Where Is Your Faith?
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22 Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out.
23 But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger.
24 They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm.
25 And He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”
35 On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.”
36 Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.
37 And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
39 And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
40 And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”
41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
We are reading both of these accounts because there are small details in Mark that aren’t in Luke and visa versa.
Sea of Galilee is 700 feet below sea level. The valleys surrounding the sea act like wind tunnels, which makes violent storms a regular event.4
The first thing we want to notice is that Jesus is in the boat. Mark says that there are other boats around the boat the disciples were in, but Jesus was in only one of them. (Obviously!)
Is Jesus in your boat? Have you made Him Lord and Savior of your life?
It’s not enough to say that He’s in the boats around me. Mother, father, sister, brother, may be believers, but that doesn’t automatically make you one. You have to take him into your boat. It’s a personal decision!
Notice that in the Mark account, he says that they had to leave the crowd before they could take Jesus into their boat. You won’t find the real Jesus in the crowd. Your decision to follow Jesus will not be acclaimed by everyone around you. In many cultures, it can mean your life to start following Jesus.
Also, Mark says something peculiar. “They took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was.” They didn’t try to make Jesus fit their mold. They took Him as He was. Men try to make Jesus into something that He isn’t...that He never was. They try to make Him into something that fits their mold. The meek and mild Jesus...well, He was humble, but He also overturned the moneychangers tables.
To know this Jesus, we have to spend time with Him...spend time in His word. Spend time communing with Him...listening to Him. He will never cease to amaze us!
Second thing...The disciples were in perfect obedience to Jesus as far as we know. They hadn’t done anything wrong. Yet they found themselves in a violent storm.
We can certainly get ourselves into storms of our own making, but often as Christians we find ourselves in difficult situations that are not our fault.
We shouldn’t be surprised at this. One of the last things that Jesus said to His disciples was this:
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
In the immortal words of Lynn Anderson, He never promised us a rose garden!
Martin Lloyd Jones:
We must start by realizing that ‘to be forewarned is to be forearmed’ in this matter. If we have a magical conception of the Christian life, we are certain to find ourselves in trouble, because, when difficulties come, we shall be tempted to ask: “Why is this difficulty allowed?’ And we should never ask such a question. If we but realized this fundamental truth, we never would ask it.
There is another vivid description in the Bible that portrays believers facing the storms. It’s found in Psalm 107
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters;
24 They have seen the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep.
25 For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths;
Their soul melted away in their misery.
27 They reeled and staggered like a drunken man,
And were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.
Notice that these are people who have seen the works of the Lord. They are experienced. They are not novice believers. Yet the storm came and almost overwhelmed them. They found themselves at their wits’ end.
The disciples in our text were experienced fisherman. Yet, this storm was something else! They began to be overwhelmed. Luke says that they began to be swamped. They must have been struggling to bail the water out of the boat.
The third thing that I want to mention is that at the height of the storm, Jesus is asleep in the boat. This must have been quite distressful to the disciples. Here they are pulling at the oars with everything they have, some trying to bale the water out...and where is Jesus? He’s asleep in the stern. He seems quite unconcerned about the whole situation.
Have you ever been there? I think some of us can say many times. At a time of great trial, we wonder “Where is Jesus?” We might be tempted to wonder, “What did I do that He has withdrawn His wonderful presence at such a time as this?”
James has some words to say about this:
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
James tells us that this is a testing of our faith. God is wanting to know...Can we hold up when we can’t feel His presence...even when there are storms all around?
Peter says this:
6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
Our faith can often be tested by fire...or by wind and rain. Yet, it is His desire that even in the midst of our storms...even when He seems to be asleep, that we can rejoice with “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Let me ask you this...how much actual danger were these disciples in? Was there any chance at all that their boat was going to capsize and that they were going to drown...with Jesus in their boat? Absolutely none! If Jesus is in your boat, you are safe in His arms! The devil can’t touch you until Jesus is ready to take you home.
How much better it would have been if the disciples had taken a moment to consider the situation, instead of only looking at the wind and the waves. If they had considered this, they would have understood that though the situation looked perilous, it was not in fact perilous at all because Jesus was with them!
The Tony Evans Bible Commentary III. Ministry around the Sea of Galilee (3:7–6:6)
When God lets us go through ordeals, it often feels like he doesn’t care. The fear and pain lead to confusion (“Why would God let this happen?”). But in such moments, you must know your Bible and trust in the King of creation. There are no storms that come into your life that do not first pass through his sovereign and loving fingers. If you know his character, you’ll know that he does nothing that is not for your good and for his glory.
So for you and me...Let us consider that, no matter what trial we go through, if we have taken Jesus into our boat, nothing can touch us! Can I remind you of the words of Paul?
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written,
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing will separate us from Him!
Let’s consider now the question that Jesus poses to the disciples after they wake Him up...”Where Is Your Faith?”
Notice that He didn’t ask them if they had faith. They had it...but it was not active...
Martin Lloyd Jones
The principle taught here is that faith is an activity, it is something that has to be exercised. It does not come into operation itself, you and I hve to put it into operation...He said “Where is your faith?” which means, “Why are you not taking your faith and applying it to this (situation)?...The first thing I must do when I find myself in a difficult position is to refuse to allow myself to be controlled by the situation...It looked as if they were going to sink, and their trouble was that they were controlled by that situation. They should have applied their faith and taken charge of it, and said: No, we are not going to panic. They should have started in that way, but they did not do so. They allowed the position to control them. Faith is a refusal to panic.
He goes on to say:
Faith reminds itself of what the scripture calls ‘the exceeding grreat and precious promises.” Faith says:’I cannot beleive that He who has brought me so far is going to let me down at this point. It is impossible. It would be inconsistent with the character of God. So faith, having refused to be controlled by circumstances, reminds itself of what it believes and what it knows.
So it seems to me that the best thing they could have done would be to not panic and trust God in this situation. There actually was no real reason that they needed to wake Jesus up. But they did panic and so they did the next best thing. Though there faith was small and they were having trouble laying hold of it, they had enough faith to call on Jesus. When you are in a straight and you can’t see your way through, cry out to Him! He may come back with a gentle rebuke “Where is Your faith?” as he did with the disciples, but he will come through for you. We know that He is able to say the word, and the wind and the waves will cease. He may do exactly that for you as He did for His disciples. Or He may be with you through the storm until you get to your destination. Either way, he certainly will never leave you or forsake you.
Storms will come and storms will go. It wouldn’t be very long before they found themselves on the sea again in the midst of a storm...and they would need to call out to Him again. The important thing to remember at such times is that we are people of faith not of fear. Refuse fear and embrace faith. When you do that, your faith will be stronger for the next storm that comes along!
