The Power of Your Story in Your Context / Matthew 8:28-34
It is good to be with you here this week. For those of you who might be a guest with us, my name is Brad Bell. I’m one of the elders and lead pastors here, and I get to serve on our teaching team. I am just delighted to open God’s Word with you. Welcome to those of you joining us via video as well. We’ve got folks up at Hume Lake Christian Camps who watch our messages and are part of our community from afar, and people all the way up Highway 99 in Turlock watching these messages as well. We are a multi-site church that has helped plant churches, and we are so thankful that the gospel is taking root not only here in Fresno, but all over.
We are continuing in Matthew chapter eight through our series on the miracles of Jesus. Last week, Mike did a great job talking about the previous several miracles, which all revolved around the issue of faith. If you haven’t heard it, I encourage you to check it out because it was a tremendous challenge for us to truly rest in Christ.
The next three miracles we are going to look at are fascinating because all three involve people with pretty shady backstories. If you have ever read through the Bible and thought to yourself, “Man, these people in here are kind of like me,” you are going to love the next couple of weeks. Jesus is going to show incredible grace to people who are far from God.
Shady Backstories and Bad Tattoos
That concept is personally near and dear to my heart because that is my backstory. I don’t know what your journey has been like, but I share a common story with many of you. There are probably some things in your past that you wish you could do differently. You are probably thankful that cell phone cameras were not invented when you were in high school. If you are anything like me, you were part of chaos, participated in that chaos, and maybe even took great joy in it. In doing so, you may have created quite a reputation for yourself.
For many years, I spent my life far from the Lord. I came to faith late in college. I lived in low-income housing surrounding Fresno State, where the roaches were so huge you could name them as pets. I spent time in a fraternity where drinking, drugs, sex, lying, cheating, and ditching class were par for the course. That was just what we did. For those of you who know me, I am typically all passion and no polish. I indulged in that lifestyle without regard and with zero restraint. For years, I developed a reputation not only for not being a good guy, but for not being a godly guy at all.
Reputations are like bad tattoos: once you get one, it is really hard to get rid of. I spent years developing that bad reputation. I dishonored a lot of people in our city and did things that were awful. Truthfully, I should have been arrested, and it would have been everything I deserved. I am deeply thankful that God, by His grace, protected me from what should have been the natural consequences of my behavior.
When I finally came to faith in Christ and finished my degree at Fresno State, I did what most people with a messy hometown past want to do: I hit the reset button and left. I moved to Texas, where nobody knew my name, nobody cared, and I had no reputation. It was one of the most refreshing seasons of my life. As an athlete here in Fresno, I had been defined by athletics and by the party life. Getting away to Texas allowed me to study my Bible, walk with Jesus, and live fresh. I really enjoyed it.
Through that process, something strange started happening inside me. I felt this crazy desire to come back to Fresno. I thought, Lord, I already got out of Fresno! Why would I ever want to go back? But as I prayed, I felt strongly that God was calling me back home. I prayed, “God, please send me anywhere else. I’ll go to Mendota! Please don’t send me back to Fresno.” There is not a day that goes by where I am not reminded of who I used to be. It is humiliating and embarrassing to raise my kids in the city where I lived that way. Yet God was clearly calling me back. I knew that God is sovereign, that He is in control, that my days are numbered in His book, and that He determines the boundaries of our dwelling places. He called me back home, and I had to face my past.
If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter eight. I want to show you a guy with a similar story, starting in verse 28.
Matthew 8:28-34 (NASB)
When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. [They were] so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. And they cried out, saying, ‘What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’ Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. The demons [began] to entreat Him, saying, ‘If You [are] [going to] cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ And He said to them, ‘Go!’ And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters. The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.
Entering the Decapolis
Chronologically, this text connects directly to the miracle where Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. When the boat reaches the other side, there were really only two general destinations on that lake. You were either on the northwestern side in the “religious triangle”—cities like Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin, which were culturally conservative and religiously Jewish—or you crossed over to the other side.
If you went to the other side, people thought you were crazy. That region was known as the Decapolis, meaning “ten cities.” It was culturally progressive and religiously pagan, dominated by Greco-Roman culture.
Matthew 4:25 (NASB)
Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and [the] Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and [from] beyond the Jordan.
Most of the Decapolis was located on the east side of the Galilee and the Jordan River. When the prodigal son took his inheritance and went to a distant country to spend his money on loose living and feed pigs, many scholars believe he simply walked around to the eastern side of the lake into the Decapolis. There was plenty of debauchery there, and plenty of pigs, because pigs were unkosher and nonexistent in the religious triangle.
Now, this story is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 8, Mark 5, and Luke 8. In Matthew, it mentions two demon-possessed men meeting Jesus in the country of the Gadarenes. Mark and Luke focus on one specific man in the country of the Gerasenes. Matthew gives the specific local town to his Jewish audience, while Mark and Luke use the broader regional name for their Gentile readers. Mark and Luke focus on the primary individual who becomes the focal point and the hero of how the story resolves.
When the disciples step out of the boat, they had just asked, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” Now they are likely wondering, What kind of man brings us to the pagan side of the lake?
Meeting “Crazy Larry”
Look at how Luke and Mark describe this man.
Luke 8:27 (NASB)
And when He came out onto the land, He was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons; and who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs.
Mark 5:2-5 (NASB)
When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.
Picture this scene. You are a disciple. You just watched Jesus calm a hurricane with a spoken word. You pull up to the shore, and before your feet even touch dry land, a completely naked, bleeding man covered in scars comes charging out of the graveyard screaming at the top of his lungs.
This man had supernatural strength. The villagers had repeatedly tried to bind him with chains and shackles, but he tore them apart. He terrorized everyone who passed by. Day and night, he screamed among the tombs and cut himself with stones. Years ago, when our pastoral team visited Israel, our teaching pastor PJ Lewis—who is now the senior pastor at The Well Kingsburg—taught on this passage at the site and nicknamed this man “Crazy Larry.” Ever since, I cannot read this text without thinking of Crazy Larry.
Crazy Larry charges toward the boat, but notice what happens when he reaches Jesus.
Mark 5:6-7 (NASB)
Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, ‘What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!’
Think about how confusing this was for the disciples. This violent, naked, demon-possessed man runs up, falls to his knees, and worships Jesus. He calls Him “Son of the Most High God.” That is a messianic title. Crazy Larry and the demons inside him understood who Jesus was before the disciples had fully grasped it. He recognized that Jesus possessed the authority to destroy him.
The Authority of Jesus Over the Enemy
The demons ask, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” They know their theology. In Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, we learn that before the foundation of the world, Satan rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven along with a third of the angels. Because Satan cannot attack God directly, he attacks what God loves: humanity, made in the image of God. In Genesis 3, he deceived mankind into sin. But God declared that the seed of the woman would ultimately crush the serpent’s head.
Until the final judgment, Scripture warns us about the enemy’s activity.
1 Peter 5:8 (NASB)
Be of sober [spirit], be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Ephesians 2:2 (NASB)
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
John 8:44 (NASB)
’You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature], for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Satan comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But there is no contest between Satan and our sovereign God. It is not an equal battle of good versus evil. When Christ returns, Scripture tells us exactly what will happen.
Revelation 20:2 (NASB)
And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
Revelation 20:10 (NASB)
And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
The demons knew this destiny. So when they encountered Jesus on that shoreline, they begged Him not to send them into the abyss before the appointed time, asking instead to be sent into a nearby herd of swine. Jesus simply said, “Go.” The demons entered the herd, and about two thousand pigs rushed down the steep bank into the Sea of Galilee and drowned.
The Real Cost of Deliverance
The herdsmen ran into the city and reported everything. The entire town rushed out to the shore to see what had happened.
Mark 5:15 (NASB)
They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the ‘legion’; and they became frightened.
Instead of rejoicing that this tormented man had been delivered, clothed, and restored to his right mind, the townspeople were terrified. They realized Jesus had absolute spiritual authority, but they also realized His presence was terrible for business. They cared more about their lost livestock than a redeemed human soul. So they pleaded with Jesus to leave their region.
Jesus complied. He turned around and began stepping back into the boat.
As He did, Crazy Larry begged to come with Him. You can understand why. He was probably thinking, Lord, please take me with You! I am so ashamed of my past. I lived naked in the tombs. I terrorized these people. My reputation here is ruined. Let me get in the boat, leave this place, and hit the reset button. That is our natural instinct: we want to run away from the places where we carry shame.
Sent Back Home
Look at how Jesus responds to him.
Mark 5:19-20 (NASB)
And He did not let him, but He said to him, ‘Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and [how] He had mercy on you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.
Jesus told him no. He said, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you.” Jesus was telling him, You don’t get to run away from your past, because I am sovereign over your past. Your weakness and your past embarrassment will showcase My power. Nobody knows your former brokenness like the people in your hometown, and nobody will see the power of the gospel quite like them.
Crazy Larry did not just go back to his local neighborhood. He went throughout the entire Decapolis—all ten cities—proclaiming what Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed. They were not amazed by Crazy Larry’s strength or righteousness; they were amazed at the power of Jesus to transform a broken life. Crazy Larry became a trophy of God’s redemptive grace.
When I wrestled with coming back to Fresno, God continually impressed upon my heart that His strength is made perfect in weakness. Serving as a pastor in the city where I grew up and lived recklessly means I regularly run into people who knew who I used to be. But by God’s grace, that becomes an open door to point people to the gospel.
Galatians 1:23 (NASB)
but only, they kept hearing, ‘He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.’
Galatians 2:20 (NASB)
’I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came for the broken, the rebellious, the fraternity guys, and the people with messy pasts. When we bring our brokenness into the light, God redeems it for His glory.
The Harvest in the Decapolis
There is an incredible continuation to this story later in Mark’s Gospel.
Mark 7:31 (NASB)
Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis.
Mark 8:1-3 (NASB)
In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, ’I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. ‘If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.’
In Mark chapter eight, Jesus feeds a crowd of four thousand men—likely eight thousand people including women and children. This miracle took place right in the Decapolis among Gentiles. Where did thousands of pagan Gentiles come from to sit at the feet of a Jewish rabbi for three days?
I believe they were there because Crazy Larry did exactly what Jesus told him to do. He went through those ten cities telling everyone, “Let me tell you about the man who delivered me.” When Jesus returned, the fields were white for harvest because one redeemed man was willing to share his story in his own context.
Bloom Where You Are Planted
Crazy Larry was shaped by his past, but he was no longer defined by it. In Christ, his past was no longer a badge of dishonor; it was a platform for ministry.
I do not know your backstory, but God can redeem every single part of it—both the good and the bad. Jesus is not looking for polished, perfect people. He uses broken people who are willing to decrease so that Christ may increase.
You do not live in the ancient Decapolis; you live right here in the Central Valley. Bloom where you are planted. If people in your life know your past, praise God that you are not that person anymore.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Stand firm in that truth, share what the Lord has done for you, and watch how God uses your story right where He has placed you. Amen.