen angels, and indeed we are fallen, but we're not fallen angels. And we can get into all the hypotheticals. What happens if a demon regrets what he's done, and how does that play out, and how do we make sense of fallen angels even or whatever? We can't necessarily answer all those questions, but we can speak to the one that the Bible speaks very clearly about. What happens if we're a fallen human being?
You see, just like Philaron, we too have the choice on how we're going to respond when we have the red card. And in our sin, we have a lot of red cards. There are a lot of times that we should be sitting out. In fact, on our own, we should be sitting out all the time. We already have an eternal red card, and the question is, what am I going to do then? Am I going to just say, well, I already have an eternal red card. I might as well just be as nasty as possible. Scripture's very clear, though. Judgment is not inevitable for us. We don't have to assume it's already happened. We don't have to bewail the unjustness that, God, if only you knew what my life had been like, and how it had started, and everything I'd had to go through, and how unfair my current situation is. If only you knew that, you wouldn't have given me the red card. We don't have to do that. God says, I'll take away the red card.
Too often, though, we act like we're just in the exact same boat as those demons. That's what we actually see the people in the village near the herds of pigs. Pick back up at verse 33: The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, what did they do? They begged him to leave their region. They heard about the power, and notably here, the herdsmen, were they upset about their pigs? I'm sure. I mean, there's their livelihood there. It's floating. They don't have marinating pork out in the sea. They're not happy about this, but they're even more amazed that these demon-possessed men, that Jesus could speak to demons and cast them out. So many demons, they could drive a whole herd of pigs down. They come into town and tell the people this, and the people say, well, let's go see this. It sounds pretty spectacular. But when they see Jesus, what do they think? They think the exact same things the demons think. Jesus, don't bring this upon us yet. Maybe someday we have to face our maker. Maybe someday we have to face death. Maybe someday we have to face judgment. But today, just leave us alone. Go away.
Countering Jesus, they're unnerved. They reach into their pocket, and they have this whole stack of red cards they've collected over time in there, and they say, well, we have all these, and here's the ultimate rough here. He can look at us and throw us out. In fact, I think he already has thrown me out. Jesus, just get away. At least let me live my life. I don't know how long I have, but let me make good use of that by doing whatever I want, because I'm already too in debt anyway. I'm already too messed up.
And we can feel sorry for the pigs, and we can even contemplate the sad and tragic fate of fallen angels. But what's most tragic, I think, in this passage, if you really think about it, are these fallen human beings, the very kind of people that Jesus came to save, who look at the Savior of the world, who look at the power he has over evil things, right? He can cast out demons and just push them out, and he's not going to let them get away. He's going to cast out demons and just push them out. And they look at him and they say, Jesus, would you go away? We're scared of you. We don't know what we're facing, but we know that we don't want to face you.
If you have or have had pets, you know that whether or not you love Independence Day, your pet more than likely does not, right? It's not usually pet-friendly holidays of the year, 4th of July, right? They're going to really have a bang with this one. They're going to say, please stop the noise, right? My poor cat, Frost, he really had a rough time yesterday, because not only did we have the fireworks in the evening, but we had the thunderstorms before that and the giant gusts of wind. For animals, this was the worst possible kind of holiday you could experience, right? Just everything bad all at once, all jammed together. We're going to have a lot of grumpy dogs and cats over the next few days as they try to recover from that, right? And what you can't do is look at your dog or your cat and say, Fluffy, go look out the window. It's beautiful. Look at those fireworks. See, it's not bad. It's not coming to get you. It's celebrating freedom, right? The fact that we have a country where we can be comfortable enough that we can buy you all the treats you want, that's, I mean, this is worth celebrating. Rover's not going to get there, right? Because there's these scary booms. There's power. That'd be bad. No matter how much you might want to say, look, it's beautiful. It's not going to work.
For us human beings, a lot of times the gospel is sort of like that, because if we're kind of just going about our lives and we hear this gospel, and it's, yes, it's God loves the world, but we're sinners and we deserve condemnation. It just sounds like big, scary booms. And we think, I don't want any of that stuff, right? If your dog or your cat, your pet rabbit, if that animal had the choice to have fireworks or not, the answer's pretty clear. No, skip the fireworks. And sometimes we say, let's skip the gospel. God, I know you're saying it's beautiful out the window, but I just want to hide under the bed. Would you just take it away? I just want, don't make me think about judgment. Don't make me think about how I'm a sinner. Don't make me do any of that. Just let me not think about how powerful you are, God, how holy you are. I just, I don't want to think about it. Because we hear about the gospel and it sort of sounds like God's some kind of powerful tyrant king who's just waiting until he can smite us, until he can pull out all the red cards and bury us in them and just ruin our hopes and our dreams. Why does he have to be so judgmental? Just an angry, old, sour man up in the sky. Is that what this God that people talk about is?
But look out the window. It's beautiful. There's something beautiful. It's not just a flash of light, right? Fireworks last a moment or two or three. Flash of eternal light. Look at this. I know it's scary if you don't understand it yet, but this thing is for you and it's beautiful. And it's the freedom that's greater than any freedom you've ever celebrated on this earth. The very things that tear you down and have corroded you over time, that have hardened your heart, that have made you miserable. Those are the things that I am fixing. We realize it's a preview of eternal life.
I read this morning, there's an update to Belugan's situation. He'd been given that red card, but maybe you heard this already. They've chosen to suspend the red card. He's going to get to play tomorrow night. Hey, yeah, go Team USA. I'm all for that. That's fine. That's good, right? Yeah. We can celebrate fun things like that, right? But he's been taken away. And I started to think, well, but what happens if he'd assumed it couldn't be? He's not going to be taken away. So I'm going to be a jerk on the field. I'm going to kick several of the opposing players and maybe take them out with me so they can't play. They'll be too sore. I'm going to yell at that ref and at least let him know that he can't see anything. How could he be so dumb? Would that red card have been suspended? I don't know.
But the clear thing was, this is a gentleman who said, this is the right thing to do. I'm going to respond. And now he's going to play tomorrow. And who knows? The United States wins. They'll just keep moving along further than they've gone in a very, very long time with a player who's accomplished feats that an American team hasn't accomplished in nearly a century. Because he's responding rightly to the situation.
Jesus is offering to take away our red card too. He was with these people dwelling, they're ministering to them, going through, doing these different miracles that we read about in Matthew 8 and 9, doing these things. Why? To say, whatever red cards you have, whatever things seem to be condemning you that are in your life, I'm here to heal you. Respond to me. Turn and respond.
If we look at these miracles over and over again, it's confirming again and again and again, who has the whole world in his hands? Jesus does. He has the whole world in his hands. But he's not some angry old man looking to spite you. He's the Savior of the world looking to save you. The question is, what are we going to do? Are we going to respond? Maybe tonight the Holy Spirit's working on your heart, tugging at you that tonight should be the night. Maybe you responded a long time ago and you've been a believer for a long time, but there's just that area that's gotten all hardened. And even though you believe in Jesus, you still want to say, Jesus, can you go away from this little area? Because I don't want to deal with you here. It's too uncomfortable. Tonight's the night we can actually respond rightly, go up to God and shake his hand. Because unlike a ref and an athlete where it's at least sort of equal, we have no right to go up to Jesus and shake his hand, but Jesus actually is already extending his hand out to us. And we need to recognize more than just that he's powerful. We need to recognize more than who he is. We need to recognize that he's the one who loves us. We need to respond to this. Would you pray with me, please?
Lord, we do pray that you would guide us. A lot of times it's scary to think about sin and judgment. We'd rather just not think about it at all. We'd rather keep you far away if it means we don't have to think about these things. We say, God, why should I even worry about what you have to say? I already have too many red cards. I might as well just go out on my own terms. At least I can say I did it my way. But Lord, that's not what you want us to see as our fate. Those villagers, as they backed away in fear, missed out on something truly beautiful that was for them. And Lord, would you help us that we don't do that, that instead we see the beauty of what you're doing. Give us the strength through your Holy Spirit to respond and to believe, not just to recognize, but to finally call on you as our Lord and Savior. Because we have to experience the weight of every burden, every card that's been tossed down upon us being taken up. Experiencing you making us new. We pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
Start the Conversation