Introduction

 

The Gospel of Mathew ends with the Great commission.

Matthew 28:18–20 LSB

Jesus stated all Authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him.

Authority is the right to command and the power to enforce.

Jesus’s authority guarantees a fruitful outcome for those who follow Jesus.

Now the command we see is the command to make disciples.

What’s involved is baptizing and teaching them to obey all Jesus’s commands.

Baptism is the end result of a person repenting, trusting Jesus’s death and resurrection and then publicly committing to follow Jesus. You Identify yourself with Jesus and His work.

2ndly the disciple is taught truths proclaimed and modeled by Jesus.

They are to learn, and to become like Jesus. They are to become like their Master.

But finally, they are to pursue the mission of their master.

Essentially, they are to:

Repent, trust and follow Jesus.

 

They are to be changed by Jesus and to committed to the mission of Jesus.

Last week we saw Jesus’ authority demonstrated over the natural elements as He calmed the storm.

His disciples we rebuked for not trusting Jesus and being afraid.

Well having failed to trust Jesus, Jesus took them to a second major trial, to a second life threatening situation.

This time they would encounter two demoniacs.

In this story we don’t see Jesus talking with His disciples.

The conversation is rather between Jesus and the demons and after the exorcism with the city people and one of the demoniacs according to Mark 5 and Luke 8

It was as if Jesus now was teaching his disciples, just to keep their mouths shut and watch and listen to what He was doing.

Kind of:

you struggled to trust in my authority in the boat.

Now just keep silent, watch my authority over the demonic realm.

Someday you will encounter demons.

You need to see who is in charge, and it’s not you, it’s me in these situations.

 

Historical Background

Mathew’s overarching purpose involves providing the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah.

In this part of the gospel, he displayed Jesus’s authority over creation and the spiritual realm.

This is the 2nd part of the sermon in which we unpacked these two narratives, demonstrating the awesome authority over everything and ultimately your response should be, repent of all sin, trust Jesus and commit yourself to following Him.

 

Proposition

Two displays of Jesus’s authority reveal why you can trust, follow and obey Him.

1. Jesus’s demonstrated authority over creation. vs 23-27 (last week)
2. Jesus’s demonstrated authority over the demonic realm. vs 28-34 (this week)

 

Part 1 here