The Man Satan Couldn’t Kill: Luke 8:26-39


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Continuing our journey through Luke’s gospel, brings us to a powerful example of God’s love as Jesus travels to a remote location seemingly to see just one person. However, I wonder if this wasn’t what Jesus had intended even if it was what happened.

In this event, and the miracle of healing Jesus does to help a man trapped by demonic forces, we are able to see just how powerful God is in relation to Satan, and just how much He loves those who are trapped by sin.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 26, Luke tells us that Jesus and His disciples:

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.

30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

Whenever I read this event, I am amazed. From the details Luke describes, Jesus and His disciples sail across the lake, heal this one individual, and then sail away. While Jesus likely wanted to help more people from the region, I don’t think this rejection surprised Him. However, this event teaches us that Jesus was willing to travel to a region for one specific person.

Immediately before this, Luke recorded how Jesus calmed the worst storm the expert fishermen disciples had ever experienced with a simple word. Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat and the disciples were convinced that they all were going to die. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover this was a supernaturally created storm Satan caused to try to stop Jesus from reaching this man.

However, the big idea I want to draw our attention onto in this event is what we see Jesus allow the demons to do. From the details Luke shares about this event, there were hundreds, if not thousands of demons possessing this man. When we look at what Luke describes, the first thing the demons do when they leave the man and enter the pigs is to stampede the pigs off the edge of a cliff.

This brings me to an interesting observation. God allowed the demons to kill the pigs, but these demons did not, or maybe even could not, kill this man. Part of me wonders if God’s protective power was over this man’s life even if he was possessed by more demons than anyone could count. I wonder if Satan had dispatched a whole legion of demons to kill this man and the closest they could get was driving him from society. Satan then sent a massive storm in an attempt to keep Jesus from reaching this man.

However, nothing could stop Jesus from reaching this man. Nothing Satan could do could stop this from happening. While the demons weren’t restricted from killing the pigs, they were powerless to kill this man under God’s protection. It didn’t matter how many demons were present in this man, God’s protection of this man’s life was clearly stronger.

These demons may have been tired of not being successful and so when given the opportunity to leave the man and enter the pigs, they happily accepted because they wanted to succeed killing something and the pigs were the next best choice.

Little did the demons know that this would attract the attention of the town, and that would bring more people to see Jesus.

This whole event is amazing. One command from Jesus sent thousands of demons out of person they desperately wanted to kill. God’s protective hand on this man’s life withstood the attacks and attempts these demons used to try to kill this man. It is likely God also prevented these demons from leaving the region with this man when discovering that the storm the night before didn’t knock Jesus off course.

The biggest theme in this event is that when Jesus wants to heal a life, free a life, or change a heart, the best Satan can muster is no match for a single command from Jesus’ mouth. And from what Jesus did for us on the cross, nothing Satan can muster can steal eternal life away from those God has chosen and called!

God is calling you. Are you going to accept His invitation?

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to trust God. Know that God is infinitely stronger than Satan and nothing Satan can do is able to stop God from achieving His goals. One of God’s goals is eternal life for you and me, and the amazing thing about God is that He defeated Satan so we could have the choice of salvation. God isn’t going to force people into heaven against their will, and Satan is powerless to stop someone from accepting Jesus and turning to God when they choose to make that decision.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself and grow a personal relationship with God. God wants a personal relationship with you that begins in this life, because a relationship with God in this life leads to a forever, eternal relationship with Him when Jesus returns! Don’t let anyone, Satan included, trick you out of the life God has freely offered to you and me!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year in Luke – Episode 16: In an amazing event the gospel writers include, Jesus makes a special trip across the lake to see one man who was trapped by Satan. Discover how God used this event to demonstrate just how powerful He compared with anything and everything Satan could muster. Discover why this truth is significant for our lives today!

Join the discussion. Share your thoughts on this passage.

Jesus the Magnet: John 12:37-50

Focus Passage: John 12:37-50 (GNT)

 37 Even though he had performed all these miracles in their presence, they did not believe in him, 38 so that what the prophet Isaiah had said might come true:

         Lord, who believed the message we told?
      To whom did the Lord reveal his power?

 39 And so they were not able to believe, because Isaiah also said,

 40 God has blinded their eyes
      and closed their minds,
   so that their eyes would not see,
      and their minds would not understand,
      and they would not turn to me, says God,
      for me to heal them.

 41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

 42 Even then, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus; but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly, so as not to be expelled from the synagogue. 43 They loved human approval rather than the approval of God.

 44 Jesus said in a loud voice,
         Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in him who sent me. 45 Whoever sees me sees also him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 If people hear my message and do not obey it, I will not judge them. I came, not to judge the world, but to save it. 48 Those who reject me and do not accept my message have one who will judge them. The words I have spoken will be their judge on the last day! 49 This is true, because I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what I must say and speak. 50 And I know that his command brings eternal life. What I say, then, is what the Father has told me to say.

Read John 12:37-50 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In our passage for this journal entry, we read a side-note that John includes in his gospel about the reaction Jesus had on those who He was teaching and preaching to. The big idea I want to draw our attention to comes from something that Jesus says in verse 40: “God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds . . .”

What is even more startling about this is the reason Jesus gives in the very next verse: “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.”

Isaiah prophesied that God will blind their eyes and close their minds because he saw Jesus’ glory.

This passage then makes me believe that God’s glory, shining through Jesus, could be similar in a way to a magnet: attracting some people and repelling others. The same glory shining down could, similar to the sun, harden “clay-like” hearts that are unreceptive, or soften “butter-like” hearts that are receptive: same sun (i.e. same glory); opposite results.

While God’s glory, shining through Jesus, is the same glory that shines towards everyone, perhaps the focus and choices in our lives plays a role in whether we are attracted to God, or repelled away from Him. It seems as though there is no real middle ground: Either Jesus is the Son of God and the person He claimed to be, or He is the greatest imposter who ever lived. Lots of culture would lean towards the idea of Jesus being a “good teacher”, but this belief is based in complete ignorance from people who want to not irritate either side. Read Jesus’ teaching, and you’ll be forced to pick from either “Son of God” or “potentially sincere, but solidly delusional, counter-cultural teacher”.

But in either case, our big idea remains: God’s glory, which shone through Jesus, polarizes people. Some people will be attracted, and others will be repelled.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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The Eyewitnesses: Matthew 28:11-15

Focus Passage: Matthew 28:11-15 (NASB)

The eyewitnesses to the resurrection were a very unlikely group of people. Jesus’ disciples, who He had tried to share details with, were nowhere to be found; they were hiding in an upstairs room with the door locked. The actual eyewitnesses were placed at the tomb by the people who heard what Jesus said, and were the most nervous about it. The religious leaders and chief priests placed guards by the tomb to make sure that it was not disturbed.

Something I find interesting about this event is about what gospel actually includes it: Matthew. Of all the gospels I would have expected to find this in, the most likely one would be Luke, the researcher and interviewer of the eye-witnesses to Jesus’ life.

But Matthew is the one to share about this event, which makes me wonder if he made friends with one of the guards who was bribed, and learned what happened surrounding the chief priests bribing the guards. Or perhaps Matthew, being a tax collector by trade, noticed the shift in lifestyle that the eyewitness guards had following this event, and he concluded that a large sum of money changed hands because the guards now had a greater level of luxury – something that if it had been anyone else would have created higher taxes for them.

But I also wonder if one or more of the guards actually converted to Christianity following this event. I wonder if some of them helped start the rumor, but when Jesus began appearing to people during the weeks following the resurrection, they gave up the lie in favor of sharing the truth. I wonder if being an eyewitness to the actual resurrection actually changed the hearts of some of these rough, calloused soldiers.

For Matthew to have known and included this detail when Luke did not tells me that Matthew included it for a purpose, and that purpose was not only to describe how far the priests and leaders had gone to rejecting Jesus, but perhaps also to let us know that not all of the guards held fast to the lie. Some of them may have even become followers of the resurrected Christ!

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Flashback Episode — Inviting a Sinner: Matthew 9:9-13


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As we continue in Matthew’s gospel, we come to an event that is probably the least surprising event to find in Matthew’s gospel, but one that I’m a little surprised Matthew puts as late as he does in his gospel. Perhaps this event came earlier and Matthew wants to minimize its significance, or perhaps Matthew was really one of the last disciples to join the group.

Our passage for this episode focuses in on Matthew describing his call to be a disciple, and in some ways, Matthew really downplays this event for the significance it probably had on his life. This event is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 9, Matthew tells us:

When Jesus was leaving, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me,” and he stood up and followed Jesus.

10 As Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with Jesus and his followers. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus’ followers, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 When Jesus heard them, he said, “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners.”

Let’s stop reading here because I want to draw our focus on several things that we have just read.

First, Jesus’ actual call for Matthew is very downplayed. The entire event is only one verse long. The first half of the verse sets the stage for Matthew’s invitation, and the second half is Jesus simply giving Matthew the challenge to follow. The verse concludes with Matthew standing up and following Jesus, with no hesitation or question.

Before moving on to what happened that evening, let’s look a little closer at Matthew’s invitation. While it is possible that Matthew was alone in the tax collector booth, this is unlikely. What is more possible is that there were at least one or two guards hired to assist and protect him. Tax collectors were hated people, and their presence reminded the people more than most things that they were not in a country owned by them. It also didn’t help that most tax collectors were corrupt, and it is likely that the corrupt tax collectors moved ahead faster and that they were praised rather than punished.

It is interesting in my mind the timing of when Matthew includes his call in relation to the events in his gospel. Matthew has already included three chapters focused on a powerful sermon, and several miracles. While it’s possible Matthew learned about this from the other disciples who were present for those events, I wonder if Matthew was a part of the crowd listening as Jesus shared this sermon, and that the Holy Spirit had been working on Matthew’s heart for a while.

Being called to be a follower of a Rabbi was a great honor, and Matthew knew that this likely was his only chance. While we don’t know the path that led Matthew to becoming a tax collector, Matthew’s quick response to Jesus’ call indicates that he would rather be doing something else. Matthew might have even studied to become a Rabbi’s disciple but ultimately was not chosen.

The logic behind this idea is because Matthew, more than any other gospel writer, draws our attention onto the prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled. Someone who studied to become a Rabbi’s disciple would be the most educated in Old Testament prophecy.

Moving to the events of that evening, we discover that Matthew hosts a dinner at his home, and he invites all his tax collector and other “sinners” friends over to meet Jesus. While we read this event and are quick to judge the Pharisees who are subtly judging Jesus’ actions, at this point in Jesus’ ministry, I don’t believe that the Pharisees as a group are as opposed to Jesus as they ultimately will be. In my mind, this group of Pharisees might have simply wanted to know Jesus’ motives for acting differently from every other religious teacher in that era.

However, it is also possible that the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples because they wanted more reasons to incriminate Jesus in their own minds. I don’t know if Jesus responded before the disciples had a chance to open their mouths, or if the disciples who were asked did not have an answer.

But the biggest phrase that is fascinating in my mind is Jesus’ opening to His response. In verse 12, Matthew tells us that when Jesus heard the question asked to His disciples about why He eats and socializes with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus replies first by saying: “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick.

While the rest of Jesus’ response summarizes Jesus’ reasoning, this opening could be seen by some to be an insult to those Jesus spent time with. Jesus’ opening could also be a subtle message to the Pharisees that Jesus’ focus would always be on those who need help, healing, and encouragement.

However, I wonder if Jesus was implying in His opening that the Pharisees who were asking the question were the healthy people in contrast to those who Jesus was eating with. I wouldn’t be surprised to think that this is what the Pharisees heard Jesus say. The Pharisees probably took Jesus’ opening to mean that they were healthy, and they saw Jesus’ message as a compliment.

But Jesus ultimately challenges them on one of God’s messages from the Old Testament, and with the idea that He came to invite sinners and not “good people”.

In the events surrounding Matthew’s invitation, we discover a window into Jesus’ focus for His ministry. Jesus came to help those who were sick, hurting, and who needed help, and Jesus came specifically to invite sinners to return to God. Jesus’ focus for His ministry was not on helping those who did not believe they needed help, on those who believed themselves to already be right with God, or on those who looked down on others.

Jesus lived His life from God’s perspective in His response. Jesus lived showing kindness more than demanding obedience. While obedience is important, kindness and God’s love is more central to God’s character. When we are being representatives for God, we are to above everything else, show God’s love and kindness to those He brings into our lives while we are personally being obedient to Him the best way we know how.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to model God’s love and His kindness to those who He brings in to your life. Jesus lived a life that was kind, compassionate, and loving to those who society had rejected, and He calls us to do the same. Don’t be surprised that when we live and love like Jesus, that those who are self-righteous will look down on us for who we are associating with, because those who were self-righteous in the first century looked down on Jesus too.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to keep your personal relationship with God strong and growing stronger. A personal connection with God will give you the right motives and love for helping those who God brings into your life, and when we’re connected with God, He will lead us to those who He knows need His love.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Matthew – Episode 16: Part way through Matthew’s gospel, we discover Matthew sharing about how Jesus met and invited him to be a disciple. Discover what we can learn from this event, and what Jesus teaches us about His mission and His focus while here on earth!