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[0:00] If you would open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 2. We've spent the last couple of times together in some part of Matthew 1.

[0:13] ! We walked through Ruth and ended in the genealogy of Matthew. Last week we looked at the birth of the Savior at the end of Matthew chapter 1. And I want to continue thinking with Matthew, thinking in his train of thought, about how he presents Jesus to us.

[0:32] And I said last week, and I'll say it again a couple of times tonight, but the Gospels, so Matthew in particular, but the Gospels present Jesus as the fulfillment of both the promises and patterns of the Old Testament.

[0:46] Both the promises and the patterns. And so we'll mostly be in Matthew tonight, but at the end we'll go to Mark as well to see how he presents Jesus as well and some insight he gives us.

[0:59] And so tonight will be a little bit more of a lecture, a little bit more of just kind of a Bible study together rather than a proper sermon. But my hope tonight is that it will help you read your Bible better.

[1:12] That's always my goal, but especially tonight I want to help you in that. We as a culture are very good at watching movies. Okay, anyone in here like a good movie?

[1:24] You like to watch movies? Yes, it's part of our culture, part of our life here in the West. Movies are a part of our culture, and so movies become part of our worldview.

[1:35] So much so that even just a little quote or a little reference to movies will kind of make all these connections in our minds. So if I say, keep the change, you filthy animal, you guys start thinking of a scene.

[1:49] What movie is that? Home Alone. And that one's deeper because it's quoting another movie as well. If I say, Hakuna Matata, you know that movie. If I say, to infinity and beyond, or just keep swimming, or let it go, just mentioning those phrases brings to mind the scene in which those phrases were said in the movie.

[2:12] But it also brings to mind kind of the context as well. So in other words, you start to think about what was happening before that phrase was said, what was happening after it. You may start even to think about scenes elsewhere in the movie that are memorable to you.

[2:29] So I don't have to tell you, hey, I'm about to quote Finding Nemo. Like, you just say a little phrase, and we pick up on it because it's part of our worldview. You get it because it's part of our culture.

[2:41] If you guys are going through some difficulty, and I'm talking to you, and it's kind of lighthearted, and I say, hey, man, just, you know, Hakuna Matata. Like, we might laugh together. If someone from South America is talking to me, and I said, hey, man, Hakuna Matata, he'd be like, what?

[2:56] That makes zero sense, because we don't share that in common. We don't have that shared experience together. And now what's fascinating about the Bible is that the authors actually do something similar to what I just did.

[3:09] Except they don't refer to movies, they refer to Scripture. And so the biblical authors don't always come out and say, hey, I'm about to quote Isaiah 45. Or, hey, make sure you read this section of Isaiah before you go on in what I'm about to refer to.

[3:26] The authors just kind of nod toward previous Scripture. They just kind of give us little hints of it and expect us to be able to catch these references and pick up on what they're saying.

[3:38] And so in order to understand the Bible, in order to read the Bible well, we have to be familiar with the story of Scripture. We have to be familiar with the story of Scripture.

[3:50] And so one of the most important things to your spiritual growth as a Christian is regular Bible reading. I encourage you to read the Bible. You don't have to have a super orderly plan, but just read the Bible regularly.

[4:03] Read it slowly in order to study it and understand it. That will help you grow in Christ. I'm going to give you a little quiz here. I'm going to describe two guys from the Bible to you.

[4:17] And I want you just to write down who you think they're referring to. Okay? So I'm not going to say their names. I'm just going to give you some details about their lives. I want you to write down on your notes or just in your mind, keep it in your mind, who these details are about.

[4:30] Okay? So example number one. There's an Israelite boy whose parents stealthily save his life from murder by a tyrannical ruler. This boy not only survives, but actually grows up to lead God's people.

[4:45] He crosses a sea, survives temptation in the wilderness for 40 periods of time. And God would continue to work through this ministry to conquer and subdue his enemies in the promised land.

[4:58] Okay? Write down who you think it is. Keep it in your minds. Everyone got it? Okay. Example number two. There's an Israelite prophet who gets on a boat to get away from preaching and go to a Gentile region.

[5:15] He falls asleep on the boat and is shaken awake by terrified men asking him for help. And he actually knows how to stop the storm.

[5:28] Okay? Write down who you think it is. Keep it in your mind. Everyone have an answer to both. Okay. Example number one. Who did you guys write down?

[5:38] Moses. Moses. I was actually talking about Jesus. All right. Example number two. Example number two. Who did you write down? Jonah. I was talking about Jesus again.

[5:51] All right. So Jesus drew you a little bit. So you guys were right to think about Moses and Jonah. Absolutely spot on. Those things did describe them.

[6:01] They also described Jesus in certain situations. Okay? So keep Jesus in your mind now. I'm going to run back through these details. And you'll see how they also describe Jesus.

[6:13] So there's an Israelite boy. Jesus. Whose parents, Mary and Joseph, stealthily save his life from murder by a tyrannical ruler, Herod. This boy not only survives, but actually grows up to lead God's people.

[6:25] Crossing a sea. Jesus went back and forth across the Sea of Galilee multiple times. Surviving temptation in the wilderness for 40 periods of time. Moses was in the wilderness 40 years.

[6:36] Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. God would continue to work through this ministry to conquer and subdue his enemies in the promised land. And so we'll see him tonight cast out demons, heal the sick, bring salvation to people.

[6:50] And so he's conquering the promised land. Okay, example two. You guys said Jonah. And that's correct. Those things do describe Jonah. But think about it in terms of Jesus now. There's an Israelite prophet.

[7:01] Jesus was the prophet who gets on a boat to get away from preaching. He'd been on a boat all day, was getting a break with his disciples, and he was going to go to a Gentile region.

[7:13] Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee to a Gentile region. Jesus falls asleep on the boat, is shaken awake by terrified men, asking him for help. Those are his disciples. And he actually knows how to stop the storm.

[7:24] Okay, so you guys see how similar those events are in the life of Jesus and then in the life of Israelite leaders from the past. We see that Moses and Jesus are described with incredible similarity.

[7:39] We also see that Jonah and Jesus are in a very similar situation to each other at certain points in their lives. And so that's just two examples of how the Gospels present Jesus to us.

[7:55] Two examples of how the Gospels present Jesus to us. And so we see Jesus isn't just the fulfillment of specific prophecies.

[8:06] He's also the fulfillment of patterns that are set up for us by the Old Testament. And so there are certain prophecies like the virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel.

[8:17] Specific prediction, Jesus fulfills it precisely. There are also patterns of like Moses leading his people to salvation that Jesus also fulfills through his life.

[8:30] And so reading the Bible this way and seeing these details requires us to know the Bible well and then also to pay careful attention to it while we read.

[8:42] And so there's a word I want you guys to write down. It's the word typology. It's T-Y-P-ology. Typology. And I'll give you guys just a real basic definition of what that is.

[8:58] Typology is literary comparison. Using similarity and advancement.

[9:11] So it's literary comparison using similarity and advancement. And so when I say it's a literary comparison, this doesn't mean or this usually means with typology that the authors aren't coming out and saying, hey, I'm about to describe Jesus in an incredibly similar way to how Moses is described.

[9:35] Or this event in Jesus's life should jog your memory. The authors don't come out and say that. They're just wanting you from the details of the story to kind of pick that up. And so it's called typology because there are types of Christ in the Old Testament.

[9:48] And so Moses is a type or a pattern of Christ. And so these comparisons use similarity and advancement.

[9:59] And so similarity, that's what we just did at the beginning. It's like we've been here before. We know the details of the story. It's similar to something that's happened before. So there's similarity. There's also advancement.

[10:11] And so there's kind of an increase in significance. It's moving the story along. And so we can see several ways where Jesus is similar to Moses.

[10:23] But obviously Jesus is much greater than Moses. And so there's that advancement factor as well. And so the more you read your Bible, the more you will appreciate your Bible.

[10:35] The more you understand your Bible, the more you will appreciate it. And so read your Bible again and again. And there are three primary ways that these literary comparisons are made.

[10:49] And so you can write these down if you're taking notes. One way is just direct quotation. Direct quotation. And so these are things like Matthew saying the prophet Isaiah wrote.

[11:03] And he gives us a direct quote from the book of Isaiah. Showing us, hey, I want you guys to think about what Isaiah said specifically. And so this would be like the movie quotes I gave you.

[11:14] It's just a direct quote from those movies. Now, there's a second way these comparisons are made. And that would be through illusion. Illusion.

[11:27] And so this isn't a direct quote. Like, hey, Isaiah said this. It just kind of refers to a previous person or event or time or place.

[11:42] So again, there's not a direct quotation, but just kind of a nod toward, a pointing toward a previous time or place or event. And so some examples of this.

[11:53] If you write down Matthew 24, 37. Then Jesus says, as in the days of Noah. As in the days of Noah. That quote doesn't show up anywhere in the Old Testament.

[12:05] But Jesus is wanting to point us back toward that whole era of time. So it's not a direct quotation, but he's just referring to something in the past. And in our culture, if I just say to you right now, hey, we've got an event the first week of February.

[12:23] You guys will be in host homes. We'll have some worship services. Be a great time. I would encourage you to sign up. What am I talking about? D-now. I did not say the words D-now.

[12:33] I didn't say disciple now. I didn't even say the word weekend or give you the specific date. But because we are so familiar with how our church works and what events we have, you guys recognize just with me kind of giving some hints towards it, what I'm talking about.

[12:49] One time I had a friend who was late to the airport. And so she almost missed her flight. And she was telling me the story later. And she said, we were running late. Security took forever.

[12:59] And so we had to home alone at through the airport. And so you guys know that scene. They're running through the airport. They're late. They're about to miss their flight. She didn't quote that movie. She just kind of referenced to it.

[13:10] And it was easy to pick up what she was referring to. So there's quotation. There's illusion. And thirdly, there's parallel. Parallel.

[13:22] And so this isn't anything directly that the author says. So it's not a quote. He's not borrowing language from someone else. Just the way he describes the scene.

[13:34] So it's similarities in theme or situation. Parallel is similarities in theme or situation. And so you also got this when we saw how similar Moses and Jesus are described.

[13:50] How similar Jonah and Jesus are described. But as our minds are very good at thinking through this similarity in theme or situation. And so this kind of sparks some fan theories with like Disney movies.

[14:03] Okay. So one of my favorites is the connection between Tarzan and Frozen. Have you guys heard this one? Yes. So the theory is that when Anna and Elsa's parents die, how is it that they die?

[14:17] Shipwreck, right? Well, how does Tarzan come to be born in the jungle? Well, his parents survived a shipwreck and gave birth to him. And so the theory is that Tarzan is actually Anna and Elsa's younger brother.

[14:30] And directors have actually spoken to this. There may be some validity to it. But the idea is that there's just a similar theme or situation, which in this case would be the shipwreck that leads to this connection.

[14:42] But the gospel writers describe Jesus in a similar way. They're making parallels. They're making connections to the past to get us to pick up on the significance of who this man is.

[14:56] And so by doing this, we see that Jesus is everything that Israel was supposed to be. And he's everything their leaders were supposed to be. And so when we see Jesus in these situations that are similar to the past in the Old Testament, we need to see the significance of who he is.

[15:15] And so tonight, I want to cover a lot of ground in the text to see how it is that Matthew presents Jesus to us during the early stages of his life and ministry.

[15:27] So we'll have a few points tonight. Number one is his birth. His birth. And you're in Matthew 2. We'll read a good chunk of this here in Matthew 2.

[15:41] So we've looked at his birth last week at the end of chapter 1. Chapter 2 says, Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

[15:58] For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

[16:13] They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

[16:27] Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

[16:42] After listening to the king, they went on their way. That's the wise men. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

[16:52] When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

[17:07] And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. And so what's significant about this, one of the things that's significant, is that the Gentile nations are seeking him.

[17:21] They're seeking him out to worship him. He is a light to the nations. The birth of this baby boy is drawing people to himself. And this is something that Israel was always intended to be.

[17:34] In Isaiah 49, the Lord says to Israel, you are to be a light to the nations. And here Jesus is the embodiment of that drawing of the nations to himself.

[17:47] And if we keep reading in chapter 2, we see that Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt to preserve Jesus' life. It says, And Matthew actually says, This was to fulfill a prophecy which says, Out of Egypt I called my son.

[18:46] And so what Matthew's doing here is he's quoting Hosea 11, which is referring back to the Exodus. So this is kind of a deep quote here. And so what Matthew is saying is that just as Israel was his son and he saved them out of Egypt, so Jesus is also going to be brought back from Egypt into the promised land alive.

[19:09] And so this is fulfilling a pattern of the Exodus that God set up by raising up Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. And now there's a direct quote here.

[19:20] So we need to pay attention to that. So there's a comparison being made. There's also a lot of parallel. There's some similarity here. So we've got a guy named Joseph who has dreams, who goes to Egypt in order to preserve life, who leaves Egypt again and comes to the promised land.

[19:37] That's very similar to how Joseph in the Old Testament is described. And here Jesus is seen in that light as well. And Jesus survives this bloodthirsty king, Herod, who's trying to kill him.

[19:52] And he's able to come back to Nazareth. In verse 23 of chapter 2, it says, He went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

[20:06] All right, so that's his birth. And secondly, his baptism. His baptism. And it's a pretty straightforward account.

[20:17] In chapter 3, verse 13, it says, Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?

[20:31] But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water.

[20:42] And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

[20:58] And so Jesus is baptized here. He says, To fulfill all righteousness. And as he's baptized, he comes up, and the heavens are kind of ripped open. The heavens are opened to him.

[21:09] And the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes to descend on him and anoint him for his ministry. And then God gives his blessing to him, saying, This is my beloved Son.

[21:22] And now if I ask you, When was the last time the Holy Spirit was said to be hovering above the waters? It was in Genesis 1. In the beginning, the Spirit was hovering over the waters. If I asked you the last time we saw a dove flying over water, it was also after the flood in Genesis 9, when Noah sent out a dove to go and try to live outside of the ark.

[21:44] And what happened after each of those occurrences is that life burst forth. God created everything in Genesis 1. And in Genesis 9, Noah and his family were able to live a new life in kind of a reset creation after the flood.

[22:01] And so those symbols are coming here to show that Jesus is coming to give life to his people. He's coming to lead them through judgment to life. It says, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

[22:18] So we see his birth, his baptism. Thirdly, we see his temptation. His temptation. Matthew chapter 4, verse 1 says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

[22:43] Tempted by the devil. Adam had been there before. He was tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Israel and Moses had been in the wilderness before. They were tempted or tested in the wilderness by the Lord as well for 40 years.

[23:00] Jesus wasn't there for 40 years, but he was there for 40 days and 40 nights. And verse 2 says, After fasting for that period of time, he was hungry. And that's like the understatement of the year, right?

[23:11] Like no food for 40 days and 40 nights. He was hungry. And if I went that long without food, I would be incredibly grumpy. But Jesus is still composed, still has self-control, and resists the temptations of the devil.

[23:26] And so the devil comes to him and each of his three temptations starts with something like, If you are the Son of God, if you're actually who you say you are, then you should be able to do this.

[23:40] And so that's how Satan is tempting him, is saying, If you're truly the Son of God, prove it to us by doing a sign. And he appeals to Jesus on three levels. So first he tempts him with bread.

[23:52] He says, If you're the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Jesus, you look hungry. If you're truly the Son of God, you've got power to do whatever you want.

[24:03] You can make bread for yourself out of these rocks. But Jesus quotes Scripture back to him. He's not deceived by the serpent's words like Eve was. He stands on God's word when Satan is tempting him.

[24:16] And he says, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And so Satan tempts him with bread. He next tempts him with performing a sign or performing a miracle.

[24:30] So it says, The devil took him into the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. It's the highest point of the temple. And said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

[24:42] And something interesting here, Satan actually does memory verses. Satan actually can recite the Bible perfectly. So Satan says, Okay, you want to quote God's word here?

[24:52] It is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. And so Satan knows God's word pretty well.

[25:04] He quotes it accurately. He quotes it out of context. And he's saying, Hey, Jesus, use this for your own advantage. Perform a sign for us. Show us that you're truly the Son of God.

[25:15] And Jesus again quotes God's word. He says, Again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And the third time, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

[25:30] So he tempted him with bread, tempted him with a sign, And thirdly, he tempted him with prominence or prestige. Verse 9, He said to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

[25:48] And so Satan says, I'll give you everything you could want in this world if you just bow your knee to me. And Jesus, for a third time, quotes scripture, but he says, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

[26:08] Adam failed to resist the devil. He failed to trust God's word, and he gave into what the serpent had said to his wife.

[26:19] Israel, when they were in the wilderness and had gone without food that they would have wanted, they failed under temptation as well. And so Jesus is standing in the location where Israel failed, and he's able to resist the devil, which is where Adam failed.

[26:35] And so he is everything that Adam was supposed to be, but failed to be. He's everything that Israel was intended to be, but failed to be as well. And so what Matthew is doing is he is presenting Jesus as a greater Moses.

[26:51] He's someone who's similar to Moses, someone who has a lot of similarities to Moses in his life and ministry, but someone who's so much greater than Moses. And we're told that Jesus, in chapter five, goes up on a mountain and sits down to teach God's people.

[27:12] And you think of Moses going up on the mountain to receive a word from the Lord and deliver it to God's people. And something else about Matthew showing that Jesus is greater than Moses is how many books did Moses write?

[27:26] Five. Do you know how many speeches Jesus gives in the gospel of Matthew? Also five. And so Matthew is presenting Jesus as someone who's like Moses, but someone who's so much greater than Moses.

[27:42] And Matthew's doing this through quotation. He's quoting the Old Testament directly. He's doing it through allusion, kind of referring back to previous events, like Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.

[27:56] And he's also doing it through parallel, like Joseph and his dreams, a wicked king, an exodus from Egypt. But the primary way that Matthew does this is kind of through this parallel.

[28:07] It's the most difficult one to see, but once you see it, once you understand it, it's the most impactful once you notice it. Okay, so the fourth thing we want to cover is his conquest.

[28:19] His conquest. This is the last thing we'll look at. Go with me to the end of Matthew chapter four. We'll start here, but to see the conquest in more detail, we'll actually hop over to Mark's gospel in just a minute.

[28:34] But Matthew kind of records Jesus' initial victory, his initial breaking in of his kingdom on earth. And Matthew 4, 23, it says, and he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

[28:53] So his fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics, and he healed them.

[29:10] And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. Matthew is showing us that Jesus not only left Egypt, not only survived in the wilderness, not only crossed the Jordan River, but started to have victory over his enemies as well.

[29:32] And so to see this with more detail, go with me to the gospel of Mark, chapter four. And so not only is Jesus being depicted to us as a greater Moses, but also as a greater Joshua.

[29:59] Joshua is the one who led Israel into the promised land to conquer their enemies. And so Jesus is being presented in that light as well. And so there are three stories in Mark four and five that demonstrate Jesus' conquest of the land.

[30:17] And so firstly, we'll see that Jesus has power over the storm, power over the storm. So look with me at Mark four, verse 35. It says, On that day when evening had come, Jesus said to them, let us go across to the other side.

[30:33] And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was, and other boats were with him. And so Jesus had been teaching from a boat to these great crowds, and now he's tired, and he's going to withdraw with his disciples to a region of the Gentiles.

[30:49] Verse 37, And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing?

[31:04] And he awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

[31:18] He said to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear, and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

[31:32] And so Jesus falls asleep after a long day of ministry. A storm just kind of whips up on the Sea of Galilee. His disciples shake him awake. And they're like, Hey, our boat's sinking.

[31:43] Like, do you not care? You're sleeping through this. And Jesus does something absolutely bonkers. He talks to the storm. He talks to the wind.

[31:54] He talks to the sea. And they listen to him. He says, Stop. And the storm was stopped. And the disciples are incredibly afraid now.

[32:06] They were scared they were going to die, and now they're like, Who is this guy? Like, this is insane. And they're asking a good question. They say, Who is this? Because only God could do something like that.

[32:18] Only God who created the wind and the sea could speak to it and have it listen to his voice. And so they're right to say, Who is this?

[32:29] That even the wind and the sea obey him. But there's an interesting word that Mark uses in verse 39. It says, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea.

[32:40] That word rebuke is the word that Mark also uses when Jesus casts out demons. It says, Jesus rebukes the demons. So you can see that in chapter 1, verse 25.

[32:51] And so Jesus has power over the demonic, and he has power over nature because he has created all of this. And so the disciples say, Who is this?

[33:02] And the next story actually answers that question. So the second thing we see he has power over is power over the legion.

[33:15] Power over the legion. So they came to the other side of the sea, Mark 5, verse 1, to the country of the Gerasenes.

[33:26] And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.

[33:39] For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

[33:56] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?

[34:10] I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he was saying to him, that's what Jesus was speaking to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, What is your name?

[34:23] He replied, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. So kind of a jarring story here.

[34:37] This man is possessed by not just a demon, but thousands of demons. It says that his name is Legion, for we are many. And in the Roman world, a legion of soldiers was 6,000 soldiers.

[34:50] And so for this demonic presence to refer to himself as Legion, and then later in the story, Jesus casts these demons out into a herd of pigs. And so there are 2,000 pigs that are now demon-possessed, and they run to their death in the Sea of Galilee.

[35:07] But a couple of things I want you to notice about this particular story. Jesus steps foot into a Gentile country, the region of the Gerasenes, or the country of the Gerasenes.

[35:20] No Jew would go to this place. It was an unclean land, and so just by putting your feet in the soil, you'd contaminate yourself and be ceremonially unclean.

[35:32] And yet Jesus just steps off the boat. And we see that Jesus cannot be contaminated by uncleanness. He Himself cleanses where He goes.

[35:45] He brings cleansing with Him. And now it's fascinating because as you read the Gospels, the disciples sometimes get it, sometimes don't, most of the time don't.

[36:00] They're like, you're reading it, and you're like, you idiots. Like, you just saw Him do a miracle. How did you not understand who this was? And so they're always saying, yeah, we believe you, but then they're doing silly stuff and not fully recognizing who He is.

[36:14] What's interesting is that anytime a demon shows up in the Gospels, the demon knows exactly who Jesus is. The demons have perfect theology. They know exactly who Christ is.

[36:28] They know exactly what He's come to do. And so there's just one evidence that just because you have good theology doesn't mean you actually love God. The demons believe perfectly and they tremble, James says.

[36:41] That doesn't mean they're saved because they hate God. And so we need to grow in theology. We need to grow in knowledge, but don't mistake a lot of knowledge for actual righteousness. Don't mistake knowledge about God for love of God.

[36:56] And so the disciples see Jesus do this incredible miracle that only the Lord could have done, and they're like, who is this? And this man who lives in the tombs and cuts himself comes out and is like, this is Jesus, son of the most high God.

[37:12] The demons recognize exactly who Christ is. And Jesus has complete power over the legion and He sends them out into the pigs. If you look at verse 12, they begged Him saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them.

[37:29] Look at verse 13. So He gave them permission. They need to ask His permission to do stuff. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs in the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

[37:48] And this man who was possessed by thousands of demons is now saved. And if you look at verse 15, it says, they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in His right mind, and they were afraid.

[38:09] And so they see the power of Jesus. They see His power over not just the created world, but also the spiritual world. And these people are like, get out of here.

[38:21] This is bad for our economy. You just killed 2,000 pigs. Like, we want you to leave. We're scared of you. And so Jesus has power over the storm. He has power over the legion. And then thirdly, He has power over death and disease.

[38:34] And we won't read through this story for the sake of time, but if you read verse 21 through the end of the chapter, Jesus heals a woman that's chronically ill and has a serious issue health-wise, and He also raises a little girl from the dead.

[38:48] And so Jesus has power over creation, both physical and spiritual, and He has power over disease and death. This is the Savior of the world.

[38:59] He has come to His creation to cleanse it, to purify it, to save His people. And so He's a lot like Joshua in conquering His enemies, but He's so much greater than Joshua ever was.

[39:18] And so as we read about Jesus and think about Him, He is the promise of, or He's the fulfillment of the promises and patterns of the Old Testament.

[39:31] And so as Paul says, all of God's promises find their yes in Christ. He's the fulfillment of everything. And so I encourage you, just as Kagan prayed earlier, believe in Him, look to Him.

[39:46] He is what you need. And your life will never be satisfying outside of Christ. And this was just the beginning. This was just the beginning of His victory.

[39:58] His ultimate conquest, His ultimate victory would come on the cross where He canceled out all of our sin for those who trust in Him. And so as Matthew 121 says, we looked at last week, the angel said to Joseph, you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

[40:20] This is the Jesus we worship. This is the Jesus that's been proclaimed to us through the Word. I pray that you would trust Him. Let's pray now. Our Father, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who came to fulfill prophecy and promise and pattern that You had established in the Old Testament for us as Your people to expect.

[40:44] And I pray for us in this room that as we read Your Word that we would pay careful attention and ask good questions. Why did the human author include this detail? Why is He telling us this story?

[40:55] Because answering those questions will lead us to the meaning of who Your Son is as He's been revealed to us in Your Word. So I pray that we would be good students of Your Word, would pay careful attention to the details that You've revealed to us in the Bible.

[41:11] And I pray for students now as they go to small groups to give them wisdom and insight and that this time together would be sweet as they fellowship together. I pray for all of us as we're away for a couple of weeks over Christmas break that You'd keep us safe, help us to enjoy the holidays as we look to Christ.

[41:26]  And it's in His name we pray. Amen.