Series on Matthew's Gospel.

The King is at Work - The Winds and the Waves obey Him!

Matthew 8:23–27 NIV84

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 completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

Jesus was leaving Capernaum, partly because so many wanted to see Him because of all the healings takiing place(Matt 8:16) and partly because he did not want to be “locked down” in one place.

Jesus got into the boat to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is about 13 miles long and as much as 8 miles wide.

“And his disciples followed him” - The Greek word, “mathētēs” simply means a follower, learner, or pupil. The word is inclusive of all who identfied with a spiritual leader, whether of a Rabbi, John the Baptist or Jesus and it includes false and superficial followers as well such as Judas and the two men who approached Jesus just before He entered the boat are called disciples (Matt. 8:21; cf. Matt 8:19). whose leaving, proved them to be false disciples. Note also that they were not all in one boat, as Mark 4:36 makes clear that there were “other boats with Him.”

The word “disciple” does in fact cover a range of people from those who were curious, following Jesus for a while simply to find out what He was like, even fascinated and intrigued by what He said and did, but not wholly surrender to Him as Lord and Saviour. (c/f e disciples in John 6, who when Jesus proclaimed, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves, … Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, ‘This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?’ … As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore” (John 6:53, 60, 66). There were also disciples who were intellectually convinced of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah come from God but were not truly converted for a variety of reasons. So, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, saying, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). But at that point he was not yet “born again” or fully committed to Jesus and so at that stage has no participation in His kingdom, and no eternal life (John 3:3–15). Likewise, Joseph of Arimathea, is a secret disciple who asked Pilate for permission to bury Jesus in his own tomb and thereby proclaimed allegiance to his Saviour (Matt. 27:57–58). True disciples were those who had been born again; who had counted the cost; taken up the cross and followed Jesus! - “Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word [continually obeying My teachings and living in accordance with them, then] you are truly My disciples.”(John 8:31 AMP).

By crossing the lake to Gadara Jesus was also placing himself in the land of Gentiles, showing the accessibility of the gospel to the Gentiles as well. Jesus was and is the “Saviour of the World”!

We have been observing throughout chapter 8 of Matthew the unique ways in which Jesus, the King is at work - the cleansing of the Leper; the healing of the Centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law; as well as a host of unammed people. Further evidence of the poiwer of the King is now seen in the first record of a ‘nature-miracle’—‘even winds and sea obey him’ (v. 27).

We noted when we spoke of the healing of the Cenutrion and indeed of Matthew’s emphasis on heling miracles that this was to picture the far more important healing of the soul from the eternal consequences of sin - Matt 8:14-17 “When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”

Miracles act as a foretate of the removal of the curse of sin and the establishgment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. They act as a signpost to all that is achieved in Jesus ultimately. Jesus healed diseases and restored broken bodies, to singpost that in Heaven there would be no sickness or deformity. When He cast out demons, He singposted that in Heaven the domain of Satan is overthrown and all evil would be cast out. When He raised the dead, He singposted that in Heaven there would be no death and when as here, He calmed the winds and the waves, He signposts that the create order; inanimate matter shall no longer act as a curse to harm humanity but shall be restored to its Edenic state in which mankind shall once again exercises non-destructive; responsible “dominion” (See Genesis 1:26).

1. PANIC IN THE STORM:

The word for storm usually means ‘earthquake’—literally a ‘shaking’.

The Greek word used is “seismos” literally meaning a shaking and is the term from which we get seismic, seismograph, and related terms. (Note: A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground noises and shaking such as caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions).

Note the words “without warning” intensify the sudden and surprising manner in which there arose a great storm in the sea. Galilee is known for sudden, violent squalls. It lies just over 600 feet below sea level, near the northern end of the Jordan River. Mount Hermon rises 9,200 feet to the north, and strong northerly winds often funnel down the upper Jordan valley with great force and when they meet the warmer air over the Galilee basin, the intensity is increased. The violent winds rebound off the cliffs on the eastern shore, the winds swirl and twist, causing the waters beneath them to churn violently and these can stir up quickly and with little warning makes the storms all the more dangerous and frightening.

The storm became so fierce that the boat was covered with the waves, and Mark explains that “the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up” (Mark 4:37).

Several of the twelve disciples were fishermen, and we can be certain they had done everything possible to save themselves. They were probably just as tired as Jesus was, but were far too afraid to sleep.

Having come to an end of their ability, they had nowhere else to turn but to Jesus - could He who cleansed the leper and healed the centurion’s servant with a word and healed Peter’s mother-in-law and delivered Capernaum’s “demon-possessed...and healed all the sick “ deliver His disciples from the storn? That is the question for the faith of each of these disciples as they paniced at the uneapected storm!

This was a test of their faith - they were desperate and it is exactly where God wanted them to be.

Sometimes the Lord has to bring us to a point of absolute desperation before He can get our attention, and that is what He did with those disciples whose boat was about to be swamped or torn to pieces.

It is often, only when we run out of human solutions and have only Jesus to turn to that we finally surrender to Him! - The story is told of a hardened old sea captain who was quite vocal about his atheism. One night during a storm he was washed overboard and his men heard him crying out to God for help. When he was finally rescued one of the men asked him, “I thought you didn’t believe in God.” He replied, “Well, if there isn’t a God, there ought to be one for times like this.”

Many people turn to the Lord only when every other resource has been exhausted. When sickness, death, loss of job, or some other tragedy comes, they cry out to God much as the disciples did to Jesus.

God is always pleased when we turn to Him for salvation. People can be healed, comforted, saved from financial ruin, and helped in many other ways without God’s direct intervention, but the person who is not saved has absolutely no resource but the Lord. The realisation of our helplessness is the first step to our salvation and deliverance - “Lord, I beleive, hep me with my unbelief!” “God have mercy on me a sinner!” “O what a wretched man I am; who can deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”!

There was PANIC IN THE STORM - and there will be panic in our lives at different times and for different reasons but when such panic arises; turn to Jesus:

Begone, unbelief,   My Savior is near, And for my relief   Will surely appear; By prayer let me wrestle,   And He will perform; With Christ in the vessel,   I smile at the storm.

2. POWER TO CALM THE STORM

Though there was PANIC IN THE STORM it is clear that there was also a glimmer of faith in Jesus, as they awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us, we are going to drown!” If there was any hope it could only be in Jesus who had POWER TO CALM THE STORM!

And note how Jesus responded - first he chiden them then he rebuked the storm! It does seem a litle harsh doesn’t it - they were quite naturally afraid! (Note: The Greek word is “deilos”, translated often as “timid”, fearful or even cowardly). However, he does not chiden them for their fear; he rebukes them for their lack of “faith” - why? Because they had witnessed so much of his miracle-working power and heard so much of his teaching and so he rightly says, “you of little faith”, a favourite for Matthew in such situations (see on Matt 6:30).

Jesus’ rebuke, even before he acts further emphasizes that discipleship involves a faith which is a practical trust (cf. on Matt 8:8–10), and which excludes anxiety (cf. Matt 6:25-30).

”“You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” - This is a profoundly searching and disturbing question.

Why is it Lord, that I experience your grace; that I have the promises of your word; that I hear your voice of reassurance and am filled with your Spirit and yet I am so afraid at times? Why is it that when my faith is tested, I realise that it is so fragile and weak in the face of the test?

The disciples faith was challenged by a vital question - could Jesus calm this storm and save their lives?

Was his “sleeping in the stern of the boat” indicative of his not caring or being resinged to his fate? Why was Jesus unafraid? How could He sleep in such circumstances?

Jesus’ calmness so perplexed the disciples that they thought it smacked of insensitivity or uncaring - “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38).

We face such a test of our faith do we not? Lord, here I am sick; worried; broken - do you not care? I can hardly cope with what has come upon me - do you not care?

The question to our faith is, does he have POWER TO CALM THE STORM?

Last week Mike spoke on the cost of following Jesus and pointed out the cost to the majority of the 12 who were martyred for their faith. So many of them died such agaonising and brutal deaths. I wonder if they were tempted to say as their passing aproached, “do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). Although this account is primarily a record of Jesus’ supernatural power over the elements, the trial of the disciples’ faith as a sub-plot , just as the healing of the centurion’s servant tested the faith of the Centurion [Matt 8:5–13]. It is as Bornkamm points out ‘a kerygmatic paradigm of the danger and glory of discipleship’. Having your faith tested is part of the “cost” of discipleship!

Storms have a way of making ways to grow our faith! We grow best in adversity - 1 Pet 1:3-9. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

DOES JESUS HAVE POWER TO CALM THE STORM?

Listen! “Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

He rebuked indicates graphically the personal authority of Jesus, as master of the created order. At the word of their Creator the storm could do nothing but become perfectly calm. The winds stopped, the waves ceased, the air cleared, and the water became as glass.

“The men were amazed” - The word translated “amazed” is thaumazō which refers to a sense of awesome wonder or marvel. Indeed, Mark records that along with their great amazement, the men were also “very much afraid” (4:41). They were now more afraid of the one who had stilled the storm than they had been of the storm itself. Many of them had encountered dangerous storms, but none had encountered such supernatural power as Jesus here displayed.

Storms normally subside gradually, with winds and waves diminishing little by little until calm is restored. But this storm subsided faster even than it had come; it came suddenly and ceased instantly. Jesus stopped it with a word—an easy feat compared to His bringing the entire world into existence with a word. The one who had control over diseases and demons also had control over nature.

DOES JESUS HAVE POWER TO CALM THE STORM? YOU BET!

And they shouldn’t have been surprised but they had been blinded by their fear! Had they there wits about them they would know that the Scriptures teach. Psalm 89: “O Lord God of Hosts, who is like you, O mighty Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the swelling of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them” (Psa 89:8-9).

They had sung in their Synagogues, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea: though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride” (Ps. 46:1–3).

They knew well the majestic and comforting words of Psalm 107: Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters; they have seen the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, and were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet; so He guided them to their desired haven. (Ps. 107:23–30)

Jesus performed a miracel here as a literal fulfillment of those verses, here on the Sea of Galilee. DOES JESUS HAVE POWER TO CALM THE STORM? Absolutely and that is a challenge to our faith, when all seems hopeless and we are caused to despair, we still have Jesus. Even though we are helpless and afraid, Jesus is still able to save us!

And such faith has and is being lived out in the world - "Be of good cheer, Master Ridley play the man. We shall this day by God's grace light such a candle in England as shall never be put out." These were the words of Hugh Latimer on the occasion of his martyrdom along with Nicholas Ridley at Ocford on 16 October 1555 and a more recent example I read is of Sana, who lives in Qaraqosh in Syria and who in 2014 was separated from her husband and her two sons by ISIS. It broke Sana’s heart when she was put on a bus without her boys and husband. “I asked one of the ISIS fighters, ‘Please, tell me: Where are you taking my husband?’ But he put his gun to my head and said, ‘Either you shut up, or I’ll shoot you in the head.’” Sana hasn’t seen her sons and her husband since. One moment is very sharp for Sana’s memory. It gives her hope for her son Issa. “One night, Issa was sleeping on my lap when he suddenly opened his eyes,” she says. “I asked him what happened. He told me that he had a dream. He saw Jesus descending in shining clothes. Jesus looked at Issa and smiled.” God is the only One she clings to, the only One she still trusts to find her husband and sons. “My faith in the almighty God is so big,” she says. “And I keep praying that they will come back. They are all I have. God willing, they will come back.”

Jesus still has POWER TO CALM THE STORM! YOR STORMS!

His love, in time past,   Forbids me to think He’ll leave me at last   In trouble to sink: Each sweet Ebenezer   I have in review Confirms His good pleasure   To help me quite through.

3. PEACE THAT FOLLOWS THE STORM:

“Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

We have already noted that in the Old Testament it was a mark of the sovereignty of God himself that the sea obeyed his orders (Job 38:8–11; Pss. 65:5–8; 89:8–9). Matthew knew this and Psalm 107:23–32 must surely have come to mind as he narrated this story and recorded the response of amazed recognition. He lets us draw out the implication explicitly, that in the light of the Old Testament passages above Jesus is not only Messiah, He is God incarnate, “Immanuel, God with us”(Matt 1:23).

And what a peace that brought not only to the sea of Galileee but to the heart of each disciple! God is in the ship; God brings calm to the sea and settles the storm; they are safe; they no longer need t be afraid. They can be at peace!

CALM FOLLOWS STORMS! WHEN OUR FAITH IS TESTED AND WHEN GOD ALLOWS THOSE STOMS OF TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS TO COME OVER US, WE CAN HOLD ON IN HOPE THAT THIS WILL PASS AND ALL WILL BE WELL!

I love Psalm 61:1-3 “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.” Spurgeon says of these verses: “When my heart is overwhelmed:—when the huge waves of trouble wash over me, and I am completely submerged, not only as to my head, but also my heart. It is hard to pray when the very heart is drowning, yet gracious men plead best at such times. Tribulation brings us to God, and brings God to us. Faith's greatest triumphs are achieved in her heaviest trials. It is all over with me, affliction is all over me; it encompasses me as a cloud, it swallows me up like a sea, it shuts me in with thick darkness, yet God is near, near enough to hear my voice, and I will call him...Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. I see thee to be my refuge, sure and strong; but alas! I am confused, and cannot find thee; I am weak, and cannot climb thee. Thou art so steadfast, guide me; thou art so high, uplift me…I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever. Let me once get back to thy courts, and nothing shall again expel me from them: even now in my banishment my heart is there; and ever will I continue to worship thee in spirit wherever my lot may be cast. Perhaps by the word tabernacle is here meant the dwelling place of God; and if so, the sense is, I will dwell with the Lord, enjoying his sacred hospitality, and sure protection.

"There would I find a settled rest, While others go and come; No more a stranger or a guest, But like a child at home."

He who communes with God is always at home. The divine omnipresence surrounds such a one consciously; his faith sees all around him the palace of the King, in which he walks with exulting security and overflowing delight.”

YOU MAY BE PANICKING IN A STORM; YOU MAY BE QUESTIONING WHETHER JESUS AS THE POWER TO CALM THAT STORM! CAN I INVITE YO TO CRY OUT TO HIM IN YOUR FEAR AND EVEN WHILST YOU ARE DOUBTING AND ARE STRGGKING TO BELIEVE, BECAUSE JESUS CARES FOR YOU AN DWILL SAVE YOU!

“Lord…save” - I own you as my Lord; I accept you as my Saviour, I am afraid, but I cling to you, save me!

It may be that we need to ask God for help to still our personal storms. It may be that because of out storms that we've lost confidence in Jesus. We've lost confidence that he's good and that he's great. We've lost confidence that he is willing and able. He knows that, and he gets it, and he still meets us and is able to save us. We must learn that in this life “Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.”(Oswald Sanders). And when we realise this, peace will come to you, oce the storms of fear and circumstance are stilled and “with Christ in your vessel, you will smile at the storm:

Since all that I meet   Shall work for my good, The bitter is sweet,   The medicine, food; Though painful at present,   ’Twill cease before long, And then, oh, how pleasant   The conqueror’s song!