Asking the Right Questions

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 107:1-22

No matter which of the “some” you find yourself fitting into, there is hope in our savior Jesus Christ!

Scripture Reading: Psalm 97:1-5 (Forrest)

Psalm 97:1–5 ESV

The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.

Sermon:

Good morning Church!

I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Something I like to do when preaching a passage is go and see if there are any other sermons on a passage. Seeing how some people hand a certain text can give you insights and help figure out how you would like to tackle it. Well if you were to look up sermons on Matthew 8:23-27 (our passage for today) you would be inundated with sermons. It seems as if every pastor that has ever lived has preached on this passage. “Jesus calms the storm” And for good reason, it is a critical and important text, not just to all believers and our faith, but also it is critical in the whole scope and flow of the book of Matthew. It is a very important text. And now I will be adding my name to that very long list.

But as I began to look through and listen through and read through many of these sermons I was struck, I will put it that way. there is a very broad way to go about saying what this passage is about. A very broad way to try and get to the heart that is being said. and I am a little afraid that many times we get this passage wrong. Many times we come to this passage and we THINK we know what it is saying but the way that it is used I think shows that we don’t. And so my goal today is that we are going to ask very pointed questions, really these are in some way basic questions, but the goal is to see what is being said here. What does MATTHEW want to get across THEN what does that mean for us.

so as a side note, this is an important step to take any time we read scripture. So here is a free little lesson in how to approach God’s Word. Just yesterday Desiree and I were talking about a passage in 1 Timothy ad she said we use this passage in a certain way but that's not what it is saying right? and the answer is yes, there are many passages that we think tell us one truth but are saying something completely different. And we do this all the time when things are right, But just not what a certain passage says. My classic example is Philippians 4:13… So the way to avoid that is to go directly to the text: What is being said here should be our goal, what is intended by the author is the right way to get there, THEN we can ask: how does this apply to my life.

So today we are going to ask the right questions to understand what is being said here. Before we dive in lets read this passage, then start with a word of prayer.

Matthew 8:23–27 ESV

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

PRAY

So what I would like to start by doing is actually a little bit of Jeopardy. With all that rant about asking the right questions first I want to start by seeing: what is the answer. If the ultimate question, what I just said we hould ask is: What is this passage about. Just on a surface level the answer seems fairly clear. It is about Jesus calming the storm!

The Answer: JESUS CALMS THE STORM

this is a text about Jesu calming the wind and waves. The ESV translators in the little heading they put above this say: JESUS CALMS THE STORM” as we read it what happened: in summary they get on a boat, there is a storm, and jesus calms it. In a very simple and succinct way this passage is just about that, jesus calming a storm.

OK, but then we dive to the deeper questions, what is Matthews point and what does that MEAN but in general, and to me and my life, and the problem that I see and why I think many times we get this passage wrong is that we immediately want to, our first impulse is to sort of, the fancy phrase, would be analogize this passage. What does that mean, we want to take the historical fact of Jesus calming a real storm and make it an allegory or a metaphor for our lives. So that means that Jesus will calm every storm in your life. and so we jump to this sort of surface level reading and application where: “Well i’m having a bad time things are going wrong, Jesus calms the storm. there are things raging around me, jesus calms the storm”. And when we jump there, when we make hasty and therefore in some sense inappropriate jumps there, what happens is we miss the true message and really the truly beautiful and encouraging and wonderful things that are being said. I am telling you today, if we wait just a little bit before we jump into this text where we land is much better.

So in this passage what is truly being communicated is Jesus calms the storm, but what does that mean? Does it mean that we can look forward to a life with no troubles and no heart ache? Does it mean that we get to look forward to rainbows and bubblegum and ponies? does it mean that we get to not face any storms because jesus calms them? what is going on with Jesus calming the storm? so like I said Jeopardy style we can start with the answer, but what questions lead us to a full and beautiful meaning to that answer? what can we ask to get there? And I find that there are three helpful questions that will give us a right approach to tackle and understand what exactly is being said here and therefore what we can grasp and then apply to our own lives.

And the first question that we can ask: Question number one is: WHO GETS TO EXPERIENCE THIS?

Question 1: WHO GETS TO EXPERIENCE THIS?

I think this is a critical question that we often overlook. If we come to this passage and just assert Jesus calms storms and we sort of Ultra apply that out to everyone in the whole world and every storm, we begin to miss some very important things. Note this: verse 23: WHEN HE GOT INTO THE BOAT HIS DISCIPLES FOLLOWED HIM. These are the same disciples who wake Jesus in verse 25 they say: SAVE US LORD!

Lets remember back to last week really quickly. Two men came and they wanted to follow Jesus. they wanted to be a part of what Jesus was dong, what was about to happen. One is a rabbi, and he doesn't look to jesus as Lord, he calls him teacher. The other is called a disciple, he calls jesus Lord and yet he will not follow him. So who get to experience the power and awesomeness of Jesus calming the storm. well, it is disciples who call him Lord and are are willing to abandon everything, again we talked about this last week, they are willing to count the cost, surrender everything, total and complete forfeiture of everything to Jesus. this is a group that, at least at first was willing to do that to follow Jesus. they got on the boat.

So here we get a more full answer. Who gets to experience Jesus calming the storm, it is his disciples those who serve and love and are devoted to him. Those who have abandoned everything. Again look back to chapter 4, they have left their boats, their nets, their livelihood, their families, left everything to follow Jesus. Those who see Jesus move in these powerful ways are first and foremost his disciples. those who listen to his teaching, who serve him. Those who are willing to leave everything to follow him. But it is also important to note one more thing.

It is the disciples who are facing great storms who see Jesus calm them. We might miss this, they knew, the lead up to this was Jesus seeing a crowd in verse 18 Jesus sees a crowd and he says: get in the boat, we are leaving. Then there is this interlude with the two men who are unwilling to leave everything, so the implication: those in the boat are he ones who are willing to pay that price, at least at first. SO they get on the boat, they are following Jesus, we can do this, and THEN the storm comes. and it is interesting to note, this storm verse 24 “there arose a great storm” I don’t always give you the Greek because it is not always super helpful, but this one makes sense to us English speakers. the Greek word for storm here is a “seismos”. Now if that sounds familiar that is because if there is an earthquake that is a seismic event. The picture of this storm, by using this word seismos is an earth shaking life altering crazy storm. this isn’t your everyday storm, it is the difference between a thunderstorm and a hurricane. And who gets to experience Jesus calming the storm? those DISCIPLES who are IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!

When we super hyper allogorize this story we say “yeah, Jesu calms the storms” but what we immediately if unintentionally think that means is that we will never have to face them, but that IS NOT TRUE! when we ask the question o who gets to experience this calming what we begin to realize is that those who serve and love and are devoted to Jesus will find that even in the MIDST of storms he is there. that in the MIDST of troubles he is powerful and we should have nothing to fear. Because the one that we serve is strong enough to calm the storm (if needed). Jesu calms the storm is the answer, for who, those who are his disciples, who love him and are currently facing difficult things. If everything was happy go lucky no problem we would never NEED the Jesus who calms the storms!

When we ask: who gets to experience this what we begin to realize is not that I wont, but that WHEN I DO Jesus is there. That’s the lesson, that is the message, that is key, that is what we get as we see the Lord who calms the storm.

So that is the first question Who gets to experience this, but there is something else that goes on here. Jesus calms the storm, that is our answer, but if we look at the word, verse 26, “THEN HE ROSE AND REBUKED THE WINDS AND THE SEA”. But this leads us to another question, question number 2: wait a second, who is really getting rebuked here?

Question 2: WHO GETS REBUKED?

Is it JUST the winds and the sea? Does jesus ONLY rebuke this seismic storm, this crazy world altering terrifying storm? is that the only person, only thing, only entity that Jesus rebukes? no!

Matthew 8:25–26 ESV

And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Before, we have to get this timing right, before Jesus calms the storm, before he rebukes the wind and the sea he first rebukes his disciples! this story is NOT first and foremost, for his people, is not a story that Jesus will calm the storms for you, it is a story asking you: Do you have enough faith in the Jesus who can? These men, these disciples, they knew Jesus was Lord, that's what they called him: save us LORD; but they didn’t realize that he was truly LORD. He called them to go on this boat, whatever the cost, knowing that as they get on this boat, That Jesus has no hole to hide in, he has no place to lay his head, he has no boats that are not swamped by storms. To follow Jesus is a sacrifice, are you willing to make it. Or is your faith only strong enough that it works only when things are going good. and so you are willing to say the difficult things, I will give up everything, I can do that, i will say I will follow you wherever you go, we are willing to say that will follow you and let the dead bury the dead. BUT when it comes down to brass tax, when it comes down to actually testing those statements, well that is a different story. It is as if the disciples have channeled their inner Meatloaf and area saying: i will do anything for love, but I wont do that”. Maybe they didn’t really mean it.

Jesus first rebukes his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you have such little faith that if I am called to be… like up to know the disciples don’t quite know exactly who Jesus is but they do know he is the Messiah. DO you not think that if he is called to be the Messiah that God will preserve him even through this storm? Is your faith so small that you think this storm can shipwreck, in a literal and figurative sense, the entire plan of God? Is your faith so small that one trial, one tribulation, no matter how big and cray is able to shipwreck everything. The first one to be rebuked is the one who, when storms come, they fail to be able to trust in God.

This is, if I may be frank and honest, pastorally speaking and even just personally as a human speaking, this is one of the most difficult parts of being a pastor. Because people always want answers. we all always want answers: WHY am i facing this trail and calamity? why did this bad thing happen? why is my kid sick? why do my loved ones get cancer WHY are these things happening? and sometimes, dare I say most times, the answer is I don’t know why. but will you have faith?

the disciples are rebuked for not having enough faith BEFORE the storm in calmed, not after. Faith isn’t something that happens after the storm has been calmed, it is before and during. But I would encourage us that our faith should NOT be that Jesus will always calm every storm. out faith should not be that this will all always work out perfectly how I want it. Out faith needs to be in God, his sovereign will and plan. Our faith needs to be such that, when storms come into our lives, our response is not first and foremost: I need to get rid of it, our response is praise be to God!

James 1:2 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

But also we have Paul when he says in 2 Corinthians 4:17

2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

so these trials these storms, these troubles they are but … and this is Paul’s language, so please don’t think I am trying to be trite or minimize the seriousness or pain of your storms. When Paul said this he was a man who was taken out of the city stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked, bitten by a snake, chained to a Roman guard and awaiting what was surely a death sentence and he would write. I do not consider these light momentary afflictions worth comparing to the weight of Glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus and THAT is Faith.

And I am telling you today, that when you have faith and approach storms in that way, the calm that comes is not necessarily just the storm is called (though God can and often does do that) the calm that comes is a calm of you heart and spirit as you trust in him. I can’t promise that faith will calm your storm, for I do not know what God is calling you to, but I can promise that faith will calm your HEART in the midst of any and every storm.

So when we ask who is being rebuked we realize that the issue for the disciples and the issue in this story is that their faith was not strong enough to trust God knew what he was dong. Even in the midst of this. God allowed this great, seismic storm. Does God know what he is doing? Of course he did! and this leads us to the final question, it is the most important question we could ask of this text: Coincidentally (or not really…) it is the very question that the disciples ask:

Question three is WHAT SORT OF MAN IS THIS?

Question 3: WHAT SORT OF MAN IS THIS?

Moving past this idea that it is disciples who are in the storm that experience the miraculous work of Jesus. Moving past the thought that the disciples need to learn to have strong faith. The ultimate point...

So this is the way the commentary would say this and these are big words but helpful words. this passage is not Missiological, it doesn't at it’s heart have to do with our mission, it is not soteriological, it doesn't, at its heart, have to do with our salvation and sanctification, it it CHRISTOLOGICAL it has everything to do with who Jesus is!

When we read this, our question should become: what is this telling us about Jesus? What sort of man is this? When we see the Jesus who calms the storm, and what is beautiful is that Jesus calms this storm in a powerful. verse 24 there arose a GREAT storm, we have been dealing with this it was a seismos. a huge earth shattering storm. He arose he rebukes the wind and the sea and read this in verse 26 there was a GREAT calm. The calm that Jesus provides in in direct proportion to the craziness of the Storm. jesus has COMPLETE authority that even the waves and sea that are in utter tumult and utter disarray, Jesus calms them with a word.

Who can do that? who can tell the wind and seas to stop and they do what sort of man can do that? when we look at any men we know, look to every man on the earth. Then we find the most trained and knowledgeable men on the wind and the seas. the people with the best technology, best wisdom and insight. and we put them on TV and ask them not to control the weather, but can you just predict it? can you be the weather man? And we find out that they have varying degrees of success in guessing what the weather will be like, but yet here is Jesus who can TELL THE WEATHER WHAT TO BE LIKE. what sort of man can do that? it becomes this becomes the sort of greatest miracle in this series (with a note the last one is super interesting) but in physical, visible way this is the most powerful. Sure he can cleanse a leper, but like other people have done miracles like that in the past, moses and Elijah, but we have seen similar things. There is the healing of this centurion servant, and that is powerful, he does it with a word long distance style, but we have seen prophets heal paralytics, he takes the fever from Peter’s mother in Law we have seen that. But this, calming the storm, who in the world, who in the history of the world can do that? heres a hint: only God.

Only God can do this. If we were to go and do a survey of the Psalms we would see that one of the ways that God’s power is proclaimed is by saying that he is the one who can calm the storms. We look In Isaiah, there were a couple of passage where we saw that god is the one who rules over the chaos of the sea. he is still Lord. The question of Isaiah was will you trust him and Matthew is asking that same question here. What sort of man can calm the storm? what sort of man has the authority to say these things? it is only God and will you trust him? and once we realize that one the other questions get even easier to ask. Who gets rebuked? it is the one that don’t trust God enough, God in the PERSON of jesus Christ. we have to put all out faith in him the God/Man the one in whom the fullness of God was veiled in human flesh, conceived of the holy spirit born of the virgin Mary. So the reason that you are being rebuked is THAT is the greatest miracle in the history of all time and it was done for us and for our salvation. Here came God he calmed the sea and the waves to show his power. Trust him! If you can’t trust him because you don’t have enough faith well then my friend you need to be rebuked. DO BETTER. Trust him more. When you face storms and trials TRUST HIM MORE. He came to earth he died for your sins what else do you need him to do? trust him more. Be his disciple. Follow him, you will experience miracle after miracle serving Jesus. He saves you, he sanctifies you.

What sort of man is this? when we understand this passage i showing us who Jesus is then what falls out of focus is my storms, what falls out of focus is the troubles i am facing today, what falls out of focus are the things that trip me up and take my attention and keep me from doing what god has called me to do, and what comes into crystal clear focus is the glory and beauty of my savior. Jesus calms the storm, we ought to praise worship and adore him. Lets pray!

PRAY