The Demons Will Flee

I want to get us started with some observations and an illustration by Neil T. Anderson, the president of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He says, “Psychologists and psychiatrists routinely see patients who are hearing voices: chemical imbalance is the standard diagnosis . . . But how can a chemical produce a personal thought? And how can our neurotransmitters involuntarily and randomly fire in such a way that they create thoughts that we are opposed to thinking?”(1) As a Christian counsellor, having a biblical worldview, his opinion is as follows: “Much of what is being passed off today as mental illness is nothing more than a battle for our minds.”(2)

He continues to share an experience he had counselling a child. He says, “A committed Christian couple adopted a young boy and received him into their home with open arms. Their little innocent baby turned into a monster before he was five. Their home was in turmoil when I was asked to talk to him. After some friendly chatting, I asked him if it ever seemed like someone was talking to him in his head. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘all the time.’ ‘What are they saying?’ ‘They’re telling me that I’m no good.’ I then asked him if he had ever invited Jesus into his life. He replied, ‘Yes, but I didn’t mean it.’ I told him if he really did ask Jesus to come into his life, he could tell those voices to leave him. Realizing that, he gave his heart to Christ”(3) – and the voices stopped.

This morning, as we continue with our exposition of Matthew, we come to a passage that forces us to confront a subject matter that many Christians find troubling: demon-possession and demonic influence. Let us get started by standing in honor of God’s Word, as we read through Matthew 8:28-34:

28 When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. 29 And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” 30 Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” 32 And He said to them, “Go.” So, when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water. 33 Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

Demon-Possessed or Demonized Men (v. 28)

The scene that unfolds here occurs on “the other side” of the Sea of Galilee, according to verse 28, which is the eastern side,(4) and the phrase “the country of the Gergesenes” has been connected to the towns of Kersa or Gersa, which are both located on the eastern shore.(5) When Jesus arrived there, He met two fierce men who came rushing out of the tombs. In Mark’s account, He encountered only one man; and the text describes him as being “in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones” (Mark 5:5). The tombs were chambers cut into the mountainside, common in ancient Palestine. On the eastern side of the sea, the high cliffs are comprised of limestone and full of tombs and other manmade caves. People shunned the region as dangerous because of the madmen.(6)

According to Matthew, the two men who were standing in the way were “demon-possessed” (v. 28). The term “demon-possessed” makes a lot of people uncomfortable. The secular world thinks the notion is crazy and the church finds it embarrassing. We live in a world of scientific and rational thought, where the kind of behavior demonstrated by these two men could be explained as a severe mental disorder or a chemical imbalance. The notion that someone could be under the influence of a demon is ludicrous to the secular mind and cringe-worthy to believers who lack a biblical worldview. Maybe if we better understood demon-possession, we would more likely acknowledge its reality, and be able to identify it when we see it.

Did you know that the word “possessed” does not exist in the Greek texts? “This translation is unfortunate, because the word ‘possession’ conjures up images of demons owning and being in absolute control of people at all times.”(7) “The term ‘demon-possessed’ is the English translation for only one word – daimonizomai (verb) or daimonizomenos (participle) – which is best transliterated ‘demonized’.”(8) This term, used by Matthew in the Greek text, “means to be influenced, afflicted, or tormented in some way by demonic power.”(9) Demonized “refers to people who are in varying degrees, or levels, of demonic bondage. In all instances of bondage, people are subject to periodic attacks by one or more demons that may affect them physically, mentally, and spiritually.”(10)