EASTER STRENGTH - HIS PEACE for MY STORM
But the meaning of this story is far greater than that—the meaning of this story is not that Jesus stopped a storm in Galilee; the meaning is that wherever Jesus is the storms of life becomes calm. It means that in the presence of Jesus the most terrible of tempests turns to peace.
EASTER STRENGTH – Jesus is PEACE in our STORM
God gives to His followers EASTER STRENGTH! EASTER STRENGTH you remember is when God’s power was with Jesus Christ who was tried and convicted – though he had no fault.
It was said about Jesus Christ: Where does this man get these words? He teaches as one having authority and not as the teachers of the law. And perhaps the central question of all history is: "What manner of man is this?"
Today I would like to speak about that man and preach about that preacher. Our Scripture reading is from Matthew 8, beginning with verse 23:
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was perfectly calm. The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
And His Disciples Followed Him
1. I have to make up my MIND to FOLLOW Jesus…
This is one of those beautiful stories, every sentence of which is meaningful to study. For example, notice how the passage begins in verse 23: Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.
The reason this is important is because of the previous paragraph. Jesus had just warned that following him was a costly affair. Notice verse 18ff: When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
In other words--if you're going to follow me, be prepared to sleep out under the stars. Be prepared for hardship and privation and sacrifice. Reading on: Another disciple said to him, "Lord, let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
There has been a lot of discussion about what Jesus meant by that, but we know he wasn't being disrespectful to someone whose father had just died. There are several ways of looking at these words of our Lord, but it all comes down to the same thing. Jesus was saying: If you're going to follow me, I must be the most important thing in your life. You've got to really mean it. I must be first. In all things I must have the preeminence.
And read the next phrase: Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. The teacher of the law didn't follow him. The man concerned about his father didn't follow him. The crowds didn't follow him. But these ragged disciples had counted the cost, had made up their minds, and had decided to follow Jesus.
We cannot read a passage like this without asking ourselves: Is MY MIND made up about Jesus Christ?
Jesus is not looking for ADMIRERERS Jesus is looking for followers who take seriously what it means to walk with Him.
Earlier in this passage a man asked to be excused from service so he could “bury his father”. We miss so much in this translation of the language.
8:21 let me first go and bury my father. This does not mean that the man’s father was already dead. The phrase, “I must bury my father” was a common figure of speech meaning, “Let me wait until I receive my inheritance.”
Before we can say, “Thy Kingdom come…we have to say,
MY KINGDOM GO…”
Without Warning, a Furious Storm…
2. Following Jesus does NOT mean we will never face storms…
But noticed what happened to these disciples as a result. Verse 24 says: Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.
And that evening while the teacher of the law slept peacefully in his bed, while the man concerned about his father sat by the fire, while the crowds from the afternoon's services went about their nocturnal activities, the poor disciples struggled with levels of fear they had never known before.
They were exhausted, and some of you are utterly exhausted and worn down by life. They were in trouble, and some of you are in trouble today. They were straining at the oars, on the edge of caving in to sheer panic. They were drenched and cold and scared and tired and about to lose control of their emotions. And some of you, too, are about to give way to terrible levels of fear, panic, and anxiety. I know what that's like. Sometimes I think I'm never far from it myself.
But read the last phrase of verse 24: But Jesus was sleeping. How often the Lord goes to sleep and allows the storm to come.
That is what happened to Jesus and his disciples. The words in the Greek are very vivid. The storm is called a seismos, which is the word for an earthquake. The waves were so high that the boat was hidden (kaluptesthai) in the trough as the crest of the waves towered over them.[1]
Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, "The fact that God permits (storms and trials) and that he often appears to be quite unconcerned about it all really constitutes what (is described) as the trial of faith. Those are the conditions in which our faith is tried and tested, and God allows it all, God permits it all."
What happened? The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
You of Little Faith
3. What Jesus desires most from us is: TRUST!!!
But verse 26 continues: "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" It wasn't the storm that bothered the Lord Jesus. It was the unbelief of his disciples. Notice how he answered a question and asked a question all in the same sentence--You of little faith, why are you so afraid. The first phrase answers the question poised in the second phrase. We could paraphrase it like this: "The reason you allowed yourself to lose control of your emotions… the reason you gave in to sheer panic was because you weren’t trusting me as you should have been. You don't really think I'm in control of all these things, do you? You think the waves are stronger than I am, don't you.
Now I think it is very interesting to notice the order of things here. Notice that he deals with the disciples before dealing with the storm. Verse 26 says: He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
There is no question that the Lord Jesus Christ deliberately set up the entire sequence of events just to teach the disciples to trust him. He was strengthening and growing their faith. He wanted them to learn to trust him.
He sometimes does the same things to us, and it may be that some of you are in a storm right now which the Lord has deliberately sent because he loves you so much he wants to strengthen you and to increase your faith.
What Manner of Man?
4. Jesus does HIS BEST work when we are totally DEPENDENT upon Him.
The response is given in verse 27: The people were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
And that's the question with which I'd like to end this message. What manner of man is Jesus Christ? Through the years, I've tried to collect the best answers I could find to that question, and I'd like to read you a few of them.
S. D. Gordon put it simply in one sentence: Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that man can understand.
The great fourth century preacher, John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, wrote one of the finest summations of Christ that has ever appeared in print: I do not think of Christ as God alone, or man alone, but both together. For I know He was hungry, and I know that with five loaves He fed 5000. I know He was thirsty, and I know that He turned the water into wine. I know he was carried in a ship, and I know that He walked on the sea. I know that He died, and I know that He raised the dead. I know that He was set before Pilate, and I know that He sits with the Father on His throne. I know that He was worshipped by angels, and I know that He was stoned by the Jews. And truly some of these I ascribe to the human, and others to the divine nature. For by reason of this He is said to have been both God and man.
Aurelius Augustine said: He it is by whom all things were made, and who was made one of all things; who is the revealer of the Father, the creator of the Mother; the Son of God by the Father without a mother, the Son of man by the Mother without a father; the Word who is God before all time, the Word made flesh at a fitting time, the maker of the sun, made under the sun…
John Donne (1573-1631), English poet and clergyman, said: The whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at last. His birth and death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.
A. T. Pierson, 19th century Bible teacher, wrote: There is nothing like it in history, not even in fable. How can we understand…? A man with human infirmities, without human sin or sinfulness; poor, yet having at His disposal universal riches; weak and weary, yet having the exhaustless energy of God; unable to resist the violence and insults of His foes, yet able to summon legions of angels at a word or wish; suffering, yet incapable of anything but perfect bliss; dying, yet Himself having neither beginning of days or end of years?
But perhaps the most beloved summation of the Lord Jesus Christ is this one, attributed to Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), American Episcopal minister: He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He never went to college. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as has that One Solitary Life.
What manner of man is He?
He is both God and Man, both divine and human, the Son of God and the Son of man who came from heaven to die on the cross, to rise from the grave, to seek and to save those who are lost.
Are you willing to follow him? It may not be smooth sailing; there may be some storms along the way. But there's no finer voyage and no better destination.