Learning Christ is Lord of the Storm

[00:00:00] And let's go back to Matthew, chapter number eight. [00:00:05] Matthew, chapter eight, Matthew eight. [00:00:18] Just with a brief review from this morning, I think that Matthew, chapter eight, at least as far as the narrative is concerned, I don't know about as it relates to the actual events in the moment, but as it's recorded by Matthew, I think the verses 18 down through what we'll read tonight, verse 27, are actually intended to be one lesson. I think they're intended to be one lesson, and I mentioned that this morning because you see this repetition of the idea of follow. But there is one other theme that is repeated throughout this whole section. So you see follow in verse number 19, the scribe says, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And then in verse number 22, you see Jesus telling the man to follow him. And then in verse number 23, which is where we'll start tonight, the disciples followed him into the ship. And so there's a theme of following the Lord which is present in each of these. But there's one other theme. And that theme that you see in both, kind of from one passage to the other, is, you might say, what is the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this morning we talked about the how that the Lord lays claim and asserts his place as our Lord. He does not take second place. And even though sometimes it might grate on our sensibilities, the fact that Jesus, in such a sensitive time in someone's life, the burial of their father, assuming he had died, that's an open question. [00:02:09] Yet the Lord, the Lord asserts his place, his place of preeminence in every situation and over every relationship that we might have. So in the first two verses, in the first two, the first section here, rather, you see the Lord basically saying, I am the Lord. That is my place, that is who I am. [00:02:35] And that same theme is, is going to be carried over in a different form in the second part of this narrative. So let's start reading. In verse number 23, we'll read to 27. The Bible says, and when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. [00:02:54] And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves. But he was asleep and his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, lord, save us, we perish. Now, I just read that in a rather calm, sort of unemotional way, maybe a little bit of emotion. I do not think it was spoken in that way, though. I think it was probably spoken in utter panic. All right, but we'll get back to that in a second verse. 26. And he saith unto them, why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? [00:03:45] Would you pray with me tonight? [00:03:49] Lord, as we come to you? We come in the name of our Lord and Savior. And we ask you. Well, first of all, we acknowledge that we have no power or ability, not certainly not to preach or teach your word and not even to understand it, except that you open our eyes and give us understanding and be our teacher. So, Lord, would you do that tonight? And Lord, I pray that you would help your people. As we look at this storm that your disciples endured following you. And Lord, I don't know what things you might want to teach your people tonight. It might be something completely different than what I have, what I've prepared. But, Lord, you are able to use your word in a way that will help your people and strengthen them. And I pray that tonight you would do that, Lord, increase our faith. Lord, show us more about yourself, because that's really what it's all about. [00:04:47] And Lord, we commit the service to you. Lord, help me to say what it is I need to say and refrain from what it is I don't need to say. And most of all, that the name of Christ would be glorified. [00:04:59] And so we commit this time to you in Jesus name. Amen. [00:05:04] So in verse number 23, they entered into a ship. Now, this ship is. This is a fishing ship. This is not anything similar to what we would call a ship. [00:05:17] This would be a sailing vessel, a fishing vessel made of wood. The Sea of Galilee, of course, is about 13 miles by 8 miles. So it's in the shape of a heart. [00:05:28] But because of the steep rocks. And I've never been to Israel. I want to go. But I've been looking at videos and pictures and things to see, kind of get a scale of what's described in scripture. [00:05:42] But you can see mountains all around the Sea of Galilee. You know, hills, cliffs, things like that, all around the Sea of Galilee. And that creates for a turbulent atmosphere. And so what happens is that the wind will come down the cliffs and the mountains that surround it. And it kind of collides at the Sea of Galilee, which is far below sea level. And it creates storms that are kind of hard to predict. And I actually saw. I mentioned this morning, but I saw some videos of the Sea of Galilee during a storm. And when you talk about, you know, you know, the churning of the sea, you know, the churning of the water. And these videos were taken not from a boat, but were taken from shore. And just like you would see in a storm on the ocean where the waves are coming in and there's large breakers and splashing up on the seawall and that kind of thing, this is exactly this churning of the Sea of Galilee. It's violent. It's violent. You would not want to be on a boat the width of this room, roughly 40ft. You would not want to be on a boat that size, really. Any boat but that size, Especially on the Sea of Galilee during. During a storm. That is not something you or I would want to be a part of. And then added to that is the. Is the fact that this is at night. [00:07:00] How many of you have ever been on a body of water at night? Has anybody. [00:07:05] How many of you have ever been on the ocean at night where you could not see land? [00:07:10] It's kind of eerie, isn't it? Just black. [00:07:15] Remember, there's no electricity, so there's no lights on the hill. Right? [00:07:20] There's no way at all. I mean, and if it's a storm, that means it's cloudy. So it is dark. There's no starlight. There's no moonlight. It is dark. Okay. You can't see any lights, street lights or anything like we would in our time. It is just black everywhere, right? That'd be kind of scary. That'd be very scary. Actually, it was even scary for the experienced fishermen among the Lord's disciples. And it was common to fish at night. So it's not like they had never been on the Sea of Galilee at night. They had. And yet they're terrified. Even still, they're terrified. [00:07:57] But the first thing I want you to see, I want to pose a question to you. So go back to verse number 18. [00:08:06] Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. So I imagine the scripture doesn't say here, but I imagine it's probably in the afternoon. [00:08:18] The multitudes are there. And I know there are other scriptures that indicate that they crossed the Sea of Galilee at night. And he would dismiss the multitude and then get into the ship. When he walked on the water in Matthew 14, that was what happened. That's why he walked out on the water at night. So this was not uncommon. And we also see the Lord sleeping. So the idea was you get a ferry from one side to the other. That's when you take your nap. And then when you wake up, you know it's getting close to morning on the other side. [00:08:44] And so he gave the commandment to depart on the other side. So there is no question that the disciples are in the will of God. You get that? There is no question. They are just exactly where Jesus wants them. [00:09:03] They're obedient. They're walking with him, right? They're following him. [00:09:09] Now the question I want to pose is this. [00:09:13] Did not Jesus know that this storm was brewing or that it would happen? Did he not know that? [00:09:25] You see, that's when you come at this story, at this event, you come at it with a few kind of presuppositions. And one of those is that Jesus knew very well what was about to happen. Because. And we have to understand this is an example of the providence of God in our lives. When we follow him. It is a fact that our Lord knows just exactly what we will face. The trouble, the difficulty. Of course, we never talk about the good will face, which he knows that too. We always talk about the storm. But seeing how we're looking at a storm tonight, that's what we're going to focus on. [00:10:04] These disciples are following him, and he is well aware of what's about to happen in just a few hours. He is well aware of that. [00:10:13] And because they are following him, notice 23 again. And when he was entered into a ship, he, his disciples followed him. Now, I know that's just part of the narrative. I know that's just part of the narrative. But the truth that's here is that they are following Jesus. They're doing what Jesus says they are. You know, visualize. We've done this before, but just visualize Jesus is walking onto the ship and they are walking right behind him. You can't say they're not in the will of God. They are. And the Lord, knowing that they are in the will of God, knows just exactly what they're about to face. And because they are following Jesus and because they are doing as he has told them to do. [00:10:57] Now, I want you to get this. [00:11:00] Whatever it is that they face during that period that they're following Jesus, whatever it is, think about what Jesus knows versus their ignorance of what's about to happen. Whatever they face while following him, it is something that is in the providence of God, right? So I know sometimes as believers, we get out of the will of God and God corrects us with unfavorable circumstances, if I can put it like that. But this is Not a case like that. This is unfavorable circumstances while following Jesus. [00:11:36] And he knew very well. [00:11:39] And because of all of those things, you put it together, here's what we come away with while we are following Jesus. [00:11:47] Every circumstance which he is well aware of in advance, right? This is the providence of God. Every circumstance is in some way, fashion or form sanctified by him for his use. [00:12:04] Every circumstance. You know why? Because you are following Him. You understand? When they. And visualize it literally when they got on that boat, that storm, of course, was in the will and the providence of God. And Jesus was going to use it in their lives, right? He was going to teach them some things through it. [00:12:27] And you know, I'm thinking, I think of Sister Linda. You know, she told me a minute ago that she was. She's on her 14th surgery. She blamed her husband. But anyway, she's on her 14th surgery tomorrow. [00:12:42] Now, number one, we know that God is a God of providence and he is well aware. He was well aware of this before it arrived, even though Ms. Linda might not have been aware of it. [00:12:53] Number two, Ms. Linda and her husband are trying their best to follow Jesus. Right? Do I got that right? Okay. Just confirmation. They're trying to follow Jesus. Therefore, we conclude that this unhappy or unfortunate situation that requires surgery is one of the storms that the Lord has sanctified to use in their lives. You understand that? You can't see it any other way. You can't see it any other way. God is able to use even evil, and he does. That doesn't mean he approves of it, for he certainly does not. But he uses even. How many of you have ever have ever been sinned against? Right? Someone has harmed you, have sinned against you, and yet God used it. He sanctified even that, even though it was not his will. He sanctified it for good. For you, somehow, some way. That's only what God can do. But this is what. This is what happens in the following of the Lord Jesus. [00:13:55] Matthew Henry said this. I quoted him this morning, just same passage. He said this. I appreciated it. One would have expected that having Christ with them, they should have had a very favorable gale, but it was quite otherwise. Is that not what we expect? We think that if I'm following Jesus, it's going to be smooth sailing. Who told us that? [00:14:21] Who told us that? [00:14:24] This instance alone should undo all that. They are following Jesus and they have no idea they're about to go into a storm. But they are. We have the benefit of the, you know, the Omniscience, at least in this story, we can see there's a storm and they're following Jesus. So forget the idea that if we follow Jesus, we're not going to have health problems. If we follow Jesus, we're not going to have relational problems. If we follow Jesus, then we're not going to have difficulties and troubles and trials of our faith. That is bogus. That's baloney. It's not going to happen. [00:14:56] It wasn't true of the disciples. It's not true of you and me, as much as we don't like it, and they didn't like it either. [00:15:02] But at the end, we're going to see that this is an important point in their lives. But Matthew Henry, I guess in the 1600s. I think he was in the 1600s. Anybody give me a nod. I think he's in the 1600s. Matthew Henry pointed out something we see a lot. If I follow Jesus, we should have a favorable gale, but that's not the way we view it. [00:15:26] We have to remember that we have come up in a atheistic kind of world, and we have a tendency to view everything as kind of an atheistic chance in our lives, right? Oh, no. This storm, what a misfortune. No, no, no. If you're. If you're following Jesus, it is not a misfortune. We have to look at it like. Well, obviously you come at it the moment you see the clouds on the horizon. Man, I am not looking forward to that. [00:15:57] Well, I guess it'd be hard to see clouds at night when there's no light. But just. Just use your imagination a little bit. [00:16:04] But when you see that storm, you have to remember there is nothing that can come into my life, no trouble, no difficulty that the Lord Jesus has not sanctified for my good. [00:16:24] That's just a biblical fact. [00:16:34] One more thing I want you to see from this is that the difficulty that they had was what I might term a natural difficulty. [00:16:40] I say natural because it dealt with the weather, and I say natural because I'm contrasting that with a difficulty that might arise from, for instance, from persecution, which. Which we know sometimes that the Lord said, like we saw this morning, carrying the cross. Sometimes difficulties arise from persecution, from association with his name. But that's not what's happening here. This is a natural difficulty that has arisen from their life, from the natural world, just life, you know, bodies breaking down, stuff messing up, accidents, things that we, as well as everyone in the world deals with on a regular basis. [00:17:21] So even believers, like unbelievers, Just like someone that might have been on the Sea of Galilee that night, as well as those in this ship also had to deal with this storm in the same way. [00:17:32] The difference was that this group had Jesus with them, whereas the others didn't. Right. And that's a significant difference. [00:17:46] And so we remind ourselves that the providence of God is there sanctifying the trouble. [00:17:56] Right? Because he knew in advance he could have stopped it. He could have prevented it. If Jesus calmed the storm, could he not have prevented it? Well, of course. [00:18:08] So he didn't as an act of the will. Right. That's kind of hard for us to grapple with. Right. [00:18:17] But this goes to the core of the question, I think, which is the core of this section. In here, rooted in our knowledge of who Jesus is, is the knowledge of what he knows in our lives. Is Jesus the God of Providence in your life? If you know that, then it follows that you know that he knows what's coming in your life. See, it's all about who Jesus is to you, whether. Whether you acknowledge who he is or whether you think you're just floating through this. And Jesus is not really the God of providence, but he is, because we know who Jesus is. We know what he knows our lives. So this whole event from the perspective of the disciples is really about, is really all about who Jesus is. What do I mean that? Psalm 107. 25. Just listen to these verses. [00:19:19] For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. Now, in this passage, we see Jesus calming the stormy wind, which is Psalm 17:29. It says this. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. So we see in Scripture that God is described as the one who calms the storm. But a few verses above that he says he maketh. He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof. So we always concentrate on the calming. But we forget the God of Providence who commanded them to get into the ship, knowing full well that there was a storm. Right. [00:20:05] The second thing I want you to see is that Jesus is with them in the storm. [00:20:12] Jesus was with them in the storm, as I said. Notice that verse 23. And this is a very simple point. This is a very simple point. Number verse 23. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. [00:20:31] So we saw already that the tempest arose as they were following Jesus, but by virtue of them following Jesus. And this is why it's so important for you and for me to daily walk with the Lord. Listen, if every day you and I are walking with God, seeking to do his will, and listen, all of us do it in a way that is faulty, okay? None of us does this perfectly right. But if we're walking with the Lord and we are indeed following him, by the very definition of the word, that means that he is with us, does it not? Because he's in front and we're following Him. That's what it means. So that means wherever he goes and whatever thing that I experience, he is also experiencing it, right? [00:21:29] He is with me in that thing. [00:21:33] In this case, in a very literal sense, Jesus was in the boat. You know why? Because he went on the boat first, and then they went down into the boat with Jesus. So by virtue of their following him, he's with them in the storm. They are not alone. They're not forsaken. [00:21:54] Jesus is with them. That is one of the most comforting things to a believer, and that's what I said is the difference between everybody else who was on the lake that night and this boat. This boat. [00:22:05] The disciples that were in this boat had Jesus with them. [00:22:09] Whatever situation, whatever situation that we come upon, he is in that Circumstance with us. Ms. Linda, when you go into surgery tomorrow, you're not going alone. [00:22:22] Jesus is with you there because you're following Him. You see that? [00:22:30] So we go down to verse number 24 and 5. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves. But he was asleep, and his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, lord, save us. We perish. [00:22:49] When I read this, you know what I thought? I thought, man, what an apt illustration of salvation. [00:22:55] It's such an appropriate illustration of salvation. Just think about this. Just brainstorm with me a little bit about. About this cry. [00:23:06] They recognize. It's just four things. They recognize the true danger of their condition, right? They were not dead. They say, we perish. They were not dead, but they were about to be, right? The gravity of their situation was not lost on them. They understood that this was a matter of life and death. The word perish here, same as in John 3:16. This is dealing with. This is dealing with the physical. John 3:16 is dealing with the spiritual. But the same word is used, we're perishing. It's a recognition of the danger. And that is. Listen, when someone comes to Christ and trusts in him, there is absolutely a recognition of the danger. Listen, it is not enough to say, you know what? I think this Christian life is a pretty cool thing. What I want to do, no, there's a recognition of danger. You cannot be confronted with the law of God and its condemnation and not become alarmed at the danger that you're in. The wrath of God abideth on him. That's danger. You're not dead yet. But we perish. You see that we perish. So there's that recognition. [00:24:22] And again, remember that it was the experienced fishermen that were on this ship. So if they are afraid, there is real danger. This is not just, oh, no, I've never been on the lake. No, they are actually in real danger. The second thing is this. They came to Jesus in earnest. [00:24:42] You can tell, because Jesus rebukes their fear. [00:24:45] You imagine there's probably fear, fear on their face, right? When Jesus sees them and the way they're acting, it's obvious that they're fearful. So they came to Jesus in earnest. As a result of that, and knowing the true danger of their condition, it's no surprise that they came in earnest to the Lord Jesus. [00:25:06] But here's the question. If someone comes to Christ, if someone claims to put their faith in Christ, but there is no earnestness at all. [00:25:15] There's no sense of urgency, there's no sense of danger. [00:25:22] There's nothing of that sort. What does that say? Do they really believe that they're in a perilous condition? I'm not talking about emotions. I'm talking about earnestness. Earnestness. You know, sometimes when we're sharing the gospel with people, sometimes it's best to just let them stew a while, right? [00:25:44] Until they. Sometimes what the Puritans will say is, until they got in good and earnest. But what they're talking about is essentially this. They're talking about until they came and came to really understand that they needed it was a serious matter. [00:26:02] And that's what you see here. Third thing, this is an apt illustration of salvation because they came to the right person. [00:26:10] You know, you think about all they're trying to do. There was a lot of people. There were fishermen, they were seamen. They knew how to, you know, they knew how to do the rigging and all of those things on the ship, but they didn't go there. Had they gone there, it would have been vain. But they didn't go there. They went to. Now, it's funny, because why did they go to Jesus? He wasn't a sailor. He doesn't know anything about that. But yet they went to him. So there's something there. [00:26:36] They at least, at a minimum, whatever their faith might have been, they at least recognized that he was the solution. [00:26:44] They didn't go to others, they came to the right person. And you know what? By coming to the right person, they ceased their own attempts to save themselves in the ship. Yeah. Not going to the other men who are experienced, not going to anyone else, not even trying to do it themselves. That's done. They've ceased. Now they're going to one person. [00:27:10] And this illustrates the truth about salvation. Because there's all kinds of things people trust in and think that forgive their sin and help God save them, or means of grace, as they call it, which is just another word for work, salvation. But there's all kinds of things like that that men rely on. But when they finally get to the point that they come to Jesus, they come to the right person, they have to depart from the other in order to come to Him. [00:27:41] Right. They have to let go of one to embrace the other. Right. And that's kind of the idea of repentance a little bit at least as it regards as regarding faith. That's the idea. They had to stop going to everybody else to try to figure out the problem so they could go to Jesus. And that was the right answer. [00:28:00] Now, the fourth thing is this. [00:28:04] Well, before I get there, so you can see they came to the right person. Here's what you can see. You can see faith, can you not? [00:28:14] The very fact they came to Jesus was an act of faith. [00:28:18] He's not a sailor. So they're trusting in something about him that is going to solve their problem. Right. That's going to save them, in fact. Save them. [00:28:35] You've probably heard people say, well, faith is a work. Some people have actually tried to read. Brother David knows what I'm talking about, where people try to redefine faith as if you exercise faith, it's somehow some sort of work. [00:28:49] In this example, this faith that they demonstrate, it's actually the precise opposite of that. They didn't come to Jesus because they were trying to do some good thing to prove how good they were. No, they came to Jesus because they were perishing. [00:29:04] That's the fundamental definition of faith, is there was no other hope. [00:29:10] They threw themselves at the Lord Jesus for his power, for his deliverance. [00:29:20] That's not any merit of theirs. In fact, it's rather the opposite. We have no merit at all. You know, they're not using, well, I believe, and so therefore I deserve you to. It wasn't that at all. I have no hope. That's, that's. You see, you can pick up the heart attitude here and Then lastly, they called upon the Lord. [00:29:40] I don't think they said the sinner's prayer, just saying. [00:29:45] In fact, their call was only two words. Actually two words. And then a second section. He said, lord, save us, we perish. [00:29:56] Five words in total. [00:30:00] Their cry was brief and simple, but it was from a heart trusting wholly and only in Jesus. [00:30:13] In other words, it was a cry of faith. [00:30:17] So when the Bible says in Romans 10:13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, that's what it's talking about right here. It's not talking about a formula that we repeat. It's talking about a cry of faith. [00:30:31] Isn't that simple? Isn't that so simple? Just some sinner knowing his perilous condition, knowing he has no other hope, seeing no way out of this except Jesus looks at him and says, lord, save me. [00:30:48] That's it. That's it. That cry of faith. Cry of faith. What a perfect illustration of salvation. Let's keep reading here. [00:31:00] Verse 26. And he saith unto them, why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Now you compare. Of course they're afraid. That's obvious now. Now compare what Jesus is doing to what they're doing. Jesus is asleep. Is Jesus afraid? Jesus is not afraid. Now, what you might not know is that Jesus actually also exercised faith in his Father as a man when he was on earth. That's part of his humanity. He exercised faith. As an example, when you see Jesus, in contrast to the disciples, panic. You see Jesus sleeping. This is the only recorded time in scripture that Jesus sleeps. [00:31:40] Well, you see, and it's interesting that he's the only time it's recorded. He's sleeping in the midst of all this. Yeah, of course he's sleeping. So is Jesus afraid? No. [00:31:50] You know why? [00:31:51] Because he has perfect faith. [00:31:55] There's no room for fear. 100% faith, 0% is left for fear, right? That's what Jesus says in this passage. He says, why are you so fearful? [00:32:07] Where's your faith? So there's a relationship. And we talked about this on Wednesday night, remember? There's a relationship between fear and faith, fear and faith. [00:32:21] As the faith bar diminishes, so the fear bar expands. [00:32:27] And so that's the way they interact with one another. Jesus has no fear. He's asleep. [00:32:33] He's not scared at all. [00:32:36] Because obviously his faith is perfect. It's not faulty, like ours is often faulty. [00:32:43] And so in our trouble, we got to remember that faith, fear and faith are in competition. [00:32:50] And whenever our faith Staggers, the result is fear. [00:32:56] And when the result of fear is what we see in verse 25. But in the parallel passage, the disciples came to him, verse 25, and awoke him, saying, lord, save us, we perish. In Mark or Luke, I don't remember which it is. It says, carest thou not that we perish? See, the fear brought into question the care of the Lord Jesus. So now it's not a matter of ability. Now it's not a matter even of the trouble. It's impugning the character of Christ. You know, that's where staggering faith leading to fear, questioning the Lord's grace and mercy and kindness toward us. [00:33:46] That's. That's often how it goes. [00:33:52] We should never call into question our Lord's care of us. [00:33:57] So Jesus says to them, he says, why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? [00:34:04] What is Jesus rebuking? [00:34:07] Is Jesus rebuking their asking for help? No. [00:34:12] I think it seems pretty evident here that Jesus is rebuking their panicked reaction out of fear. That's what he's rebuking because he says, why are you fearful? In other words, I think he would expect. If there's a storm and everything's going crazy and they don't know what to do, and they. And there's waves coming over and the boat is filling with water, I would expect that Jesus would expect them to say, lord, can you help, please? [00:34:41] I would expect that. [00:34:44] But they don't come to him like that. They come to him in a panic. And so Jesus rebukes not their asking for help, but their panic out of fear. You see, if their faith in Christ had been present, this is a key thing to remember. Their faith meter might have been at 100%, but that wouldn't have changed the situation. That doesn't mean that there's no storm because their Faith is at 100%. Remember, Jesus is in the boat, too. His faith meter is at 100%. And there is still a storm. Do you see that? There is still a storm. [00:35:16] But if their faith meter had been 100%, their response would have been different. [00:35:29] The storm would not have been different. Their response would have been different because the fear would not have been there. Or it would have been far, far less. Their faith would not have prevented the storm, but it would have transformed them within it. [00:35:45] Right now, think about yourself and the trouble that you've been through and the trouble. There are so many things you could put into that category. It could be physical trouble, could be relational, could be. [00:35:59] It could be accident things it could be bad news. [00:36:02] There's just so many things I hesitate to even try to give examples. But you know the trouble. Things that you don't want to go through again, right? [00:36:13] How many times has the Lord taught you this in trouble? [00:36:18] Think about it. After you pass through the trouble, and I know this is true of me. After you pass through the trouble, I have felt ashamed at myself. The trouble's over. The Lord has delivered me and given me grace. And after the trouble's over, I look back and I think, man, stupid. Why were you so afraid? [00:36:43] Why were you so afraid? You were. I mean, the Lord was with you. You were in his will doing what he wanted you to do. Why were you so afraid? [00:36:55] You look back and you just beat yourself up. Why are you so afraid? And it's the same thing that the Lord is saying here. [00:37:03] He's saying, why are you so fearful? [00:37:07] I think the Spirit of God has taught us that in our trouble. Because in our trouble, we did not. How many of you have been through trouble in some way, fashion or form in your life? And you know you did not handle it well. [00:37:19] All of us have. We come through it and we know. We're ashamed. Shame. We should have had more faith. We should have reacted better. We should have trusted God. We know after the fact because he showed that despite our fear and all of those things, he didn't waver at all. But we should have believed him and trusted him in that and committed it to him in such a way that it didn't trouble us as much. But we didn't, and we feel ashamed at that. And the Lord's teaching us the same lesson. He says after the fact, why are you so fearful? [00:37:49] Where's your faith? [00:37:51] Don't you trust me? [00:37:53] Whether we trust him or not, he's going to do the same thing, right? That ship wasn't going down no matter what. [00:38:01] Their faith meter could have been zero and that ship was not going down, right? That ship could have been. That ship could have been made of concrete and could have been, I don't know, something you say. I say that, and I'm like, well, the ships now are made of steel and they somehow managed to float. But anyway, that ship was not going down no matter their faith. [00:38:28] So what about next time you beat yourself up? I beat myself up, right. That I didn't handle the trouble well, right? [00:38:40] And the Lord taught me, I am faithful, I am with you, I'm going to deliver you, and I'm going to give you grace. [00:38:49] So what about next time? [00:38:51] This Experience would shape the future storms that they would go through. [00:38:57] And their faith in Christ as a result of that, even though they did not perform well here at all, would grow and mature. [00:39:05] And as a result of their growth in faith, fear would diminish in the same measure because they're related. [00:39:14] So this is the relationship between fear and faith. Next thing is, the storm was necessary. [00:39:24] The storm was necessary. [00:39:28] Look at verse number 23. [00:39:30] And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. [00:39:35] As far as we know, in verse 25, the disciples are mentioned again, as far as we know, the only people here are the disciples. [00:39:44] You have a boat with followers of Jesus and Jesus. Does everybody see that? That's all this out here? They're on a big lake, eight by 13. Somebody do the math. How many square miles is that? It's a lot. [00:39:59] That's if it's a rectangle, but it's a heart shape. [00:40:03] Brother David's like, yeah, that's not the formula you'd use. [00:40:07] And you're right, you're right. [00:40:10] This lake is huge. Right? It's big. [00:40:15] There is nobody else around that knows what's happening. [00:40:19] Nobody else around. [00:40:22] This experience and this miracle is limited to those who were, number one, Christ's disciples, because they were the only ones on the ship. And number two, it was limited to those who were willing to endure the storm with him. [00:40:44] Right? [00:40:47] What these disciples learned about Jesus are things that Jesus teaches and shows his disciples that he doesn't show to everybody else. [00:41:00] Everybody on the shore sleeping soundly in their bed on terra firma, as they say, firm ground. [00:41:06] They didn't see any of this. And consequently they didn't learn anything of Jesus. What did they learn? [00:41:13] What manner of man is this? They didn't get that because they didn't see it. [00:41:20] They didn't see it. There was no way for anybody else who was not on that ship to learn from this, to grow from this. [00:41:31] You see, there is no way to know and to see and to experience the deliverance and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, except that we're with him in the storm. You see, the only way to know Christ's power, the only way to know and to be certain that Christ's power could be manifested is if there is a storm and we're in it. So that tells us that the storm itself is a means that the Lord teaches us about Himself, and it's something he teaches us about himself, that we can't know any other way. [00:42:15] The storm is necessary. See that they're going to Learn something about Jesus. This is not going to be the last storm. The next storm that comes is going to be a little bit different. Jesus is not going to be with them at all. [00:42:27] That's in the walking on the water. But here's the thing. Whatever they learned, however their faith grew, it only grew. They only learned because they were in the storm. [00:42:40] You can't learn those things without the trouble. [00:42:44] So the Lord, as much as I don't like saying what I'm saying, to be honest with you. So the Lord in His providence brings trouble because he's teaching us things about Himself. [00:43:00] He's showing us things that can only be learned in the storm. [00:43:04] And he's showing things that he only teaches to his disciples who are following him that this world doesn't know. They don't know all this stuff. It's the secret of the Lord. [00:43:22] I know you have met people who have been through very, very serious trials. Probably far serious than the difficulties that you yourself have experienced. You've probably come across some people like that. And you see the joy. You see the trust in God. You see the way they respond to it, and it's like superhuman. How many of you have met somebody like that? You cannot believe that they respond to such an unspeakable difficulty. [00:43:54] And they're just. [00:43:55] But the only reason that that could be is because of the difficulty. [00:44:04] It's a difficult thing for us to process. [00:44:09] The last thing I want you to see is the Lord of the storm, they said in verse 27. But the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this? So again, you remember what I said. I said this whole question is really about who Jesus is. That's really what it's all about. Who is Jesus? And the answer in this case is he's the Lord of the storm. [00:44:32] He's the Lord of the storm. [00:44:34] These disciples learned something about their Lord that they had not known. And in fact, they had learned something about their Lord that they could not have known because they had never seen him calm a storm. And the only way they could do that is if they're in the storm. And they are. [00:44:51] So listen. Every new thing, every new nuance or characteristic or quality or ability that we learn about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ strengthens our faith. [00:45:04] Our whole Christian life, our whole Christian walk is really. If you really distill it down to its basic elements is this. It is all about him and what we know of Him. In other words, our Christian life is not just dry doctrines. Right? It's not doctrines on a doctrinal statement, that's all important, but that's not all it is. [00:45:25] This was not doctrine for them. Now we know the doctrine is Jesus has power over nature. All right? That's your doctrinal statement, right? There's your doctrinal statement. Are you happy? But they didn't just learn that. They learned by experience that that was true. [00:45:44] It was beyond the doctrinal statement to the doctrinal. We might say experience. [00:45:50] And that's what the Lord wants to teach us. He wants to teach us something about himself. Because when we know more about the person of Christ, not just doctrines, but the person by experience he teaches us, he grows our faith, he gives us joy, and he helps us as his disciples, to increase and to grow. [00:46:18] When I thought about these disciples, thought about us. [00:46:24] Do you believe Jesus is the Lord of the storm? [00:46:28] You believe that? Have you ever cried out to him with your prayers in such a way that your prayers are rooted, based in the knowledge and trust that Jesus is indeed the Lord of the sea and the Lord of the sky? Have your prayers risen to the point, right? Have my prayers risen to the point where we were willing to ask something really wild and crazy, believing, Lord, you calmed the storm. [00:47:02] You can do anything. [00:47:04] You can do anything. Have you ever asked God to change the weather? Have you ever asked God to do something wild and crazy, right? [00:47:13] That's rooted in this truth? Jesus, you are. [00:47:16] You are the Lord of the storm. What. [00:47:20] What is the boundary of what you might ask the Lord knowing that, right? I mean, there's almost no boundary that you can think of, certainly no natural boundary. [00:47:32] Why? [00:47:33] Because we've seen something about the person of Christ. [00:47:39] Let's pray together.