Do you not care that we are perishing?
Notes
Transcript
Series Big Idea: Good news, Jesus has come! Will you follow him?
Sermon Big Idea: Do you not care that we are perishing?
Whenever Jesus gets in the boat, know that he is about to teach his disciples something about themselves or something about him that will go with them through their whole life long.
I. Fears faced without faith only lead from fear to fear.
I. Fears faced without faith only lead from fear to fear.
. . . even if the fearful circumstances change.
The disciples saw the raging storm and feared the loss of life. Jesus calmed the storm. Instead of praise, they were afraid of the unknown. We just went from facing a storm that could kill us to sailing in a boat with someone incomprehensibly more powerful than the storm.
Fear is ultimately a fear of loss, and we fear loss because of the ultimate loss through death. Will the storm kill us or will his word kill us?
The finality of the disciples’ “we are perishing” means that any loss could be lost forever.
This summarizes our fears, and rebukes many of our prayers.
It summarizes our fears:
If these circumstances don’t change we will lose something precious something essential and never get it back.
It rebukes many of our prayers:
We pray, “God, I am so afraid of this or that, please change my circumstances.” But if you are afraid now, you will be afraid of something else when the circumstances change. I join the disciples as a walking illustration of this painful truth.
Not until with eyes full of faith do we lock on with confidence to the Savior who can change any circumstance with a mere word that we will find the peace he speaks.
This is the faith the Sons of Korah call us to in . We will not fear though the earth gives way, thought the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
And I can add to that: . . .
I will not fear because God is my refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. Look at the text: a very present help in trouble. Not just a help from trouble or around trouble but in trouble.
The sadness of our fallen sinful nature is that on our own we do not sing . We all too easily join with the disciples cry: “Do you not care that we are perishing?” Quite apart from a song of confidence, we become false prophets crying out a false theology.
II. Fears faced without faith reveal and create false theology and false prophecy.
II. Fears faced without faith reveal and create false theology and false prophecy.
The disciples cry, though short, reveals a false theology and a false prophecy.
False theology: Do you not care?
In a systematic theology there is usually a section at the beginning called Theology Proper or The Doctrine of God. Under this main heading, there are usually a few chapters containing “Attributes of God” in the title. Attributes of God chapters cover what we know about God’s character, personality, and qualities. Things like loving, holy, omnipotent, etc. Out there on the boat, the disciples compose a short Theology Proper, a little Attributes of God if you will. And what it is? He does not care.
Think about who is saying this. These are the disciples. These are the guys who Jesus hand picked to spend three years of his life with, loving, providing, empowering, healing family members, sharing meals, giving special revelations of glory. And they ask him, “Do you not care?” These are the last people in all of history who should be asking this question. You see what is happening, their fears are creating a false theology of who God is in the boat with them.
Fear without faith declares that our God is not good, he does not care. The disciples are like the Israelites standing on the edge of the Red Sea. God has just rescued his people from slavery by bringing the greatest nation in the world at that time to its knees under his mighty hand. There they stand: freed men and women. Parents with their children who will never be slaves like they were because the mighty hand of God has rescued them in love. And what do they cry: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians . . .” (, ).
Our fears without faith also write little theologies. We say to the God who died for us, “Do you not care?” Why? Because we are afraid, we fear because we do not have something we have longed for or may be losing something we have cherished. We look at fearful circumstances and say God is either not good or not all powerful or perhaps neither. Thankfully Jesus words show what is true: he is good and he is all powerful.
False prophecy: We are perishing.
Fear without faith does more than create a false theology, it also makes false prophecies. The disciples made a declaration about their future: We are perishing. They looked at the storm and decided they knew how it would end. This storm is going to kill us.
They were so wrong. Not only would the storm not kill them, they were about to witness the Genesis creation word-power of God. You and I when we want to do something, we go through a process: we first think about it, then we talk about it, then we get up and move our feet, hands, and bodies in whatever necessary way they need to be moved to bring about what we want to accomplish. God is not like this. He merely speaks and reality is created or altered. He created the world like this: he spoke and light came out of darkness. Jesus exercised this same power on the sea: he spoke and the storm was stilled. This is why we say that God’s word is powerful. It is a creating word, and it is a true word. What he says will be will be and what he says will not be will not be. We are not like this, and we are certainly not like this when we are afraid. When we are afraid, we start saying things about the future that are almost always somewhat incorrect and usually completely wrong.
When we fix our faithless eyes on our false prophecies, of course we are going to be filled with fear. But when we fix our eyes on God’s true word about the future, we have nothing to fear and every reason to have hope. And in an endeavor to help those of us with weak faith and fear filled eyes, I want us to look at what God’s true word has said about the future for those who are in Christ.
During this lifetime, God has spoken of himself that he is “a sun and shield” bestowing “favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (). But you say, Joe, you don’t know my pain. God is not good to me, but I say, you do not yet know the goodness of your God because he has promised, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (). So whether it’s a booming career or stage 4 cancer, he will use it for good because his word declared over you is that you “whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (). He will take every triumph and every fear, every gain and every loss, every peaceful season and ever raging storm and work them all together in his hidden providences so that you are conformed into the image of Jesus Christ through his word he has spoken over you. He will do this because he has set his sights higher than yours. You plan for retirement, He is planning for eternity: “those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (). You are planning for a little money and some sessions of golf, he’s laying streets of glory and planning for glory. His word over the future of his people is resurrection, not death: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” ().
Listen to what his glorious resurrection is like: Your body will go in the ground perishable; but “what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” ().
Here’s the mystery that the true word of God has prophesied over his people: “I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’
‘O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?’
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” ()
The sting of every fear cloaking the final fear of death taken in the hands, feet, and side of Jesus.
Hey death, we know you so well
Every time we rise up, you fight with no fail
You snatch us down, we so frail
Got no time to pretend
You take on every soul, and only see wins
We got no way to defend
But hey death, please know
We won’t have much to grieve for
When all your wins are repoed
And the reaper reaps what he sowed
I ain't gon run from you
What I got to flee for?
Did it hurt your self esteem when you heard your sting was no more?
But the resurrection isn’t even the best part, family. It’s just the beginning. From there, as C. S. Lewis tried to imagine the glory of eternity, “we go further up and further in, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside” until we see him as he is: “we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” ().
Listen to what it’s like: there’s “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more.
All the dark things we fear will be exposed and done away with . .
They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And he said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.’” ()
He has given us these promises of glory so wonderful that while we wait, “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen” ().
In the meantime, then, those of us who “have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on [the passing fears] that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” ().
Some days, though, this feels like pie in the sky theology. Some days you just feel so afraid, some days the storm rips, the waves crash, and you just can’t hear the true words nor see the heavenly things. That’s why we need to see the disciples cry from a different angle.
III. In the midst of fears, faith finds a caring Savior.
III. In the midst of fears, faith finds a caring Savior.
Look back at the disciples’ question “Do you not care that we are perishing?” and lets take it in reverse.
We are perishing.
We are afraid because trespasses and sins against a holy God meant death (). The God who spoke into being the winds and waters that made up the storm and trees the built the boat to sail through the storm was our enemy (). My sin, your sin spelled total loss and the only right response from any one of us was total terror. We had no hope in ourselves until he answered the question:
Do you not care?
Hear God’s answer: “In love I predestined you for adoption to myself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of my will, to the praise of my glorious grace . . . . being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which I loved you, even when you were dead in your trespasses, I made you alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…”(paraphrase of , ).
In fact he cared so much that he gave himself, his very own life, “as a ransom for many” (). Jesus who spoke peace to the wind and the waves, offers peace to us in the midst of our fear. Because of our fear-fueling unbelief, Jesus went to the cross. On the cross, “He himself bore our sins in his body . . . that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (). As Jesus died for our sinful, faithless, fears, he declared peace, and peace more lasting and reassuring than the peace on the Sea of Galilee that day, because when Jesus died, he made peace by the blood of his cross ().
Does he not care that we are perishing? You better believe he does, and to our fears upon fears, he says, “Peace, be still! For I have conquered every fear and given you every hope. Have faith in me.”