As we come to the first eight verses of Matthew 9 we have another story of an encounter of the Lord Jesus Christ with one of the people of his day. In the context of the story it actually involves more than the one individual. It was something that took place in public. There was a large crowd around, and in the conversation that transpired Jesus dealt specifically not merely with this paralyzed man, but with the teachers of the law who were present.

Now the point I want to make is that it is necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ have authority in the most powerful sense if the demon is to be driven out. And if we’re to go and preach the gospel and have any hope of success, it must be by that power and authority of Jesus Christ as well.

Now, Acts 8 tells us of the healing of these two demon possessed men. It took place in the region of the Gadarenes. There’s some manuscript peculiarities where that’s concerned due to the fact that nobody is quite certain where this area was. One thing that is certain is that it was a Gentile area, and it was probably on the northeastern side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had crossed over there, and as he did, out of the tombs came these two men who were demon possessed. We have to start with an analysis of them and we have to ask what they were like before this encounter with Jesus.

There’s some stories in the Gospels that have a great introduction from the story that immediately proceeds them. One of them is this story we come to from Matthew 8, the story of the healing of two demon possessed men. Immediately before this we have the story of Jesus’ calming of the storm. The disciples were very much taken aback by this and amazed at the power of Jesus, and the story ends with their question: “What kind of a man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” Their question is actually answered by the demons who possessed the two men, when they asked Jesus, “What do you want with us, Son of God?”

Now on the other side of this encounter we have Jesus Christ. What do we say about him? Well, first of all, he was everything the centurion imagined he was and a great deal more besides. The centurion said to him, “You are able to speak the word, and if you speak it, it will be done because I understand authority. I speak with the authority of Rome, and you speak with the authority of God.” And of course that’s true. That is exactly the way Jesus spoke.