Grace to a Gerasene (Luke 8:26–39) | The Gospel of Luke (Part 60)

Transcript

JRNT 111
06/14/2026
The Gospel of Luke: Grace to a Gerasene
Luke 8:26-39
Jesse Randolph

What a glorious morning of worship it has already been today, to hear those voices again singing those songs about the Savior, to hear Kaleb now in baptism, to heed that command of Christ to be baptized in obedience as a follower, as a follower of the Lord. We praise the Lord for the grace He has shown us this morning in these various means already. Praise Him for His grace.

Now that word grace is foundational to everything, we are as followers of Jesus Christ. That word grace is truly foundational to all that we do here as a church body. To anyone who would call themselves a follower of Jesus Christ, to anyone who claims to have a personal relationship with Christ, the reason we have the forgiveness that we receive, the reason that we have the hope that we have is grace. It's all of grace. Titus 1:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” Paul in Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith” and he says it's “not of yourselves but is the gift of God.” Grace, you see, is a gift. For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, all that we have and all that we are is on account of the greatest gift that's ever been given—the gift of grace. Right? We were once in this one state, we were once in this one position but then God sovereignly and graciously, as Kaleb just testified, He gave us another, He placed us in another position. We were once these foolhardy, blind, rebellious, sin-enslaved, hell-bound children of the devil but then God, according to the riches of His grace, that's Ephesians 1:7, He gifted us an entirely new identity. He graciously gave us something that we previously did not have. He graciously made us something we once were not. He graciously turned us into people that are now totally new. He revived our hearts, He quickened our spirits, He made us alive, He saved our souls. And it was all a gift; it was all a gift of grace.

Now in the account we'll be in this morning as we work our way through Luke's Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, we're going back to chapter 8, we're going to encounter a man who knew something of grace, divine grace, God's grace. Now this man who is unnamed in our text had been severely afflicted, possessed, in fact, by demons. And then this man encountered Jesus who not only demonstrated His divine power, but as God He demonstrated divine grace as He delivered this man from this demon oppression that he had been going through. Now did this man deserve the grace that Jesus showed him? Did he deserve the deliverance from demon possession that Jesus provided him? No, he didn't. But that is grace. Grace is all about being gifted something we didn't deserve, whether in the case of this man who was being delivered from demon possession or whether that's in our case as followers of Christ today, that means being delivered from the powers of sin and death which once dominated us, being delivered from, as Paul says in Colossians 1:13, “the domain of darkness.”

If you would I'd ask you to go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 8 where this morning we'll be working our way from verse 26 all the way through 39, we're going to take this one section as a whole as we encounter the grace that was shown this Gerasene, this Gerasene demoniac. Luke 8:26, I'll read it first, then we'll work through it. Luke 8:26, God's Word reads, “Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee. And when He came out into the land a man from the city met Him, one who was possessed with demons and who had not put on any garment for a long time and was not living in a house but in the tombs. Now seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him and said in a loud voice, ‘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 seized him many times and he was bound with chains and shackles, being kept under guard. And yet breaking his bonds, he was driven by the demon into the desolate regions. And Jesus asked him, what is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him. And they were pleading with Him not to command them to go away into the abyss. Now there was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain and the demons pleaded with Him to permit them to enter the swine. And He gave them permission. And when the demons came out of the man, they entered the swine and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. And when the herdsmen saw what happened they ran away and reported it in the city and the countryside and the people went out to see what had happened and came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon possessed had been saved. And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them, for they were gripped with great fear. And He got into a boat and returned. But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him. But He sent him away saying, Return to your house and recount what great things God has done for you. So, he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”

This is an incredible text, a fascinating text, and I've broken it down according to a six-point outline which I will unfurl for you as we get to each of these points. First, if you are a note taker, in verse 26 we have The Arrival. That's our first point, The Arrival, where again we see here, it says, verse 26, “Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee.” So, this is a continuation of the scene that we were in last week where Jesus and His disciples, they got into this boat, one of those small, first century fishing boats, to go over to the other side of the lake. That's how Luke reports it, up the page in verse 22. He says, “Let us go,” this is Jesus speaking, “Let us go to the other side of the lake.” And they did, but as we saw in verse 23 a windstorm descended on the lake and that windstorm was one of those hurricane-force gales caused by the collision of warm and cold fronts of air that started to swirl over the Sea of Galilee. While Jesus was sleeping in the stern of the boat, demonstrating by the way as He shut His eyelids that He is truly human and has full humanity. His disciples, we saw, they were intimately familiar with the weather patterns on the sea, they panicked, they lost their cool. They woke Jesus up from His little catnap and they said in verse 24, “Master, Master,” that indicates their panic, “we are perishing.” Well Jesus was stirred awake and after He did wake up it says, verse 24, “He rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped and it became calm.” Now mere moments earlier the waves had been crashing violently against this boat, so much so that water started to fill the boat but now in an instant and with a word all had become calm and the sea was like glass. The winds and the waves, they obeyed Jesus, and they became calm immediately.

That is Luke's lead into our text this morning where again in verse 26 he reports that they then “set sail to the region of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee.” So, this group of disciples along with the Savior whom they had just roused from His slumber on the fishing boat, and they were sailing in this southeasterly direction as we saw last time. They were sailing from Capernaum on the northwester edge of the Sea of Galilee down to the region of the Gerasenes, and that's opposite Galilee as the text tells us. The region of the Gerasenes is what he is speaking of when he's speaking of this region that is opposite, southeasterly from Capernaum. Now this region, the region of the Gerasenes, was Gentile country. We know that is Gentile country first from certain extra Biblical records of the type of people who lived there, but we also know it from the text of Scripture that we're in this morning, where we are about to see that Luke is going to mention the presence of an abnormally high number of swine, pigs, hogs. According to the Law of Moses pigs or hogs, those which had split hooves but did not chew the cud, those were unclean animals according to the Levitical Law. These were unclean creatures. One would not, unless on accident, find a herd, a giant herd of swine, pigs, hogs in a Jewish settlement. That would only be found among the goyim, the Gentiles. So, the fact that there are pigs, and a lot of pigs showing up in this scene later, tells us that this region of Gerasenes was a Gentile region, it was a heathen land, a place of great moral and spiritual darkness.

Well, that's where Jesus and His disciples were headed as they set sail to the region of the Gerasenes. That's where they landed. When they arrived, they encountered a certain man, a man who was afflicted. And if you are taking notes, that's our second point, it's The Affliction. So first we have The Arrival, now we have The Affliction. Let's look at verse 27 and we're also going to look at verse 29, skipping over verse 28 for just a moment. We'll double back to that. Here in verses 27 and 29 we're going to get a sense from the pen of Luke of the nature of this man's affliction. Verse 27, it says, “And when He came out onto the land,” meaning when Jesus disembarked from the boat, the same boat which hours earlier had been getting wrecked on the Sea of Galilee in that storm, he says, “a man from the city met Him, one who was possessed with demons and had not put on any garment for a long time and was not living in a house but in the tombs.” Now what we find in this text is a catalog of information from which we can build out a profile of this man whom Jesus encountered also the nature of the affliction that he was under. First, we're told here in verse 27 that “he came from the city.” So he wasn't out from the countryside, he wasn't out from the fields, rather this man was, by first century standards at least, an urbanite, he was from the city. Now, from which city did he come? Well, there has been an interesting debate over that question for many centuries now, because here in Luke's Gospel and also in Mark's Gospel he is described as being from the region of, and these events are taking place in the region of the Gerasenes, but over in Matthew's Gospel, specifically in Matthew 8:28 this is called “the region of the Gadarenes.” So, which is it? The answer is Yes. It's both. See, there is this broader region of Gentiles in the southeast region of the Sea of Galilee, south of the Sea of Galilee and there are multiple towns in this region. One of those towns is Gerasa whose inhabitants would have been known as Gerasenes. There is another town, though, called Gadara whose inhabitants would have been known as Gadarenes. Now the town of Gerasa, the first town I mentioned, is likely the town where these events took place, and I say that because just outside of Gerasa, modern day Kersa, is a specific hillside which fits the bill of what we see described in our text. This hillside descends in the direction of this lake, a slope that pigs could run down as they stampeded their way toward a mass drowning.

So why would Matthew, then, over in his Gospel in Matthew 8:28 call this the region of the Gadarenes? Well, Gadara was not too far from Gerasa, but Gadara was a much larger town than Gerasa, and because of the size of Gadara it was actually the town that most would have associated with this region. So, it would actually have been appropriate, given the size of Gadara, for Matthew to say that region southeast of the Sea of Galilee was the region of the Gadarenes. An example would be if you knew of a car accident that happened in Belton, Missouri you might, here in Lincoln, Nebraska say, you could say if you knew Belton really well; that accident happened in Belton. Or if you are kind of referring to that region down there in Kansas City you could say that accident happened in Kansas City, the bigger city, the broader region. And people would get a sense of where these events took place. That's why we have the discrepancy between Matthew and Luke, which is not really a discrepancy at all.

Back to our text, verse 27, where we learn that this man was from the city, the city of Gerasa, and note only one man is mentioned here. We're told that “a man from the city met Him.” Now if you would, turn back over with me to Matthew's Gospel. I just mentioned Matthew 8:28, I'd actually like us to take a look at that, at Matthew 8:28. This is the same passage where Matthew refers to this incident taking place in the region of the Gadarenes. Now note what else we see Matthew mentioning here. It says, “And when He came to the other side into the region of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.” Did you catch that? Matthew is referring to the fact that there were two men who were demon possessed. So, Luke's Gospel mentions one man, Mark's Gospel, by the way, does the same, he mentions one man in Mark 5, but Matthew's Gospel mentions two men. So, what gives? What are we to think? Is there a contradiction? Are the critics of Biblical inerrancy, right? Shall the liberals win? No. There is no need to worry, the explanation is actually very, very simple and the explanation is simply this. There were, in fact, two demon-possessed men, just as Matthew records here. But Luke and Mark decided, as the Spirit moved them to write what they wrote as they reported on this very same account in their Gospels, to zero in on one of those two men. Why? We're not exactly sure, possibly the one that Luke and Mark reported on is more the vocal leader of the two, but there were two men, two demon-possessed men, two demoniacs.

All right, back to building out our profile of this man who came to meet Jesus. You can turn back to Luke's Gospel. After Jesus and His disciples, after they disembarked on the southeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, we've seen that this man was from the city, most likely that city of Gerasa. We've seen that he was one of two demon-possessed men, Matthew 8:28. Now reading on in verse 27 here we come across a few more details about this man. For starters note what Luke says about him right in the middle of verse 27, namely that “one who was possessed with demons.” He was demon possessed; I'll get to that in just a second. But reading on we note a few more specific details about what demon possession must have looked like or did look like for this man from Gerasa. Note what Luke says next, still in verse 27, “He had not put on any garments for a long time.” That language describes just what it sounds like. This man was so impoverished, and so destitute and so out of his mind that he was roaming around the countryside completely without attire. He was completely exposed. Not only was he completely exposed, but he also didn’t even have a roof over his head, he was homeless. Look at the end of verse 27 where Luke says that “he was not living in a house but in the tombs.” Now outside of the town, the city here, there would have been a series of cave-like tombs. That's how the dead would have been buried. These tombs would have been carved into the soft limestone in these surrounding hillsides and that is apparently where this man slept, that is where he sought shelter, that is where he lay his head to rest every night. I mean, this man was living, you could say, a bizarre life, to say the least. In our day we might call him maniacal, deranged, crazy.

Now if you drop down to verse 29, we're going to get a picture of more of what was going on with this man. Note this language about midway through verse 29 where it says that “he was bound with chains and shackles, being kept under guard.” This man had been apparently flagged as a threat in his community. He was placed under lock and key; he was guarded and rightfully so. Because as we read on, look at how Luke describes the strength of this man. Still verse 29, he says, “And yet breaking his bonds, he was driven by the demon into the desolate regions.” This man had to be chained up; he had to be shackled. But even those chains and shackles didn't last very long because this man managed to “break his bonds,” it says, and to get loose. It was while he was on the loose, by the way, roaming through the desolate regions in this area of the Gerasenes that this man met Jesus as described in verse 27. Note that this man was in a terrible state, he was wasting away, he was self-destructing. He had no clothing, he had no home, he found himself sleeping in these cut-out hillside tombs. This man's plight wasn't merely problematic; this man's plight was utterly hopeless. At the heart of his many issues, I kind of blew by this earlier, but at the heart of his issues was that he was demon possessed, he was possessed by demons. Verse 29 tells us that he was “driven by the demon into the desolate regions.” Or up the page in verse 27 Luke describes this man as one who was possessed by demons.

Now just over a year ago when we were studying Luke chapter 4, I preached an entire sermon from Luke on demons and demonology, and demon possession is a reality that plays out in Luke's Gospel. I'm not going to repreach that sermon today, you can go find it on our church website or YouTube. The sermon title was “The Doctrine of Demons.” But for our purposes this morning I do want to give you a few brief reminders about demons and demonology from a Biblical standpoint. I have four of these. First is to remind you that the demonic realm is real. Demons are angelic beings and they are real angelic beings. Just as there is a class of holy angels who are real, there is a class of evil angels, demons, who are also very real. That's why Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So, the demonic realm is real. Second, I want to remind everybody that demonic possession occurred not only in Jesus's day, but it does occur in our day, too. Now qualification, not everything that is evil and wicked in this world can be chalked up to it being a case of demon possession. To be sure one of the ways that demons carry out Satan's agenda in this world is by overtaking individuals, you might even say possessing them, and pointing them further into the direction of evil, to which they are already naturally inclined, but we can't say that every incident of evil or wickedness in this world is all on account of demons and demon possession. A third point is to remind everybody that whatever influence that demons do wield in this world today, it all stills falls under God's perfect and sovereign will. Now God doesn't condone the evil actions or motivations or directions of demons, but He does permit them to act as they do, just as He authorizes all actions to take place in this world to accomplish His perfect, sovereign will. Fourth, and this is where many Christians and many who claim the name of Christ divide and break fellowship over questions like this. But here is the reminder that a follower of Jesus Christ, a Christian, cannot be demon possessed. A Christian cannot be demon possessed. As I said this last year when we covered this topic in more depth, demons are capable only, as you survey the Scriptures, of occupying only empty houses. And Christians are not empty houses. Christians have already been and are now permanently occupied by the Holy Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God does not accept roommates. So, a Christian cannot be demon possessed. Well, this man in our account, the Gerasene demoniac, he was not, at least at this point, a Christ follower. At this point in the narrative, he would not have called himself one of “the way.” Rather, he is a pagan Gentile who is legitimately demon possessed.

Now as we look back at verse 28, that's what we skipped over, we are kind of going out of order here, we note now this encounter that Jesus had with the Gerasene demoniac being fleshed out more by Luke. Verse 28 says, “Now seeing Jesus he cried out and fell before Him and said in a loud voice, What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.” Here is our third point for the note takers, this would be The Assessment. Now for context the Gerasene man, having been driven, verse 29, by the demon into the desolate regions, he saw Jesus as Jesus and His disciples rode their boat ashore and as he approached Jesus and approached Jesus with his unclothed, dirty, unkempt demeanor, note what it says here, that “he cried out and fell before Him.” Now note, in verse 28 the language that appears here in quotes starting with the words “What do I have to do with You,” they are coming from the man's mouth, but they are coming out of the mouth of this man through demonic influence. Demons, as we are going to see in just a moment, there was more than one demon here, are now speaking through this man and look what they say. The question is What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

Now if you have been over the last two years as we've been making our way through the Gospel of Luke an A+ Luke student; those words “Son of the Most High God” will sound familiar to you. If you are like me, more of a B- student, turn with me over to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. Some of us need to have our memories jogged, that's fine. Let's go over to Luke 1 where we are going to see a familiar scene where this language is going to be used for the first time, “Son of the Most High God.” Luke 1 of course we have that encounter of this young virgin girl named Mary as she comes to encounter an angel, the Angel Gabriel. We'll pick it up in Luke 1:28 where it says, “And coming in he said to her,” this is Gabriel, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and was pondering what kind of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold you will conceive in your womb and will bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” We can stop there and note that the coming Christ child according to this holy angel Gabriel would be called the Son of the Most High.

Back to our passage, Luke 8:28, there was this demon, this agent of Satan who had possessed this man, this Gerasene, and the demon recognized Jesus for who He truly is, Son of the Most High. It is sort of odd for me to say it and it might be sort of odd for you to hear it, but demons are in many ways really good theologians. Right? James 2:19 tells us that they hold to a sound doctrine of God. It says “You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons believe also.” Or back in Luke 4:31-37 we're told that the demon there before being exorcised by Jesus said to Jesus, “What do we have to do with You, Jesus the Nazarene?” Then the demon said, “I know who You are, the Holy One of God.” That's good Christology, that's sound Christology. Here in Luke 8:28 this demon who had entered this man, he recognized Jesus as Son of the Most High God. He recognized Him as God the Son, God incarnate, God in human flesh. That's sound Christology, a Christology which recognizes who Jesus, in fact, is. That includes who He is in His essence, His character, but also in His authority.

That leads to our fourth point this morning, if you are taking notes, The Authority. Look at verses 30-31, this interchange continues. It says, “And Jesus asked him, what is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him. And they were pleading with Him not to command them to go away into the abyss.” Jesus asked this man a question and he was aiming this question at the man, the Gerasene, not yet at the demons who had overtaken the man. He asked him, “What is your name?” Now there is no doubt as those who I hope and pray hold to sound Christology that Jesus knew this man's name and that's because Jesus is God and Jesus is omniscient and Jesus is all-knowing. But He wasn't yet showing His cards to this demon-possessed man. Instead He asked the man a question, “What is your name.“ And I believe He asked him this question, I believe Jesus asked the man this question to help this man recall that though he had been overtaken by demons and though he had all sorts of evil influence in his life, he was still a man, he was still a person, he was still an image bearer, he was still a soul. Well, though Jesus's question was directed to this man, He asked him that question, “What is your name,” now one of the demons who is controlling this man, he spoke for him. Note that this demon didn't really answer Jesus's question directly by giving Jesus the man's name, instead the demon answered the question by hinting at how profoundly possessed by demons this man had become. Verse 30 says, “And he said, Legion.” Now that word “Legion” comes from a Latin term which refers to a group of about 6,000 Roman soldiers and that's the idea that Luke is picking up here where he says, verse 30, “for many demons had entered him.” This man had been inundated with demons, perhaps thousands of demons who were now controlling him.

But note, even though these demons were controlling this Gerasene, these demons ultimately were under and subject to the authority of Christ, which is what we see coming out in these next few verses, namely the authority of Christ over the demonic realm. Verse 31, it says, “And they,” meaning the demons who were occupying this man, “were pleading with Him not to command them to go away into the abyss.” These words affirm, they show that these demons recognized that Jesus had and has all authority over them and that terrified them. Now though demons have powers and many different powers, they also have certain limitations. We remember that demons are angels and that means that they are created beings and as created beings they have limited, finite understanding. While these demons that were possessing this man knew who He was, the Son of the Most High God, they were also aware of the fact that a future day of judgment was coming to them. Matthew 25:41 describes that day where those demons are cast into the eternal fire which has been reserved for the devil and his angels. Demons know they are doomed, they know they will one day be judged, but their limitation of knowledge is over this issue: they don't know when that day of judgment is coming. That is why here in this text we have these demons who have entered this man, they are begging Jesus not to torment them, but as we saw at the end of verse 28 and here in verse 31 they are pleading with Jesus not to send them into the abyss, meaning not to that place where Satan and his angels will one day be thrown into judgment, the bottomless pit where they'll be tormented forever and ever. That's what these demons thought might be happening with Jesus rowing toward them and coming to their side of the shore. Note the verb tense here in verse 31 is imperfect, meaning these demons were repeatedly pleading with Jesus not to send them into the abyss. They were truly terrified, they were terrified that He had come to judge them and terrified that He had come to throw them into the abyss, into this bottomless pit to be tormented forever and ever.

And now what they did is in their terror they appealed to Jesus's authority, they sought a reprieve, they sought relief and that comes out in verses 32-33. It says, “Now there was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain. And the demons pleaded with Him to permit them to enter the swine.” Now Luke's description of the size of this herd is understated. He uses the expression “a herd of many swine,” which could be taken to mean 4 pigs or 12 pigs or 3 dozen pigs. Mark actually clears this up for us in his Gospel in Mark 5:13 where he says, “there were about 2,000 of them.” That's a lot of pigs; that's a lot of crispy bacon. Well, these pigs, it says in verse 32, were “feeding there on the mountain,” and as they did so the demons who had entered this Gerasene demoniac made a request. Reading on, verse 32, it says, “the demons pleaded with Him to permit them to enter the swine.” Again, what these demons feared was ultimate judgment, torment in the abyss, the chains being forever, the lid being sealed forever as they were judged forever for their evil and their wickedness. They did not want to go into the abyss. So, what these demons are doing here from their vantage point at least, it seems like they are bartering with Jesus, they are negotiating with Jesus. It is something like Jesus, maybe what You want to do is extract us from this Gerasene man and instead of sending us off into the abyss forever and ever why don't you send us instead into those 2,000 pigs who are feeding there on the cliff. Well, their request was granted, they got their wish. End of verse 32 says, “And He gave them permission,” meaning Jesus, the One with authority, gave permission to the demons who had been in this Gerasene man to enter the swine.

But the solution was very short lived because once the demons entered this man, these 2,000 pigs apparently got startled by the new occupants that they had, the demons, and they ran headlong over a cliff into the sea. Verse 33, “And when the demons came out of the man, they entered the swine and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” The animal rights activists hate this passage because they are convinced as you read their comment on this passage that this is Jesus demonstrating cruelty to animals. I mean, not only are these groups not to be taken seriously, I mean these would be the groups that will protest over the construction of a new hospital because it might affect the natural egg-laying patterns of sea turtles or snapping turtles, but at the same time they won't blink an eye at the murder of a human being in his or her mother's womb. So, these groups are not to be taken seriously but more to the point, the point of this passage that we are in this morning is not the plight of these poor pigs. Pigs are tasty, don't get me wrong, but pigs aren't made in the image of God, and the fate of these pigs is not at all the point of Luke's account here. Luke wasn't concerned with, neither was Jesus, about whether these pigs were being treated humanely or ethically as they careened off the cliff. No, the point of this passage was that Jesus delivered this once demon possessed man quite literally from his demons. The point of this passage is to showcase to Theophilus in the 1st century, to us as 21st century readers that Jesus has power which He demonstrated to this man and Jesus demonstrates His grace. Jesus is showing this man His grace.

Well what Jesus did for this man caused a stir. If you are taking notes, here is our fifth point this morning, this would be The Aftermath. Look at verse 34, it says, “When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran away and reported it in the city and in the countryside. And the people went out to see what had happened and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon possessed had been saved. And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them for they were gripped with great fear. And He got into a boat and returned.”

Now the herdsmen spoken of here are the men who would have been responsible for tending to these 2,000 pigs, the 2,000 pigs who had just plunged to their death. The herdsmen weren't the owners of these pigs but instead were the field hands who had been entrusted with the care of these pigs. Likely in a very understandable state of shock over what they have just seen, it's not typical occurrence to see 2,000 pigs nosediving into the sea, these herdsmen took off running. Verse 34 says “they ran away and reported it in the city and in the countryside.” So apparently, they are reporting what had happened to the owners of these pigs, some of whom lived in the city, some of whom lived in the countryside. These herdsmen were moving as fast as their feet would carry them to quickly spread news of all that had just happened. And news did spread, look at verse 35. It says, “And the people went out to see what had happened.” So now you not only have the owners of these now drowned pigs, but people from all over—from the country, from the city—coming out to see what happened.

Look what Luke reports next in the middle of verse 35, it says, “They came to see Jesus, and they found the man from whom the demon had gone out sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.” Now we need to take that in and absorb that language for just a moment because remember this is a man who, as we saw earlier, had been without clothing, he had been without a home, he had been living in the tombs, he'd been shackled, he'd been guarded, and fundamentally and most centrally he had been possessed by demons and verse 29 even says those demons had “seized him many times.” But now here he is depicted as having had these demons leave him and he is seated at the feet of a Jewish man who is claiming to be the Savior of the world. Now this man is depicted as “clothed and in his right mind.” What Luke is showcasing for us in this scene through his writing as he is directing this to Theophilus is not only Jesus's divine power as God to remove these demons from this man, but again the grace that Jesus showed this man, this Gerasene in completely changing his plight and completely changing his outlook and completely changing his future. It's really, as you consider what he came from and now what he is doing, sitting at the Savior's feet, this beautiful, powerful account.

Now we today may be sitting on this side of the cross as these grace-bought sinners. I pray when we hear of stories of grace we rejoice when we think of God's grace being extended to other believers and to other people even in this world. Right? We rejoice when a sinner gets saved, we rejoice when we hear a baptism testimony like we did this morning, we rejoice when God spares someone's life like the life of a loved one who might be unsaved, giving them more time to repent and trust in Christ. Grace spurs us to rejoice.

But that wasn't the reaction of this Gerasene's 1st century neighbors, they weren't rejoicing, rather they were afraid. Look at the end of verse 35, it says, “And they were very afraid.” Even though as we're told in verse 36 that those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon possessed “had been saved,” it says, meaning delivered, rescued not only, I believe, from his demon possession, but rescued from his former position of being separated from God, his former state of sinful, selfish living. That's what is being described here that this man had genuinely gotten saved. That I believe is one of the reasons verse 35 depicts him as sitting at the Savior's feet. That's a picture of his salvation. Well, the fact that that had just happened for this man didn't enliven or enthuse his fellow Gerasenes, grace didn't cause them to rejoice. Again, grace caused them to fear. They are likely thinking to themselves, what type of sorcery had this Man just performed that had come from the other side of the sea. How had He managed to bring such change in this lunatic tomb-dweller. What had He done to cause this herd of swine, 2,000 pigs, to run off the edge of a cliff. This whole series of events had struck fear into those who lived on the Gerasene side of the lake, and so they wanted Jesus to go back, they wanted Him gone, they wanted Him to sail westward back home.

Verse 37 says, “All the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked Him to leave them, for they were gripped with great fear.” In their midst, as they viewed this, there had been this man, this insane man, this raving lunatic of a man, this demon-possessed man and suddenly his life has been turned around by the power and the grace of Jesus, and they wanted Him to go, they want Him to take off. It really makes you question, what does it mean to be in your right mind anyway. Who is the one who is actually insane here? Him who has been cured and healed and saved? Or them who having witnessed this gracious miracle now saying, get Him out of here? Well, Jesus obliged. End of verse 37 it says, “And He got into a boat and returned.” So along with His disciples He returned to His home base on the northwestern side of the sea where a man named Jairus and his daughter awaited Him, as we'll get into next week.

But not before there is this one further exchange between this once demon-possessed man, this Gerasene demoniac and Jesus. Look at verses 38-39, it says, “But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him. But He sent him away, saying, return to your house and recount what great things God has done for you. So, he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.” Here is our sixth and final point, The Appeal. So having now been the recipient of the grace of Jesus this man naturally now wanted to follow Jesus, he wanted to stay with Jesus, he wanted to accompany Him as one of His disciples and he was letting it be known. Verse 38 says “he was begging Him,” begging Jesus, “that he might accompany Him.” But Jesus wouldn't allow it, at least not the way the man wanted. End of verse 38 says “He sent him away,” back to his people, back to the Gerasenes. In doing so Jesus gave this man a commission, Go back home. That's the sense of the word house here, “return to your house.” He was to go back to his people and “recount what great things God had done for him.” I love the way John MacArthur expressed it in summarizing this passage, he says that “Jesus was telling this maniac to go be a missionary.” That's a nice pithy, MacArthurian way of describing what is happening.

Well, this man, we see, followed his new Master's instructions. End of verse 39 it says, “So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.” Now I want you to note as we read through that we sometimes can miss something that is, I think, quite profound; which is that Luke here has slipped in yet another reference to the deity of Christ. Jesus said, beginning of verse 39, “Return to your house and recount what great things God has done for you.” Then the second sentence Luke says now, “So he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.” The only reason those two sentences make sense next to each other and fit together and are orchestrated together and work together is because Jesus is God. As God, Jesus stilled the storm on the sea. As God, Jesus showed grace to this Gerasene. As God, Jesus showed grace to Kaleb Reiser in saving him. As God, Jesus has shown His grace to every one of us here. Right? To the believing here today God has shown you His grace by taking the debt of sin that you had racked up, nailing it to the cross of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus.

But even to the unbelieving here this morning, He has shown you His grace by being willing to withhold for now the punishment and the righteous judgment that your sin deserves. But the reality is, and the Scriptures testify to this truth, that He is not going to withhold His punishment and His judgment toward your sin forever. No, if you haven't put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and as your Savior, if you haven't put your faith in His death and resurrection as recorded in the Scriptures. If with every step you take in this life, with every day that goes by for you on this planet. With every breath that you take that God is giving you. You need to know on the testimony and authority of the Scriptures that you are standing right now on very, very thin ice. Very thin ice before the God who has made you and the God who has given you breath and life and being right now. You need to know that. You need to know that God is whom you will stand before one day. He has said this in Romans 2:4-5, He said, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance. But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Don't presume upon the Lord's patience and forbearance and kindness toward you right now. His patience and His forbearance and His kindness toward you today. Don't stay stuck in your stubbornness, don't stay stuck in that rut of rebellion, don't stubbornly say, I'll take my chances and I'll face His harvest of judgment toward my sin one day. Maybe He'll forgive me later, maybe He'll change His mind. Don't take the chance, don't take the risk. Instead, be like the Gerasene who was in our account for today. Humble yourself before the Savior. The demoniac did that by sitting at His feet. We don't have that privilege today, Jesus has ascended, He's with the Father right now. We can't sit at His physical feet. But what you can do right now is cry out to Him and beg of Him that He would save your soul. Anyone can do that as long as they have breath in this life, as long as those brain waves are functioning, as long as that heart is still beating. Anyone can do that while there is still time. So, tell Him, tell Him that you're sorry for the sins that you have committed against Him. Tell Him that you are repenting of your old ways and are committed to living for Him. Tell Him that all of your hope of heaven, it rests in what Jesus Christ did for you by dying for you and rising for you. Tell Him that all your trust is built on that. Tell Him that your whole hope of heaven is tied in with Christ's sufficient death and payment on the cross. Experience grace. That's what the Gerasene did, he experienced grace, saving grace. Then when you do that, when you respond to the offer of grace, when you respond to the message of the cross, when you respond to the message of the Gospel. Then you can have the hope of eternal life secured and you can spend the rest of your life, however many days God has appointed for you on this planet, to do what this Gerasene was charged to do by Jesus in verse 39, “recounting what great things God has done for you.”