Matt 8:28–34 — His Dominion Over Demons

This sermon has two main movements. First, we will work through the exposition of the passage. Then we will consider its doctrine: what it teaches about Christ and the nature of his kingdom.

The Country of the Gadarenes

After stilling the storm, Jesus and his disciples complete their journey across the Sea of Galilee. Matthew says, “When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him.”

The western side of the lake included Galilean towns such as Nazareth and Capernaum. The eastern side belonged to the Decapolis, a region of ten predominantly Gentile cities. The presence of a large herd of pigs confirms this Gentile setting, since Jews regarded pigs as unclean and would not ordinarily have raised them.

The Gadarenes were inhabitants of Gadara and its surrounding territory. The city itself stood approximately five miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee, while the incident clearly occurred near the shore: the pigs rushed down a steep bank into the water. This is not a geographical contradiction. Josephus indicates that Gadara’s territory extended to the lake, and ancient coins from Gadara depict a ship, demonstrating the city’s connection with the water.

Matthew does not specify whether the two possessed men were Jews or Gentiles, although the location makes Gentile identity likely. More important is their terrifying condition. They lived among the tombs and were “so fierce that no one could pass that way.”

The Reality and Purpose of Demons

The text plainly identifies these men as demon-possessed. This condition should not be explained away as mental illness or a merely physical ailment. The demons speak as distinct beings, leave the men, and enter the pigs.

Demons are fallen angels. God originally created the angels good. Scripture portrays Satan as a guardian cherub who became proud and rebelled against God, while Revelation’s imagery describes a third of the stars of heaven being swept down with him. Those angels who joined his rebellion became demons.

Why do demons possess people? Satan hates God and therefore seeks to degrade and destroy God’s image in humanity. Mark’s parallel account says that the possessed man lived among the tombs, cried out night and day, and cut himself with stones. Demonic oppression drives him toward self-mutilation, degradation, and death.

This destructive pattern also appears in idolatry. Pagans may call the demons their gods, but they live in fear of them. They offer sacrifices to appease or bribe them, hoping to gain prosperity or protection from disaster. Their worship places them in bondage.

The confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal illustrates this bondage. The prophets cry out to Baal for fire and work themselves into a frenzied state. They cut their bodies while trying to obtain the favor of their god. The more they submit to the false god, the more they degrade the divine image in themselves.

Demon possession is therefore the logical endpoint of idolatry. Not every idolater is literally possessed, but everyone who worships false gods remains under Satan’s power. The possessed men provide an extreme and visible picture of humanity’s bondage apart from Christ.

The Demons Recognize the Son of God

When Jesus arrives, the demons immediately cry out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

Their recognition is striking. The disciples are still asking, “What sort of man is this?” Other people struggle to understand Jesus’ identity. The demons show no uncertainty. They know that he is the Son of God, just as Satan recognized him during the temptation in Matthew 4: “If you are the Son of God . . .”

The demons speak as though they had encountered Christ in an earlier existence. They know him from before his incarnation. Their response points to the preexistence of Jesus as the eternal Son who shared the triune glory of the Father and the Spirit before the creation of the world.

They also know that a final judgment awaits them. Their question is not whether Christ has authority to torment them, but why he has arrived “before the time.” They expected punishment at the last judgment and are startled that the Son of God has entered their realm already. They possess accurate theology without faith, love, or obedience. As James says, even the demons believe—and shudder.

The Demons Enter the Pigs

A large herd of pigs feeds nearby. The demons beg Jesus, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” Jesus answers with one sovereign word: “Go.” They leave the men and enter the pigs, and the entire herd rushes down the steep bank and drowns in the sea.

The demons do not die with the animals. Revelation 20:10 teaches that demons will ultimately be tormented forever. Matthew does not explain what happened to them after the pigs drowned. They were probably released to wander and seek another person to inhabit, although the text does not state this explicitly.

Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 12 supports that possibility. He describes an unclean spirit leaving a person, passing through waterless places in search of rest, and eventually returning with seven spirits more evil than itself. The warning concerns an outwardly reformed but spiritually empty person and, more broadly, the unbelieving generation that rejected Christ.

The drowning pigs also carry symbolic force. Luke’s account says that the demons begged Jesus not to command them into “the abyss.” Their descent into the sea pictures the dark realm associated with chaos, judgment, and demonic power, even though their final punishment still lies in the future.

The Unbelief of the Townspeople

The herdsmen flee into the city and report everything, especially what happened to the possessed men. The whole city then comes out to meet Jesus and begs him to leave their region.

This response is astonishing. The demoniacs had been so violent that no one could pass through that area. Mark and Luke add that people had tried to restrain the man with chains, but he broke them apart. The townspeople had learned to coexist with a danger they could not control. They should have rejoiced when Christ delivered the men and removed the threat.

Instead, they focus upon their economic loss. A large herd has been destroyed. They would rather preserve their former way of life than acknowledge that the Son of God has entered their region.

Their response amounts to saying, “Thank you for solving our problem, but we did not want it solved this way. If deliverance requires us to confess you as the Son of God, we would rather have the demons remain.”

The townspeople’s unbelief reveals that their spiritual condition is not fundamentally different from that of the possessed men. The men displayed Satan’s bondage in a horrific outward form. The townspeople remain within the same kingdom of darkness because they reject Christ and ask him to depart.

This division reaches back to Genesis 3. After humanity’s fall, God spoke of conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Christ is the promised seed of the woman, and all humanity is ultimately divided between those who remain within Satan’s realm and those who belong to Christ through the covenant of grace. To be lost is to remain under Satan’s power and outside the kingdom of the Son.

The Preexistent Son of God

Matthew’s version differs in emphasis from the accounts in Mark and Luke. Those Gospels describe the demoniac’s terrible condition in greater detail and then show him sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind. Matthew leaves those details unstated, although the men’s deliverance is implied.

By paring down the narrative, Matthew focuses attention upon Jesus. The demons recognize him as the Son of God and submit immediately to his absolute authority.

Jesus did not begin to exist at his virgin birth. He is the eternal, preexistent Son who lived with the Father and the Spirit before the world was made. The demons recognize the one whom they knew before their rebellion and fall.

Matthew again shows rather than merely tells us Christ’s deity. In the preceding passage, the winds and sea obeyed him. Here, spiritual beings instantly identify him and obey his single command. Human beings may resist acknowledging his deity, but demons cannot deny who he is.

The Spiritual Kingdom of Christ

The encounter also reveals the character of Christ’s kingdom. Since Matthew 4:17, Jesus has proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” His teaching and miracles demonstrate the kingdom’s arrival.

Casting out demons makes especially clear that this kingdom is not an earthly or political state. Jesus did not come merely to overthrow Rome, restore Israel’s national power, or establish another kingdom alongside Egypt, Babylon, and the other empires of history. His kingdom is spiritual: it delivers sinners from Satan’s dominion and brings them under the saving rule of the Son of God.

Jesus explains this in Matthew 12. When the Pharisees claim that he casts out demons by Beelzebul, he answers that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Satan does not defeat Satan. Jesus then declares, “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

He compares his work to entering a strong man’s house. Before the house can be plundered, the strong man must be bound. Jesus binds Satan and plunders his kingdom by rescuing people from the realm of darkness. The delivered demoniacs are living evidence that God’s kingdom has arrived in the Spirit’s power.

Bondage and Deliverance

Demon possession is an extreme manifestation of the bondage shared by every sinner apart from Christ. Ephesians 2 says that we were dead in trespasses and sins, “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,” the spirit at work in the sons of disobedience.

The townspeople also illustrate this bondage. They are not visibly possessed, yet their hostility toward Jesus shows that they remain under the sway of darkness. They prefer economic security and familiar oppression to the presence of Christ.

What should Christians do if they encounter someone who appears demon-possessed today? We should be cautious about anyone claiming personal authority to cast out demons as Jesus did. Christ possesses absolute, sovereign authority. He does not require rituals, incantations, or lengthy formulas. He simply says, “Go.”

Jesus did grant his apostles and other early disciples authority to cast out demons in his name. Even then, he warned them not to rejoice primarily that the spirits submitted to them, but that their names were written in heaven. Salvation mattered far more than miraculous power.

It is not clear that Christians living after the apostolic age possess that same authority. If I encountered someone suffering apparent demonic possession, I would not address the demon directly or claim personal power over it. I would address the oppressed person, who remains made in God’s image even while Satan seeks to degrade that image.

I would proclaim the gospel and call that person to faith in Christ. The power does not reside in our commands; the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Christ alone has dominion over evil spirits, and he can deliver those who call upon his name.

An exorcism is only a sign of a greater miracle: conversion. Every time a sinner comes to Christ, God rescues someone from Satan’s grip and restores the divine image. Colossians 1:13 says that the Father “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”

This passage therefore teaches two central doctrines. Jesus is the preexistent, eternal Son of God with absolute authority over demons. His kingdom is the spiritual kingdom of salvation that delivers sinners from darkness and brings them under his gracious rule.