26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” 29 For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. ~ Luke 8:26-29
As we mentioned in yesterday's blog, in the second half of Luke 8, Luke records four miracles. Through these four miracles the power of the Lord Jesus is seen over nature, demons, and death. Today, we consider the second of these, the power of the Lord Jesus over demons in Luke 8:26-29.
We begin in v.26-27 which reads, "26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs." This is one of several situations in the gospels where the Lord Jesus dealt with the demonic world. Throughout the scriptures, demons which are fallen angels, have had the ability to inhabit humans, but not against the will of the human. Humans have to open themselves up to demonic activity through means that are known to be demonic.
Now, the Lord Jesus is on the boat with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. And, at daybreak, they are met by a demon possessed man from a town called Gerasa, or Gergesa, as some call it. In Matthew 8:28 we are told there were two men. This man had a companion, but this man becomes the focus, so we really don't know what happened to the second man.
Luke tells us this man hadn't put on any clothing for a long time. This is about shamelessness. Nakedness is always a sign of shamelessness in the Bible. Furthermore, he was a danger to himself. Mark 5:5 reads, "Night and day he was gashing and hacking at his naked body with sharp stones." He mutilated himself because those who possessed him were of Satan who is a destroyer. And his demons are the same.
Mark goes on to point out in Mark 5:3-4, "nobody could control him." He lived up in the tombs, and when people came on the road, he would come out screaming in his nakedness. He would run down the hill with the intent to attack, and to kill. He was scary, and he had no contact with civil people. Isolation was common for him.
According Mark 5:4-5, "No one was able to bind him even with a chain because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly night and day among the tombs and in the mountains crying out and gashing himself with stones." This explains why this demon possessed man lived in the cemetery. No one wanted to be around him, he was unpredictable and frightening.
In v.28-29 we read, "28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” 29 For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places."
When this man saw the Lord Jesus and His disciples come ashore, he came running down the hill screaming. "When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet." This unnamed man didn't know the Lord Jesus, but the demons did. And, out of this man, spoke one of the demons. Then, not only does this voice scream out but the man under the influence of these demons falls before the Lord Jesus.
The demon is panicked because he's in the presence of his enemy and he's in panic. "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!" Here, in an amazing way, is testimony to the identity of the Lord Jesus, the Son of the Most High God is given, through a demon.
Demons are timeless and ageless. They were created at one time and they are as old as creation. They were originally holy angels. They have vast knowledge of the personality of God and the Godhead, and they know the identity of the Lord Jesus.
This demon refers to the Lord Jesus as the "Son of the Most High God." When the angel came to announce the birth of the Messiah, he said He would be the Son of the Most High God and God would give to Him His kingdom. The Most High God is El Elyon. It means "God, the sovereign one, God the sovereign Lord." And so, they are identifying the Lord Jesus as the, "Son of the sovereign Lord."
At the end of v.28, the demon says, "I beg you, don’t torture me!" Here's a tormented man. He's in shackles. He breaks the shackles. He's in isolation. He's in this filthy kind of living like an animal. He retreats back to the cemetery, and when he sees the Lord Jesus, he cries out and says, "Don't torture me." This man has been living in torture for many years. That's torture! But here the demon is speaking of something very particular. In v.31, "they begged him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss." The word "abyss" appears seven times in the book of Revelation. It's rendered "the bottomless pit."
In 2 Peter 2:4 we read, "If God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world and the ungodly."
In Daniel 10 we see angels who are fighting in heavenly places. There are other demons, who it seems are confined to the earthly realm, the realm of humanity, and they're in the spiritual battle in the earthly realm. And then there are other demons that are incarcerated in this special place.
In Jude 6 we read, "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of this great day." These are demons that are involved in what Genesis 6 speaks about, "When the sons of God (this term sons of God is always used of angels in the Bible) saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took wives unto themselves," and they produced a race, that was part human and part demonic. And God's judgment was to confine those demons from that point on into the abyss. The demons who are questioning the Lord Jesus, know about that confinement, they know that God has incarcerated some demons.
In the end, God is in total control. It does not matter what happens to us on this earth, we should fear no one but the Lord Jesus Himself. Given that God is sovereign, we must be about His business in this world. We must be active at pulling as many as possible out of the fire of hell.
