The Storm

Introduction

Good morning everyone. It’s such a joy to be with you today. If you have your Bibles go ahead and open up to Matthew chapter 8 and in a moment we will read verse 23-27

I;ve really enjoyed our time together in Matthew. Just a quick recape of where we have been latley

Jesus teaches the sermon on the mount and then moves immeditaly into ministry

WE see these pictures of Jesus healing people and great crowds began to gather around him becasue of his healing minsitry

Then we see a scribe come up to Jesus and offer to Follow Jesus. Jesus Says if you follow me it will cost you evertyhign.

and then we see one of his disciples come up to him with a request. But in Jesus call to the disciple he reminds him it will be worth it if he follows him

Jesus isn’t moved by the crowd in this moment. In fact he looks at the crowd and let’s them know to FOllow me it will cost you more then you think, but also it will be better then you can imagine.

The set up for the passage we will look to today in Matthew 8:18

Matthew 8:18 ESV

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.

The crowd has gatherd and he’s told the disicples get the boat we are going somewhere else.

and that’s where we pick up today

Read Matthew 8:23-27

Matthew 8:23–27 ESV

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

Matthew tells us Jesus get’s into the boat and the disicples follow Jesus.

Jesus has just told the crowd what it would cost to follow him and at least at this point the disciples have couinted the cost and chose to follow Jesus

What Matthew is holding out for us by incluidng this small detail is the disicples needed salvation also.

It wasn’t just the lepers, or the Romans, or the marginilized women who needed Jesus help.

It wasn’t the sick, or the demon possesed who needed Jesus power and authority in their lives.

Even those who were on the inside the disicples needed saving.

and don’t miss how Matthew introudces them. he says they are “his disciples’

there is a sense of belong and being a part of something when you see they were “his disicples’ In a way they belonged to Jesus.

and they get in a boat. It’s not too much of a suprise for us when we see this becasue we know some of them were fisherman

but something else important for us to realize while some of them where fisherman for the most part the nation of Isreal, the people of god where not seafearing people. Most of their focus was the spent cultivating the “promised land”

when we see the water, or sea mentioned in scripture it is normally in a negitive sense.

In most of Jewish writing the sea was a place of power and dakrness, of evil, it was therarting, and wild

sometimes it was a dark substance in oppostion to God.

The stories in the OT about the sea(which there aren’t many) are storys whewre God tames the sea in Exodus and uses it to crush those who where his people enimies

The sea is used to stop Jonah who was disobiendt to God from going the wrong dircetion and send him back to what God had called him to do

and this serves as a good backdrop for Matthew as he tells us this story

and we are told almost immeditaly as they were in the a great storm arose. It was so pwerful the boat was being swamped by the waves.

If you are in a boat water coming over the top of the boat is never a good thing.

the word for storm here matthew uses was actually the word for earthquake. It was something different.

this was just a typical storm, this was something possibly the disicples hadn’t expirenced before.

This was a storm that was caused by an earthquake

in Matthews gospel we see 3 great earthquakes happen

At Jesus death, at Jesus reserection and here when Jesus is on mission with his discples.

It’s almost as if Matthew is saying these are the realities we will walk through as a disicple of Jesus

The cross

The empty tomb

and the mission of Christ

Anytime I have really thought about this story I find myself always a little suprised. Jesus has brought his disciples, whom he loves into a storm. A storm that’s dangerous, a storm that has the potiel to end their lives.

and it’s caused me to just ask the question why?

IN some ways we are seeing a picture of what it means to follow Jesus. What it means to be his disicple.

the early church looked at the “boat” in this story as the church

and the storm as the trials and suffering, perscution thiose who would follwo Jesus

and another thing I’ve wondered is if Jesus really loved his disiciples then why did he lead them into this storm?

and if Jesus is God he’s got to be great enough to have reasons to let us go through things we can’t complelty understand.

it would be easy to look at this story and say if Jesus really loved his disicples he wouj’dnt allow bad things to happen to them

Maybe it’s a question you’ve asked before. It’s a fair question but I think it is a question comes from an incorrect idea.

Some have been tempted to wonder if Storms and Gods love are oppose to each other.

but this passage reminds us they aren’t.

That God can deeply love someone. They can belong to him , Yet that same person can expiernce tremdous difficults, and trials in life.

The fact as a dsicple of Jesus tha twe come in contact with something so hard, so difficult in life that we wonder if we are those we are with will even live through it can make us quesiston Gods love but what this story reminds us of is we don’t have to wonder if God loves us or is near to us in those moments.

but that’s wrong. He absoluty can love sombay and let bad things happen.

He can do this becasue he is God and he knows better then we do.

The great picture this passage gives us is Jesus is near to us in our storms. And his nearness often reminds us of his love for us.

How we can react is often how the discipels reacted in the next part of the story

We are told the storm is overwhelming the disciples

and as the life threating storm is overwhelming the disicples we are told Jesus was asleep. I love Matthew includes this.

What a pivotal moment in his own life this must have been.

He is about to die and Jesus is asleep.

The disciples fin him and the wake him up and they say Save us, we are perishing.

it’s like they cry out Lord! Save! Dying!

in a literally sense what they say is we are being destroyed.

and maybe it’s something you’ve felt before. That something has come your way that’s so hard, so difficlut that it feels like it is destroying your life completly.

and it’s in those moments our prayers are similar to the disicples. They feel desperate almost like trying to wake God up.

to the dispcles Jesus is Lord. They don’t call him Rabbi, or teacher. No in isasters their prayer reminds us we don’t need just a good teacher to tell us to navigate through the very thing that might be destroying us.

We need a lord.

and his response is interesting. I don’t know if you’ve ever been awoken suddelny from a deep sleep but it can be horryfing.

Just the other morning at my home I had woken up early. I was exctied about the day. Journaling, drinking some fresh coffee and as I made my way into the kitchen my day quickly shifted

my dog had gone to the bathroom in the kitchen in the middle of the night.

and sure enough the next moment my feet felt something they shouldn’t I realized what happened and I just screamed.

my 11 year old Ellie asked me later that day. Daddy did you scream in the middle of the night? I said yes did you hear that. She said yup and I was horrified.

My scream had woken her. and maybe yuou’ve expirenced it. But if you are sleeping and someone wakes you up screaming it’s normally not a pleasent expierence

but Instead of Horrfied Jesus actually seems to rebuke his discippels.

He ask them a great question

Why are you afraid

you have little faith

in some ways this question seems unfair. They feel as if they are being destroyed and they are looking for help

but Jesus is forming something in their hearts. Their would be greater stroms that would come their way. They would face much more difficlut circmstances in life

By asking this quesion his is really wanting them to explore where this fear is coming from.

In some ways faith is this act of courage. To hope agaisnt hope, to belive in something you can’t completly understand

Faith isn’t just a pssive acceptance of truth.

one of the best explanations of Faith I have read recently is this

faith is depicted in the gpsples as a courageous conficdence tha tJesus is greater than whatever ii’m facing

It’s the kind of faith Jesus forms in his disciples. The kind of faith that sees a storm which is caused by an earthquake and can look at that storm with courage. Knowing Jesus is equal to the occasion I face.

Illustrate it this way.

When my kids where young we took them to get swim lessons. And even as a parent it’s a scary thing to watch. There is a moment the swim instrucor is teaching them how to swim and in order to do that they have to stop holding the child up. They have to back away, futher and futher. It can seem really mean, really wrong, The chidl can feel like they are drowing

and as a parent you can think my kids about to drown. But in order to swim this moment has to happen.

and Jesus knows what is going to happen to those who follow him. In order to really live this life, really naviage storms that come our way, really have faith and confidence in Jesus there are moments he allows us to expierence for our own good and for his glory

Its what Paul was conviced of when he wrote Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It’s the story of Jospeh. Sold into slavery by his brothers, Jailed 2 times, a lifteime of disappointment.

Could God had stopped it? Of course! did he no and near the end of Josepsh life look what Joseph would say

Genesis 50:20 ESV

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

that’s an increadible perspective. That we could look at the storms and suffering in our lives and say what was meant for evil agiasnt me

GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD

It’s the kind of faith that no matter what comes our way we don’t run from it in fear. But we have this courages confidence that Jesus can handle it.

That his with us. That he is near. and he is not suprised.

when Jesus says they have “little faith” he is saying you are missing it. this idea of little faith means. Yes I belive Jesus is lord but I’m not sure how far his lordship extends.

little faith is the kind of faith that believes in Jesus for certain things but not everything.

For some reason and we aren’t really told why but the disciples had no problem belving Jesus had authroity over the sick and the demon possed, They had no problem putting their fiath in him for the forgivness of sin

but when it came to nature they wern’t sure.

Jesus doesn’t want us to compartmentlize our faith. that’s what little faith looks like.

No what he wants is for us to put our faith in him for everything.

In some ways Jesus sleeping shows his confidence in the Father. When he is alseep he is saying that I won’t die one second, one min, one hour, one day, one week, one month , one year

one moment before the father has ordained me to die.

the same is true for his disciples in the boat. and the same is true for us.

one of the things we can learn from this story is in the midst of danger sometimes the most spirtual thing to do is simply walk into your room, lie down and go to sleep.

Jesus doing this knowning a terrible storm is coming for those he loves gives us permission to do the same.

because when we do this it’s really a way to cultivate humilty in our own hearts

we are saying I’m not god

I’m not the one who niether sleeps or slumbers. SO in putting our head down on our pillow and going to sleep. In our resting. We are saying in a way God can do more while I am asleep than I can do while I am awake

Sleep is a daily gift from God whwere we can to give up control of our life and our circumstances. Our storms and say god I am not you.

There are some times when sleeping with confidence please Jesus more than prayer with fear.

What i love though is even though their is some doubt in the discipels Jesus still helps them. He doesn’t tell them to come back when thier fairth is stronger. No he still helps.

Jesus takes us as we come. What matters is Jesus is willing to help us however we come to him.

He just wants to form something deeper in us.

The Bible says he rose and rebuked the waves and the sea and there was a great calm.

We see creation reconginze its creator

the great “calm” here at the end of the story brings balance the great storm at the beginngin.

Jesus does exactly what the book of Psalms says God does.

Prayer-

This story shows Jesus huminity but it also shows his divinity. Jesus really is God and Jesus relaly does have authority over evertyhing.

We see His ability-authroty

and in resonse to Jesus calming of the storm we are told they marveled and asked a quesiont what sort of man is this, that even the winds and seas obey him?

They were asking, where does he come from, where did he orginate.

They think he is a great leader, and Lord

they know he is a healer and teacher

but here at this current point in thier realtionship with Jesus this goes beyond anything they were expiecting

The storm is no longer outside the boat it’s inside the boat

They are coming to bleive Jesus really is God. their faith is growing. And their confidence in Jesus is growing also.

I really admire this story is including in Matthews gospel. Its one of the many reasons we can trust these stories are true

in a lot of liturete and writing there is a tendency of those who write to give themselves some credit

maybe if we had written this story we would have said

A storm came and we knew exactly who could help us Jesus. So we want right to him. We asked for his help and he calmed the storm.

He was really glad when we todl him what was happening.

yet this is not what the disicples do. Their is no self-advertisment. No through the inspiration of the holy spirit the disicpels do not make themeselves out to be the heroes

in fact there is a great snese of vunerbilty in the recording of this story.

to leave tell us about thier faiulres, about the moments their faith was little or weak, to tell us that there was a moment when their faith was so weak that Jesus was in the boat with THEM and they still thought they would die

The only reason someone is willing to record their failings for the world to see is becasue Jesus really is who he said he was.

and they had come to fully beleive it.

and because he was fully humany and fully God it allows him to defeat the greatest storm anyone will ever face.

This is what he was pointing the disciples forward to and it’s what he points us back to.

Later in Matthews gospel Jesus helpsu us undderstand what he came to do when he says “says one greater then Jonah is here. “

In Jonah 1 we are told the story of a prophet of God who ran from God. He was also on a boat

he was fast alseep. And a storm came.

to deal with that storm here is what Jonah says

Jonah 1:12 ESV

He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

in other wrods If I perish you survie. If i die you will live

when Jesus says I am greater than Jonah

Keller helps us think about this claerly

what Jesus is saying is one day I am going to call all storms, I’ll still all waves

becasue I will destroy what destroys you

I’ll break brokness

I’ll kill deaht

How? By willing being thrown inot the ultimate storm and the ultimate waves

The waves of Sin and death

Just was thrown into that storm. so we could actually live through ours.

and it’s at the cross we are reminded of a few things we need to know when we are going through storms

The first is God loves you.

The cross reminds us of this.

when we are going through our worst storms in life we can look at the cross and see the ultimate storm Jesus went through for us and we can be reminded God loves us

it’s what we probably need to know the most. Becuase there are moments storms can cause us to respond like the disples and ask God

Don’t you care? I’m being destroyed?!?!

and the cross answer that question with an emphatic yes I care

The second thing the cross reminds us of is God can us the worst for eternal best

The cross for the followers of Jesus was proably the worst day of their lives.

Here the person the followed for 3 years. Expierenced amazing ministry, saw his teaching, witness healnings, miricales, and care in profound ways was being murdered

The this few days wasn’t how things were suppose to go

a freind betryas them and Jesus is being killed in one of the worst ways imaginable

but because we can look back we know on thier worst day Jesus was doing his best work

He was securing the salvation of his people.

He wasn’t going to overthrow Rome he was going to over peoples hearts

and if that was his purpose on one of the worst days

The cross surely reminds us that even on our worst days God is doing some of his best work in and thorugh us.

if you allow the cross to shape the storms you go through you will know God loves you, You will know he cares for you and you will know he has teh power to handle anything in your life that you go thorugh.

I’m going invite the band to come and as we wrap up I’d love to pray

Read

Psalm 93:3–4 ESV

The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty!

Psalm 107:28–30 ESV

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.

Psalm 65:7 ESV

who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,

Psalm 29:10 ESV

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.

Psalm 29:3 ESV

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters.