Surrender Your All Today, Matthew 8:18-27

Thomas Hawkes was an English Protestant who refused to let his son be baptized by the Roman Catholic Church. Like many others Hawkes had come to understand the true gospel and he had renounced the catholic church and its teaching and accepted the salvation was by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, by Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. Because of his refusal to follow through with teh baptism of his newborn son Hawkes was arrested and imprisoned. The leaders of the Catholic Church tried to change his mind on his beliefs regarding the gospel. At one point the Bishop of London, Edmund Bonner, urged him to renounce his protestant theology and return to Catholicism. Hawkes responded by saying, “No my lord, that I will if I had a hundred bodies I would suffer them all to be torn in pieces rather than I will abjure and recant.” After this he was sentenced to be burned at the stake in Coggeshall, Essex of England.

While awaiting his execution in prison he was allowed to see his friends. Many of them came to see him, and as they talked about faith and his impending fate, they asked if he would give them a sign that his faith in Christ kept him without despair as the flames engulfed him? According to Foxe’s Book of Martyr’s he committed “by the help of God, to show them that the most terrible torments could be endured in the glorious cause of Christ and his gospel, the comforts of which were able to lift the believing soul above all the injuries men could inflict.” Hawkes and his friends agreed that if he was able to bear it, he would lift his hands toward heaven before he died as a signal to his friends.

On the day of his execution, after he was fastened to a stake with chain, he addressed the crowd and then prayed as they lit the wood around his feet. The fire burned hot and fast, so hot that soon his voice was taken away. His body shrunk and the people thought he was already dead. However, with a sudden burst of energy Hawkes kept the promise that he made to his friends. He lifted his hands high above his head, and according to those who were there he clapped his hands three times as if he was rejoicing!

In the midst of a torrent of flames and heat Thomas Hawkes gave dying proof that by faith in Jesus Christ you can endure anything.

In Matthew 8:18-27 there is an account of Jesus calming a raging storm on the sea with his voice. Many times this passage is used to provide a comforting thought that the same Jesus who calmed the storm can calm the storms in your life.

And while I believe that it is true, Jesus can calm the storms that we face in life, I want to take a few minutes and walk through the passage to see what I believe is the primary and more helpful truth that Matthew’s gospel is revealing to us.

Matthew 8:18–27 (CSB)

18 When Jesus saw a large crowd, around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 21 “Lord,” another of his disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.” 22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

23 As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves—but Jesus kept sleeping. 25 So the disciples came and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to die!” 26 He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him!”

The primary point of this passage is to reveal the full and true identity of Jesus Christ, so that you will respond with faith when He calls you to follow Him.

Jesus claims to be the Messiah when He calls Himself the “Son of Man”

Matthew 8:18-20

“18 When Jesus saw a large crowd, around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Here in this passage Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, and this phrase is a reference to Daniel 7:13-14. In Daniel 7 God gives his servant a dream or vision of the coming of the Messiah. Here is what he saw in Daniel 7:13–14 (CSB),

“13 I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. 14 He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.”

Daniel refers to the coming Messiah as the Son of Man. In his gospel Matthew uses the term 29 times. In total, Jesus used this term more than 80 times to refer to himself in the gospels. In the way that Jesus uses it, the term definitely reveals His identity as the Messiah, but it also helps us to understand that He came to identify with humanity. Jesus identifies with us for the purpose of dying as the propitiation or substitutionary sacrifice for mankind.

The book of Hebrews Hebrews 4:14–16 (CSB) says, “14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”

Jesus is the Messiah who has come to establish His eternal kingdom, and He is approachable and knowable as He has identified with us in every way. There are no weaknesses in Jesus, but as Matthew 8:17 (CSB) says, “He himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.”

Jesus proves that He is the Messiah when He commands the wind and the waves.

Matthew 8:23-27

23 As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves—but Jesus kept sleeping. 25 So the disciples came and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to die!” 26 He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him!”

The disciples are left asking “What kind of man is this?” It was feasible that with God’s help a man could do powerful things. It is even feasible that with the devils help a man could perform incredible feats. There were some who accused Jesus of being an agent of the devil because of the miracles and power that he had displayed. But, here in this passage the commanding the winds and the waves with a simple rebuke is this stuff of divinity. This is something that no “man” can do.

The structure of Matthew’s Gospel is meant to leave each one of us asking at this point, “What kind of man is this?” Here in these first 8 chapters we see that…

He teaches with authority

He heals with authority

He commands creation with authority.

And in the near future of Matthew we will see that He forgives sin with authority!

Surely with all of this evidence we can acknowledge that Jesus is more than a man… For those who know the prophecies of Daniel it makes sense that He must be the one like a son of man who would come on the clouds of heaven escorted with the Ancient of Days! Surely this man named Jesus is the one who will establish an everlasting dominion and a kingdom that will not be destroyed!

When we know who Jesus is, everything else becomes clear. With the clarity of who Jesus is, the issue now comes for the reader/hearer… how will you respond to Jesus?

Jesus exercises His authority when He calls men to follow Him.

Matthew 7:28-29 we read that Jesus exercised his authority in his teaching.

Matthew 8:1-17 Jesus exercised his authority over sickness and disease by healing with his touch and with his words.

In Matthew 8:18-22 Jesus exercises his authority when he calls men to follow Him with an uncompromising allegiance to Him.

The allegiance that Jesus demands requires that you hold so tightly to Him that nothing is left in your grip for anything else.

Look with me in Matthew 8:18-22

18 When Jesus saw a large crowd, around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 21 “Lord,” another of his disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.” 22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Notice that we don’t see the responses of these two men. The implication is that they did not follow Jesus because of the depth of commitment and the single minded allegiance He demanded.

Jesus calls you to an allegiance that is greater than your desires and commitments to personal comfort and security.

We all want a home and place to find comfort and security in. But, Jesus calls us to find our comfort and security in Him and not in a place or a people.

Jesus calls you to an allegiance that is made without hesitation or reservation. There is no such thing as a telling Jesus to wait a minute.

This would be like saying to Jesus. “I know you have the power to heal every infirmity and disease, but I want to try and take care of a few things myself before I yield myself to your will.”

Or telling Him, “I know you are the one who made spoke the world into existence, but I have a few more things I’d like to do before I surrender.”

Or even, “I know that you are the one to whom the whole world will give an account, but I want to dabble in the world and build my kingdom a little longer before I become a part of yours.”

Friend, today you can be different than two men who told Jesus they had something else to do. You are not promised tomorrow, and why would you want to wake up tomorrow without Jesus?

When you choose Christ, you are choosing Him above all other commitments- including country, friends, and even family. I want to share an example from my time overseas:

While I was in North Africa I met a young man who had recently left Islam and come to faith in Christ. At the time he was living with a missionary that the team I was on had been sent to support. When we met him we asked his name. And let’s say his name was “John.” As the missionary introduced him he said this was his new name. You see when a muslim comes to Christ, he loses His family. This young man had given his life to Christ and his earthly father had taken his name back. As far as his earthly family was concerned he didn’t exist anymore.

As American Christians we hear testimonies like this and we rejoice! We rejoice that he gained something greater than what he lost… Jesus. We treasure these stories and we share them with friends as examples of the true power of the Gospel. But, I think we are at a point here in our country we have to decide if our allegiance to Christ is as strong as the young man I just shared with you about. You see, he was faced with the choice to follow Christ like the man in Matthew 8 who need to go home and wait for his father to die. But, Jesus doesn’t call us to put other things and other people first. He calls us to place our faith and our hope in Him and to do so with an uncompromising allegiance to His Lordship over our lives.

If we believe that it is worth a young man losing his name and his family in North Africa, then surely we believe that it is also right for us in America. Are you willing to lose family? Are you willing to lose friends? This is the allegiance that Christ calls us too when He says to come and follow Him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,

“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Over the last year I have been pressured more than ever in my life to have an allegiance other than Christ. It’s not necessarily a thing I experience as your pastor, thought it is something that I experience as your pastor. I think it is a symptom of the greater problem of the struggle with identity in our country and our culture. I think we are all being called to pledge an allegiance to politics, politicians, agendas, people, and even transitions.

It’s not that people are trying to get me or you to explicitly give up on Jesus, it’s just that more and more we are pressured to have dueling allegiances. People want us to wear labels and join groups that are for this purpose and that purpose. Even in the Southern Baptist Convention there are new groups forming that require an allegiance to purpose and missions that are more narrow than the Baptist Faith and Message requires. And the reason that I haven’t joined in with a group is because I’m not a Southern Baptist to belong to a club that likes all the things I like or wants to do all the things I want to do. I am a southern baptist because I want to partner with others who believe the Bible and love Jesus and do missions.

The problem with dueling allegiances is that they undermine the gospel and the kingdom of God. We found that out in Matthew 4 when Satan asked Jesus for his allegiance in return for a bypass to God’s plan. Matthew 4:8–10 (CSB) 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”,

Jesus didn’t say ok, I’ll give you some of my allegiance but reserve most of my allegiance for God… No He said it emphatically… you cannot have a competing allegiance. You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only Him. (Israel struggled with this over and over again, and every time they mixed their allegiances with the religion and politics of other nations they wandered from the Lord.

There are only one King and one kingdom that deserves your allegiance, and that is Jesus.

This doesn’t mean that you cannot be patriotic. It doesn’t mean that you cannot belong to organizations, or be engaged in politics. What it means is that there cannot be anything else in your heart, life, or the world that you cannot let go of to follow Jesus.

I know it sounds extreme, and I know that not everyone else is preaching like this. I don’t know whey they aren’t and I’m comfortable with whatever label it brings. I want you to be right with the Lord. I don’t want us to sail on a ship of comfort and ease to the gates and fires of hell. I love you more than that, and I want to make sure that we all understand that when it comes to your allegiance, what feels extreme is also what the Bible says.

Christians are called to be utterly and fanatically committed to Christ. We are not called to be embarrassments or to act like fools. But, according to Scripture following the Lord will result in us looking like fools to the rest of the world. It’s high time that we embraced the foolish label they give us if it means we are wearing the label of faithfulness from Christ.

It’s not just that Jesus is the one to whom you are the most committed. It’s that Jesus is the one that you hinge every other relationship and commitment on. If it doesn’t match up with Christ, you cannot be committed to it. If you cannot let go of it, then you are not committed to Christ.

The heart that belongs to God is not dually aligned. You can’t have a dual allegiance… your heart can only be committed in His direction. The Christian life is filled with everything that fits in the direction he gives you through His Word. And the Christian life is emptied of everything that He tells you to let go of.

If he says get in the boat, you get in the boat, regardless of what you had planned to do. If he says let go of your possessions, you let them go. If He says leave the comforts of home and family, you leave and go where He leads.

There is only one acceptable response to the call of Jesus to follow Him.

Repent, believe, surrender, and follow

True followers forsake everything and everyone in the world to follow Jesus.

Security is in Christ

Following Jesus means freedom from earthly ties, in every form

Hold the world and the things you own loosely

“Matthew wants to show that the same Jesus, who has authority over sickness, nature, and demons, also has authority over the lives of his disciples. Jesus determines what following him will involve, not us. Therefore, if you are going to follow Jesus, it must be on his terms rather than your own.”- James Montgomery Boice

Followers of Christ experience trials along the way, but they are never without the presence and power of Jesus.

I grew up singing the hymn, Wherever He Leads I’ll Go. It goes like this…

(Singing) Take up thy cross and follow me I heard my Master say

"I gave my life to ransom thee surrender your all today"

Wherever He leads, I'll go. Wherever He leads, I'll go

I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, wherever He leads, I'll go

Closing questions:

1. Is this true for you?

2. Will you go wherever He leads?

3. Will you let go of whatever he asks?

Will you surrender your all today?

Come today to Jesus and surrender your all

Come today and confess that your heart has been dually aligned and commit your all to Him today

Come today and join with us here as we give Jesus our all and do everything we do as a church for Him.

Content that got cut: (I would put it in if there is time)

How did we get to a place where what the Bible actually says seems extreme or fanatical? We got here through “Cheap Grace”

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The only solution to this problem is to go back to preaching what we can call costly grace. This is the grace that Jesus is preaching to the crowds. This is the type of call that Jesus offers to the two men, one that is costly but yields the only reward that will last.

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price, to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.… Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.”

Notes and Quotes:

D. A. Carson insightfully observes, “Little has done more to harm the witness of the Christian church than the practice of filling its ranks with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, talk fluently of experience, but display little of perseverance.”

Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 148.

Contemporary applications of this miracle almost universally “demythologize” the narrative (deriving a naturalistic lesson from a supernatural event), so that it becomes a lesson about Jesus “stilling the storms” of our lives. Matthew did not likely have such an application in mind. There are implications for discipleship here, to be sure; we must turn to Jesus as the one to trust in all circumstances of life. But the focus of this passage remains squarely Christological—on who Christ is, not on what he will do for us.44 One who has this kind of power can be no less than God himself, worthy of worship, irrespective of when and how he chooses to use that power in our lives. Sometimes he leaves storms unstilled for good and godly ends (cf. 2 Cor 12:7–8).

44 See esp. P. F. Feiler, “The Stilling of the Storm in Matthew: A Response to Günther Bornkamm,” JETS 26 (1983): 399–406.

Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 150.

Son of Man

Why did Jesus use the term? I have suggested elsewhere that that was “firstly because it was a rare term and one without nationalistic associations. It would lead to no political complications.… Secondly, because it had overtones of divinity.… Thirdly, because of its societary implications. The Son of man implies the redeemed people of God. Fourthly, because it had undertones of humanity. He took upon Him our weakness.”

Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 201–202.

This is the first use of “Son of man” in Matthew as a name for Jesus. It comes from Daniel 7:13 and is definitely a messianic title and a claim to kingship.

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 34.

At first glance this seems to be a terribly insensitive reply, as if the man’s father had just died and Jesus would not even let him arrange for or attend the funeral. But that is probably not what was involved. For one thing, in Israel the dead were required to be buried on the same day they died. If the man’s father had died, he wouldn’t even have been in the crowd surrounding Jesus. He would have been at home. However, since he is asking permission to bury his father before following Jesus, what he probably means is that he wants to remain at home during his father’s last years and follow Jesus only after that phase of his life is over. When Jesus told him to forget about waiting for his father to die, he was saying that the time to believe on him and become his disciple is right now. Discipleship is always a present obligation. We can never put it off. Indeed

James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 132.

D. A. Carson insightfully observes, “Little has done more to harm the witness of the Christian church than the practice of filling its ranks with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, talk fluently of experience, but display little of perseverance.”

“You should expect at anytime for God to require you to let go of what you have to accomplish His purposes.So consider the cost before you begin to build the tower.” - James Montgomery Boice