Bibles to Luke chapter 8. Luke
chapter 8. Also keep your hand tied to Psalm
107. We will make some applications
to both sides today. Luke chapter 8. And you may also follow me in
your pastor's commentary. There are a number of points
there of which we will also be considering. As we continue to
go through the book of Luke, His objective and his purpose
is to cause us to marvel at and awe at not only the work of Jesus
Christ Himself, which is something that stupefies us if we are privileged
to contemplate who He is and what He does. The most wonderful
thing you can do with your mind is to think about Jesus. And the most marvelous thing
you can do with your eyes is to imagining and contemplate
and visualize His glorious person and work. I think God made our
mind and our bodies designed to exalt Him and to marvel at
Him as He reveals Himself to us in Christ. But one of the
things I note as I am working through the Gospel of Luke in
relationship to Christ, and I hope that this will be something that
you will take away from our series in the book of Luke, is just
how intimately Christ works with his people. How intimately Christ
works with his people. Do you know that the Lord Jesus
Christ works uniquely and distinctly, differently with every one of
his people? That there are no two people
alike in the kingdom of God. I mean, we all ultimately will
look alike, but the manner in which God deals with us is so
unique that we are all individual snowflakes, if I can use that
as a metaphor, in the hand of the potter. And to be able to
see and distinguish that as he deals with you, as the clay on
the wheel should be to your privilege and joy that Christ pays special
attention to you. Now let me ask you a couple of
questions as we make our way into our message. How far is Jesus Christ willing to go
to save a sinner? How far is the Son of God willing
to go to save a sinner? And the second question I want
to raise in relationship to this thought as we lay a foundation
is this. How much is the Son of God Willing
to go through in order to redeem his elect Aren't those good questions
and see they really are actually the premise for our contacts
Our Lord and his disciples are going somewhere aren't they?
I mean, you don't just take a trip nowhere Do you I mean some people
do that, you know, I'm just going anywhere get in the car and go
anyway But God doesn't do that. Do you know God has a purpose
for everything that he does? I He has a grand purpose for
everything that he does. And so here's the question I
want to raise to you, and I want you to think about this if you
know the Lord. How far did Christ go to get
you? See, now it's a little bit different,
isn't it? And how much difficulty did he
go through to successfully redeem you? See, we're still dealing
with what I call the theme of our series, and that is the priority
of the gospel. So the title of our message is
the priority of the gospel, our journey with Christ, the priority
of the gospel and our journey with Christ. How far will Christ
go? He will go as far as necessary
to get his people. It doesn't matter where they
are. He will go to the deepest, darkest regions of the universe
to redeem his people. What will he go through? He will
go through hell to deliver one of his elect out of the jaws
of death. That's how good our shepherd
is. like David's valiant men in the book of Psalms on a snowy
and cold day. They went down into a pit, slew
a lion just to bless King David. So is the Holy Ghost in the ministry
of Christ reaching out and finding lost sinners where they are.
And I mean, lost sinners are in dark places, aren't they?
Next week, the Lord willing, we are going to look at a man
in our account that looks just like you. And we are going to
see what it takes to save a sinner. Today I want to simply talk about
the journey, the journey, the journey that Christ took and
the journey that you and I have to take. Needless to say, you
and I believe that Jesus is a man of war, don't you? Don't you
believe he's a man of war? Our lowly Savior, the Prince of Peace,
is also a man of war. That's his name, Jehovah, Lord
of hosts. And he doesn't mind fighting
battles to redeem sinners because he gets glory out of it. Do you
know the disciples are about to learn of who this man of war
is right now? And you and I, if we are Christ,
as we walk with him and he walks with us, one of the things we
better hurry up and learn is our Savior is a man of war. He
doesn't play. But as we walk with Christ, you
will learn some things about him that you never ever knew. You know, as we walk with him
and as we go about our daily lives and we discover more and
more about Christ, doesn't it cause you to raise the same question
that these disciples did? Who is this man? Who is this
man? Well, let's see if I can help
you with that in our first point. I want us to Consider the imperative
the command that our lord gave in luke chapter 8 verse 22 the
latter part notice what it says Let us go over unto the other
side of the lake you guys see that That's our first point. Let us go over to the other side
of the lake. And I submit to you that what
this describes is the journey of the Christian as he serves
with Christ and for Christ. And here's the proposition that
I want to raise as we contemplate these few verses. Living for
Christ is an adventure. When you live for the Lord Jesus
Christ, there should never be a day in your life where you
are bored. When you are living for Christ
and walking with Christ, the God of the universe, there should
never be a boring day in your life. Now, I don't mean by boring,
mundane and normative and repetitive. I've said that before. Thank
God for normalcy. I thank Him for 24-hour cycles.
I thank Him for sleeping in the same bed for 20 years, as my
wife reminds me, which you know what we're arguing about right
now, right? New bed. I thank him for the same wife
that sleeps next to me still in that Ragdoll bed. And I thank
God for normalcy. I thank him for a seven-day week.
I thank him for what he calls me to do five days a week, preach
and teach. I thank God for normalcy. And
when I say that our lives are not boring, I am not saying that
our lives are changing, topsy-turvy and different every time we turn
around so that there's no order to it, no simplicity. clarity. Can I put this out to you? Can
I talk to you today? Here, what you want to do is order your
life. Don't think that being led by the Spirit means to find
yourself in some of the strangest situations every day without
some sense of order. The Lord orders the steps of
his people and order is part of God's character and order
is supposed to be part of our character as well. But in the
orderly, daily, mundane things of life, if we are walking with
Christ, this is not true, He opens up doors and creates situations
in the normalcy of our life where we come to experience something
new, something revelatory, something different, something profound,
and sometimes, and more frequently, something very challenging. If
you walk with Jesus, let me share something with you. Your journey
with Christ is going to be very, very, very trying. If you are Christ, He's going
to try you as you walk with Him and He walks with you. That is
the Christian life. That's the Christian life. So
in our outline, our first point is that the Lord commands these
disciples to go over on the other side of the lake with him. And so under this constant consideration
of the command to go over on the other side, there are a number
of points I want you to mark. And that is first and foremost,
this. Let us go over to the other side.
is a call for you and I to learn things about Christ as we make
our journey through this world, as he manifests his redeeming
glory and his faithfulness to us in this world as we seek to
serve him. In your outline, after let us
go over to the other side, it's because he commands us that we've
got to go. It's an imperative, we've got
to go. The analogy here is of them leaving
one realm of which they are most comfortable with and going into
a realm that they had never been before. The disciples are instructed
by Christ to go to the other side. So in your outline A, under
point number one, we go because he commands us to go. Isn't that
right? We go because he commands us to go. And one of the things
we're contemplating this year as a theme is witnessing. the
commandment in the scriptures is go ye into all the world and
do what now the word that I want you to hear is the word go go
I want that word to sink down into your heart and your mind
in your spirit and grip you with the urgency of Christ's purpose
to save sinners through you And the only word that I want you
to grab is the word go. It is a generic verb. And in
fact, it's not even a verb in our original languages. But it's
the idea of you doing the will of God in terms of him seeking
and saving that which is lost. It doesn't tell us to walk. It
doesn't tell us to run. It doesn't tell us to climb.
It doesn't tell us to fly. It simply tells us to what? Go.
go and so upon you understanding the privilege of being saved
by his grace you must also understand the privilege of being called
to share the gospel with others that's what the disciples are
here now about to experience they are being now compelled
by the command of christ to go somewhere that they've never
been before they're about to experience some things of which
again I say that if you walk with Christ, there are new things
that you are learning every day. And that happens only as we go,
only as we go. And might I say this, if we were
to expand this context and take Mark's and Matthew's vision of
what's taking place in the book of Luke, if you were reading
in the book of Mark or Matthew, as it were, you know what you
would be told? Matthew would say that prior
to Christ, Telling the disciples let's launch out. This is Matthew
chapter 8 and go over to the other side He had just been at
the seashore again preaching and teaching the gospel to thousands
of people who were right there Now watch this and when he said
let us go on to the other side Only his disciples got in the
boat with him in fact the vast majority stayed on the seashore
and What's the implication pastor? Most people are comfortable with
simply sitting and listening to Jesus rather than going. That's why the account that is
taking place here of them launching from where they are to where
they're going to go focuses in on Christ and his disciples.
You see the vast majority stayed on the seashore. The command
was given abroad only a few heard the word go. Isn't that interesting? The vast majority stayed. And
in fact, in Luke's gospel, it says that some of them complained
or they gave excuses to the master like, Lord, let me go first,
bury my dead. Then I'll go. Lord, I've got
a field of crop that I have to take care of. And once I take
care of that, then I'll go. And the Lord Jesus says, go do
what you got to do. And he spoke to his disciples.
And remember, he always makes a distinction between hearers.
The distinction is between those who only hear and those who hear
and do. And in this context, the doers
are the ones who obey and climb into the boat, which is Peter's
and Andrew's boat. This is their fishing boat again.
And all the disciples get in the boat with Jesus, along with
Christ, and they are in the boat. What are they doing? They are
obeying the command to go. Are you guys hearing me so far?
and they are now about to be blessed with a revelation of
Christ of which you cannot get unless you go. See there are
some things you learn in the classroom and there are other
things you learn on the sea. There are some things you learn
in a very didactic way, there are other things you can only
learn by experience. And that's what these disciples
are about to do as they make their journey. Now, it's interesting
because I shared with you Psalm 107, because in Psalm 107, it
kind of gives us this same kind of depiction of the people of
God on a journey. And the journey is on the sea.
And the sea stands for the masses of the people. It stands for
the whole human race. But it also stands for, and I've
said this before, that topsy-turvy, unstable place of which by nature
you and I are not comfortable. That topsy-turvy unstable place
of which by nature you and I are not comfortable. Most of us,
I would be safe to say, were not born on a boat. Now somebody,
if I'm wrong, raise your hand. Is there one person in the house
born on a boat? Most of us were born on land.
And the point is, is that we are used to stability. We're
used to solid ground. We're used to firmness. But when
you get on a boat and start journeying on the water, that changes your
whole sense of perception. And with the disciples, they
are now engaged in a learning process about who Christ is and
the nature of the gospel ministry that is going to revolutionize
their understanding. They are getting ready to learn
what it means to do business in the great waters. Go back
with me in your Bible to Psalm 107. Let me show you what I'm
talking about before I develop this point. I share with you
Psalm 107 because it is a vivid illustration, a vivid illustration
of this exact point. Listen to what it says here in
Psalm 107. I'm going to start at verse 23 in Psalm 107 and
go down again through verse 29. Are you there? Listen to it.
They that go down to the what? Sea in what? Ships. Stop right there. It is clear
in the scriptures that God sets up patterns and these patterns
are often metaphors and analogies for the way in which God works
redemptively. It's just clear. Only people
who are prejudiced or have certain presuppositions will not see
these clear metaphors in the scriptures. The ship. is that
vessel or that vehicle by which God's people collectively are
working with the Lord to traverse the oceans, to traverse the seas,
to cross these large bodies of water, to reach men and women
with the gospel. Will you notice how the last
line says it here in Psalm 107, the verse we are considering,
verse 23? They that go down to the sea in what? Ships. That
do business. Business. Now what business,
ladies and gentlemen, are we about? Our Father's business,
the business of God. the business of the redemption
of sinners, the business of calling God's elect to Christ, and we
do it as wayfaring men or seafaring men calling those who are stranded
on the seas to come to Christ. Get in the ship and follow us
to the other side. Am I making some sense? This
is why in the Gospels you find this relationship with Christ
and the disciples on the ship taking place no less than four
times. And he's teaching them lessons
since they are called to be what? Fishers of men. And are we not
called to be fishers of men? And the first lesson, we call
this lesson 101. And I want you to mark this now. Lesson 101
is Jesus says, go, get in the boat and go. And on this particular
journey and in this particular lesson, watch this. Jesus goes
with us. That's lesson 101. He does that
for novel seamen. He does that for new seamen. He does that for new Christians
who don't know their way on the water. Jesus goes with us. We're
going to learn something about this toward the end of the message.
But when you gain a little more experience and a little bit more
of a nautical skill set, you know what the Lord will say?
You go to the other side and I'll meet you there. That's the
next lesson that he teaches down the line after the disciples
successfully learn from this account what it means to trust
Christ. See, sometimes Christ is going
to be in the boat with you, and at other times, he's going to
let you go in the boat all by yourself, having already learned
the lesson in the first act. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So we are in class 101, lesson 101, and this is the journey
of the Christian walking by faith with Christ in the ship. We are
doing the business of God in great waters. Here's the blessing.
We're going to see this when we get back to our text, verse
24. These see the works of the Lord. Don't you want to see God's
works and his wonders in the what? Don't you want to see God
work in this world? Don't you want to see his wonders
in this deep, vast sea of humanity? Of course you do. Now listen,
for he commanded and raiseth the stormy wind which lift up
the waves thereof. Isn't that similar to our account?
Can I talk about this for a moment? Do you know that the Lord Jesus
was very much aware that when he told his disciples to get
in that boat, to go on the other side, that all hell was going
to break loose against him? Do you know that he knew that?
Do you believe that God is sovereign? Do you believe that Christ is
God? Do you believe that he knows all things, the end from the
beginning? Do you believe that he has control over the universe
and every element in it, right down to our microorganisms? Do you know that Christ is so
in control that he can actually lead us into a storm and know
that it's going to be all right? And thus he is doing. Might I
say then when we talk about the storm, we are on what is called
the Sea of Galilee historically. This is the Sea of Galilee. This
is the regions of Christ's ministry for the first two years. He's
going to be preaching up in Gentile territory, Jewish territory,
the Galilean region, but he's going to make his way on down
to Jerusalem in order to be killed. He hasn't quite left yet. He's
still preaching in these regions and the Sea of Galilee The Galilean
Sea is a sea that's surrounded by mountains. The mountains of
Herma are surrounding the Sea of Galilee with gorges or gaps
in the mountains for which, according to our text, it allows these
currents of wind to draft down and, as it were, compile on the
waters and stir the waters up in different pockets. So the disciples should have
been used to a little wind on the sea. Except they weren't
used to this one. Can I tell you why? This one
was commanded by God. Isn't that what the text said? He commanded and raised it, the
stormy wind. And what does the wind do to
the water? Lift up the waves thereof. Now, come on now, can
we keep it real a little bit? Now, how would you feel climbing
in a 15-foot boat, let's say a 30-foot boat with 12 brothers,
and as you are headed out, the wind is blowing furiously against
you, and the wind is so powerful, they call this a hurricane. It was such a hurricane that
it lifted the waves up so high that our text says that the waves
were above the boat and splashed down on the boat so as to fill
the boat with water. Now, ain't you going to be just
a little nervous? Come on now, I just need some real people.
You're going to be just a little bit nervous, right? First time
I went out fishing with my brother, Steve, can't wait to do it again.
He's a real fervent, passionate, spirit-filled fisherman. Is Steve
here today? Well, yes, Steve. A passionate,
spirit-filled fisherman. You know what that means? He
ain't scared of nothing on that water. He's got this little boat
that I call nothing but two garbage can tops on it with a motor.
And we get in that boat and he bzzz, bzzz, bzzz on the ocean. But we've gone out there sometimes
with the waves so high, this is how it goes. The boat is here
and the wave does this, you know, where all you see is this wall,
then you see land, you see this wall, then you see land. That's
what we got going on in our text. I need to help you understand
the picture before I share with you the message. This was not
a calm journey across one part of the lake to the other. It
was 17 miles long and seven and a half miles wide. That was a
good run. And mind you, they didn't have motorboats. Are you
with me so far? Interesting in the original language
too, if we were to go back to our Luke account, I'll go there
in a moment. If you were to go back to the Luke account and
it says Jesus commanded them to launch, to go on the other
side, and they launched out to go. In the original language,
what it describes is a wind that began to take the boat and move
it from its immediate point where it was residing and started moving
it in the direction of where Jesus wanted to go. And what
that means is, after the command to go, came the current of the
wind to move the boat. After the proclamation, let us
go to the other side, came the power of the wind in obedience
to Christ's word to begin to move them in that direction.
In other words, they were not moving under their own power.
That particular verb that's being used there is a verb that Luke
uses in several places of the gospel, two places that will
help. One is when Jesus was being tested
in the wilderness by the devil. And the text tells us in Luke's
gospel, He says in chapter 2, I believe, and the devil taketh
him up into a high mountain to show him all the kingdoms of
the world. In other words, it's a verb that means that the object
now has come under the influence and power of that unseen force
and is being led by that force. When Christ tells the disciples,
let us go to the other side, the wind immediately begins to
obey him and assist him in that process. The wind moves the boat
out without the effort of the disciples. The disciples should
have said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's this? Whoa.
It quietly moved them out and began to take off. And that's
how it is when we obey God and do the gospel. The wind of God's
providence moves us in the direction that he would have us to go.
Now, sometimes in the scriptures, the wind a metaphor for the chaotic
doctrines of false prophets and false teachers designed to trip
up the Saints and cause them to stumble. Remember Ephesians
chapter 4? That we are to grow up into Christ
in all things and be no more children tossed to and fro by
every what? Wind of doctrine and the cunning
slate of men designed to deceive and to trap you. The believer
must be strong and mature so that he can handle the winds
of false doctrine and false teaching and not be so easily moved. Now
we may be able to make an application here in the larger sense. Sometimes
in the scripture the wind represents or signifies those chaotic forces
of the enemy that's designed to destroy God's order. Not too
often, but from time to time, it will rise up that way. The
winds, the winds are used in the prophetic realm where God
is determining the courses of nations. So we read in the book
of Daniel, the four winds, chapter seven, strove on the great sea
and up out of the sea came Babylon, Medo-Persia, the Grecian kingdom
and the Roman empire. And the idea is that God has
given Satan control of the masses of the world and he creates kingdoms
out of chaos. That's a revelation for those
of you who are prophetic and engaged in end time activity.
He creates or produces kingdoms out of chaos. But what you and
I must always remember is whether we are dealing with the false
doctrine and false teaching of those who don't know Christ or
whether we are dealing with that spiritual dimension of demonic
forces that are coming against us because we're trying to do
God's will. And believe me, the devil will come against you when
you are seeking to do God's will. We must always know that Jehovah
is sovereign over all those powers. You must never give way to believing
that the devil, for one moment, has equal authority with Christ.
The text tells us he commanded the stormy wind. Do you remember,
Brother Joe, how the devil came to the Lord in respectful request
and said, yeah, you got a hedge around that cat. You take the
hedge around him. Allow me to trouble him. I'll
show you that he'll curse you to your face That's how much
the devil thinks about true believers devotion to Christ. And so God
said oh go ahead on go to Let's find out whether or not Joe really
loves me or not And according to Job chapter 1 it destroyed
his livestock his cattle all of his men and then ultimately
a wind came down in chapter 1 around verse 19 and tore up the house
and collapsed on top of the children who were partying at that time.
He had sons and daughters and they all died. Where did that
wind come from? Well one could say the devil,
but you'd be more theologically correct to say from God, by the
hand of the devil, in order for God to get glory out of the chaos. Are you following what I'm saying?
So now here's the other thing I want to say before we go on,
because you need to know this. I listen to my Christian brothers
and sisters in the midst of their everyday life, more particularly
when they get challenged by trials. I listen to them cry and whine
and get perplexed as if trials are not a normative part of your
life. Will you stop it? Will you stop it? Trials designed
for God to manifest His glory. Are you hearing me? Do you want
to live a day, go about your business, go home, lay your head
down on the pillow, go to sleep, and your life was so absent of
God you didn't even think about Him all day long? Do you want
to live a day like that? Or do you want to be able to
drive down the street and have your mind on something stupid
and dumb, run the stop sign, almost get hit by that other
car, and the car swerve out of the way, and you go, thank you,
Lord. See what I'm saying? You see
what I'm saying? Thank you, Lord. Then you change
the station to Christian music, and you start meditating. Can I talk to you today? Can
I talk to you today? That's how the journey is, isn't
it? You know how the journey is? Trials will line you back
up, won't they? I'm not in the back seat of your
car, but the Holy Ghost is. So in your outline, you and I
ought to take note, that's point B. I'm going to explain on that
a little bit more down the line. I'm going to use this with another
portion of our message. First of all, we got to go because
it's commanded. But take note that the master who gave the
command to go is what? With you. Isn't he with us? He's with you. Third thing I
want you to take is your faith is going to be tried. There's
a sense in which the normalcy of life, the everyday mundane
things, the routine things of life, even our geography, the
world that we live in is normal. We know basically everything
that's going on in our life. I'm very comfortable with the
Bay Area. I grew up here. So I know streets in and out.
I know which streets to go down and which streets not to go down.
When you get as old as I do, and having gone through what
I went through, you know what you learn? There are some streets
you never drive down. You never drive down those streets
for two reasons. You don't want to run into knuckleheads,
and you don't want to get a ticket down that street. You've been
there, done that before. So there are streets you go down.
That's a piece of wisdom for you young people. There are streets
you go down and streets that you don't go down. And that's
in order for you to successfully navigate every day without altercations. I love going home at the end
of the day, having successfully overcome potential altercations.
I hate when I find myself halted or stopped by authorities or
by people or by circumstances that try to throw me off my game.
I just hate it. with a passion. And so I consider
myself successful when I'm able to negotiate left, right, steer
their beelines home at the right time on the right occasion in
order for me to make it to another day. That normalcy is a good
thing, but there are going to be days when you wake up before
you even get out of the bed that life is going to be so foreign
to you. that you don't know where you
are before your feet touch the floor and the whole day is a
day of trials and difficulties and strange things happening
and you're wondering if you're having an out-of-body experience
or what's going on what is this right on those days are the days
for you to recognize all of the other normal days were days for
which you were to give God thanks today it's time for you to go
through a trial today It's time for the disciples to learn something
about Jesus Christ. Listen to the Psalms. Because
he gives the command, verse 26, they mount up to the heaven.
Is that a high wave or what? They mount up to the heavens
and they go down again to the depths. What does it result in? The melting of the soul because
of trouble. Child of God, have you ever been
there? Have your woes and difficulties been so deep, so profound that
your soul is just melting under the trial? Have you been tossed
to and fro like a drunken man and at your wit's end? Verse
27. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and
are at their wit's end. Have you been there? Have your
difficulties caused you to alas, alas cry unto the Lord. Lord,
I'm in trouble. bring me out of my distresses
and doesn't the Lord always come through verse 29 he maketh the
storm a calm and the waves thereof what steel go back to our text
let's learn some things let's go back and learn some things
I want us to grasp some things here this is the everyday Normalcy,
but not always normal trials of the believer Your faith must
be tried soon as you open your mouth and say you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ Your faith is going to be tried Christ is
not gonna have shallow Christians He's gonna always have authentic
deeply tried deeply committed deeply loving deeply profoundly
grateful Christians men and women who thank him for his grace either
you're gonna thank him for his grace because you are a believer
or you are going to abandon the Lord Jesus because you don't
like this way he takes you and But remember what I said, when
you look at the other gospel account, particularly Matthew's,
only the 12 got in the boat. Everybody else were willing to
just show up for class. And that's just the vast majority
of people. So in our text, I want us to mark something else. Not
only do I want you to mark that your faith is going to be tried,
it is the normal process of those of us who are making our way
through this wilderness sojourn, through this topsy-turvy sea.
Verse 23 instructs us, and notice what it says, but as they sailed,
see it? But as they sailed, remember
what I said? The wind moved them. The wind
moved them. See, at this point, I know the
disciples are rejoicing because either the wind's got to move
you or you got to roll. Remember what the disciples said
in John chapter 20? We've been toiling all night
and haven't caught anything. And there's a difference between
toiling and the flesh trying to get where God is calling you
to go and being moved by the Spirit. On this occasion, the
disciples are experiencing the effusion of the Spirit, the movement
of the Spirit of God. And this is one of the analogies
that Peter uses for being quickened by God's Spirit as a prophet
to write the Word of God. Holy men of old spoke as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. Moved along by the Spirit of
God taken up by the Spirit of God controlled in their mind
by the Spirit of God giving grace to Speak the Word of God by the
Spirit of God and write it down That's how we have the scriptures
today in this context The disciples are journeying with Christ under
the influence of the Spirit and this must have been a wonderful
wonderful experience and notice what it says I'm just going to
give you this carryout caveat deal will move on and Christ
fell asleep Do you see that? But as they sailed, he fell asleep."
So here's what I want you to do. In our outline, it says in
point number B, take note. Do you see it? Take note that
the master who gave the command to go is what? Even though he
appears to be asleep. Got it? Got it? Now watch how
this goes, but as they sailed he fell asleep and there came
down a storm of wind, that's that hurricane, on the lake and
they were filled with water. Do you see it? Filled with water. Matthew's gospel and Mark's gospel
dramatizes this more extensively. The waves overcame them, splashed
on top of the deck, filled the deck, filled the deck with water. So much so that the disciples
were uncomfortable with this experience, totally uncomfortable.
As we had talked about the disciples' ships being so laden with fish
that the level of the water and the level of the top of the boat
was pretty much even. Now you are about to sink, aren't
you? So much water is in the boat. Now boats are designed
to have ports to let the water out if the water doesn't pour
in too fast. But these waves were so high
that they came down inside the boat and filled the boat up and
the disciples were in jeopardy. They were so concerned about
their life that in Mark's gospel, you know what they said to the
Lord Jesus? Do you care that we are about to perish? Do you
guys see that? Do you care that we are about
to perish? That's how fearful they are.
That's how much of in jeopardy They are verse 24 and they came
to him and awoke him and say master Master we are perishing
Point number D in your outline. I want to quickly run through
this one. Are you there? Cast your care your fear and your
anxiety upon him Do you see it? Before we get to the discipline
of this behavior. We also want to commend the disciples
here sometimes we find ourselves in perplexing and difficult situations
and We are trying to work that situation out ourselves You better
write that down because some of y'all in trouble right now
for that right now You're in trouble right now because in
your own brain you think that this situation is not so difficult
to work out because you're smart You got a degree And so you're going to work this
one out. You're going to actually figure
this one out. You're not going to go to God right now. You're going
to leave him alone. I mean, after all, you go to God all the time.
You can do this one yourself, right? And so you're not going
to call on God. You're going to solve this problem
yourself. And after all, he ought to be tired of me calling on
him. I'm going to give him a break this time. And I'm going to solve
the problem myself. You do that. But in you doing
that, you increase your anxiety. you increase your stress, you
increase your burden, you increase your troubles, you increase everything
that comes from having to tackle that trial for yourself. And
Peter tells us that we should immediately upon experiencing
the anxiety and the fear and the trouble, the stresses of
a situation, listen to what he says, take the stress, take the
anxiety, take the fear and cast that at Christ's feet. First
Peter chapter five. He didn't say abandon or neglect
or deny the situation He said give your fear Your care to the
lord Lord, I am in trouble This is what we're learning in psalm
130 for you men If you want to get it, we're doing a lengthy
exposition of what it means to pray right to god and get biblical
answers and what the text says is in first peter 5 verses 7
and 8 you are to take your anxiety and give them to God. Can I talk
about that briefly? Lord, I am fearful, I am doubting,
I am Strict with unbelief. I am in a calamitous state. I'm confused. I'm weighed down
I don't like the way I feel this is not right great peace have
all day that love thy law and nothing shall offend them You
told me that the kingdom of God is righteous as peace joy and
the Holy Ghost and I want to experience that I'm not asking
to take the trial away. I'm asking that you take the
anxiety away Got it That's what first Peter chapter
five or seven means when it says take your anxieties and give
them to the Lord because he has obligated himself to you. He's
obligated himself to you. He wants you to pass the test.
Are you hearing me? Watch this. He wants you to pass
the test. Come on. Now we get through a
trial and we knock ourselves upside the head because even
though we got through the trial, we know we didn't pass the test.
Is somebody with me today? I know I didn't pass the test
because I did not rest in Christ. And because I know how my master
works, you know what I'm getting ready to do? Go right back through
that test again. God getting ready to take me right back through
again. So that boat getting ready to turn around and I'm getting
ready here to get Jesse, get in the boat. Let's go back across
the other side. So I want you to understand that
caveat before we move on to the next point. And here's the next
point in your outline. Point number two. Are you ready?
He is resting in this particular stressful situation as our what? When we see Christ resting in
the midst of trouble, in the midst of difficulty, he's not
doing it for himself. He's doing it as a model for
us. It's for us. It's not for himself. Oh, okay. I could, if I wanted to extrapolate
upon all of the implications of who Christ is and what he
is doing, I could say in his human body, he's tired and he's
resting. He's done that a few times, isn't
that right? He's resting. And in fact, he's so resting
that in Mark's account, he went and grabbed a pillow and went
back to the back side of the ship and started sewing wood.
He was so tired he went into a deep, deep sleep. But it serves as a model. Because
in his human nature, he had to trust God too. If God his Father
told him that he has a job to do on the other side, doesn't
Christ know that the God who gave him the command to go is
gonna also see to it that he gets where he has to go and nothing
is gonna harm him? Isn't it all right then to go
to sleep in the will of God even though you are cast about with
storms? Am I making some sense? Okay,
so you and I are not Christ. That's obvious. Because our master
is resting and we're fit to be tied. That's the lesson there
right now. They're all looking over at him.
Look at him there. Do you see that? The man is asleep. This
boat is about to fall apart in the master's sleep. Which one
of y'all gonna wake him up? Are you with me? So he's resting as a model for
us. I could share with you so many passages of scripture. Just
a couple. Philippians 1, 6 says, He who
hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day
of Jesus Christ. Our elder read up here as he
was getting ready to preach out of Romans chapter 8. There's
nothing, nothing that can separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus. Heights, depths, principalities,
powers, angels, devil, things to come, things present. Nothing
can separate the believer from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus. Isn't that enough to be an anchor in the midst of a storm?
The Bible is very, very clear that he will cause all things
to work together for our good. Everything's working after the
counsel of his own will. Shouldn't we be able to rest?
We should. We should be able to rest, but our Lord is the
model for us here. He takes a pillow, he goes to
sleep. He goes to sleep ostensibly because
he's tired, but he also goes to sleep because he's sure. He's
sure that his God will watch over him. He also goes to sleep. Here's another one. It's in your
outline because his journey is purposeful I'm almost done with
this point. I want to make sure you get this
I Remember talking to some of the old sage pastors that have
spoken into my life and they would talk about their their
long 50 60 year ministry And they would talk about driving
here or riding the train there or flying planes here, going
all over the world, preaching the gospel for Christ. And I'm
a young 20, 25, 30 year old man listening to these stories of
this man who was sitting in front of me, 80 years old, who have
went around the world preaching the gospel for Christ. And you
know what? I'm enamored by him. Do you know
why? The one thing that I'm fixated
on is how he got from point A to point B all those years to be
able to sit in front of me and tell me about it. When every
day over 350,000 people are dying in accidents. Do you know why he was sitting
there talking to me? Because it was God's will to
lead him on every trip to go where he had to go to preach
and bring him back and to preach here and to bring him back to
preach it. And do you know what I learned over time? I know that
man slept in planes that should have never been flying in the
first place. If you ever go to some third world countries like
I have been, there are planes that should never leave the ground.
Am I telling the truth? There are planes that should
never leave. Last time I went to Jamaica, I had to fly from
the East Coast in this little propeller plane to get over to
the Jamaican Islands. I said, Lord, I guarantee you
I'd never fly this plane again. I'm sitting right behind the
pilot. I can breathe on his ear. And he smelled like he had alcohol
on his breath. In any event, now am I telling the truth? In
any event, and you know what you have to do? You have to shake
yourself and say, boy, you're going to preach. God sent you. He'll get you back home and he
does every time. Pastor, can we have you back
out next year? No, maybe five years from now.
Give me a better flight, I'll go. I think about my brethren
and I go, those pastors who have done some of the most difficult
journeying from one point to another, and here's what we learn,
that when we are in the will of God, there will be storms,
but God will get you through them He will get you through
them. He will get you through them.
So absolutely powerful So now there are some lessons to learn
point number three in your outline. I touched on this earlier So
i'm not going to be able to i'm not going to touch on this the winds and
storms are metaphors for adversity Do you guys see that we talked
about that point number four? He rebukes the wind And them
Look at verse 24 and 25. We're advancing in our studies
so we can close out here They said in verse 24 Master, master,
we perish. Then he arose and rebuked the
wind and the raging of the water and they ceased and there was
a calm. Isn't that amazing? And here's
what the text says. And he said unto them, where
is your faith? Do you see that? See, and if
you read Mark's account and if you read Matthew's account of
this, they actually got the account reversed. Here's how this goes.
In Matthew's account and Mark's account, the storms are raging,
the disciples are fit to be tied, they're crying out, Lord, do
you care about us perishing? Do you care? And in the midst
of all that storm, the Lord says to the disciples, where is your
faith? And then he calms the wind and
he calms the sea right in the midst of their crying out to
him. That's why my text says, He rebukes the wind and them,
because there's some lessons to learn. He asks them, where
is your faith? But you see at this moment when
this question is raised to the disciples, the disciples now
have a much bigger problem than the storm and the wind. You know what problem they got?
They're in the boat with a man who can talk to the wind. That's the problem they got now.
Stay with me. Their problem has just increased
exponentially. See, we all know about winds
and storms and waves, but they just had a revelation of God's
glory in that boat that they had no reference point of before. There's no way they could reconcile
what they had experienced in meeting Jesus a few months ago
with what that man just did. It just blew them away. See, this is the wind we're talking
about. Has anybody ever been through
the wind, a hurricane, a tornado? I'm talking about the ones that
happened in the South. I'm not talking about this California
stuff. I'm talking about real stuff. being out on the seas
where the waves of the ocean can turn over ocean liners and
cruise ships like toothpicks and when our Lord spoke immediately
both of them ceased equally synonymously harmoniously symphonically at
the same time now you know your head is jacked up when you see
something like that It's one thing for the wind to
and the waves still doing this because you know they got to
settle down a little bit because they got tossed by the wind and
they're tossing to and fro. They got to settle down and you
got to wait for him to settle down. No, he said be still. It was a calm. Isn't that crazy? See what I
mean by they got another problem? They got a whole nother problem.
And here's the problem, are you ready? The fear that they had
concerning those natural calamities that almost befit them now transfers
to Christ. Because they're looking at this
man that they cannot understand. And it's time for you and I to
understand this too. You can never get so familiar
with Christ that you fail to realize that He's God. And that as God, there are things
about Christ that are incomprehensible. The incomprehensible, glorious,
transcendent, unknowing God who in his mercy reveals himself
to us in the person of Christ. He's stooping at this point.
He's humbling himself at this point. He's allowing us to get
a glimpse of his glory. Like Job says in the book of
Job, how little of his ways do we know? We only know a little
bit about God in Christ. And when he leaks out some of
his glory, even that which we think we knew is blown away by
a vast and enormous sea of revelation concerning who he is now. And
that's how it ought to be. Whenever he reveals his glory
to us, it ought to lay waste us and cause us to say, we got
to start all over because I thought I knew him, but I don't know
him like I thought I know him. And in fact, the way I know him now,
I never knew him. Who is this man? And he tore his disciples up
like that for that whole three and a half year journey. Every
time they got a little comfortable with him, he just blew them away
with another revelation of himself, which lambasted them. What was
our master trying to teach them on this journey? Are you ready? Fundamentals that I've shared
with you so many times before. Watch this now. Without faith,
it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. Every day, God has to grant us
faith to believe him. Every day God had to give us
grace to stay in the boat. We'll get off the boat Every
day God has to grant us grace to trust the God that's with
us. Didn't he tell us? No, I'm with you always to the
end of the world. I'm going with you I'll be with
you if I before you who can be against you we have all these
great precious promises in the Word of God and sometimes we
act like we never heard him before and that right we never heard
him before and yet he's laid them out to us what then is the
issue the issue is our faith so let me talk about that as
we close here when he raised the question where is your faith
in the other Gospels here's what he said he predicated that with
this statement all ye who are so fearful why are you so fearful
of Where is your faith? He knew that fear had paralyzed
their reason. Fear had paralyzed their reason. Pastor, what do you mean by reason?
Well, reason is not a contradiction to faith. Rationale is not mutually
exclusive to faith. Biblical faith is built upon
reason, built upon logic, built upon truth. Am I making some
sense? Can I develop this? See, when he said, where is your
faith? He wasn't asking, where is it? I mean, the disciples
could have rightly said, and if it had been me, and the Lord
would have asked me, where's my faith? At that moment, I would
have said, Lord, I don't know where my faith is. I have no
idea. I looked for it. But by the time
that big old wave came falling down on me, I couldn't find it.
It was gone. That's what I would have said.
I'm going to just be honest with you. I don't know where my faith
is. Lord, that's a good question. Where's my faith? Now, since
you are omniscient and I'm not, I'm gonna ask you, Lord, where
was my faith at? Right? But that's not what he
was saying when he gave that question. When he gave that question,
what he was saying was, I want you to hear me now, where did
you place your faith? Cognitively, volitionally, deliberately. Are you ready? Some people place
their faith in events. Like, you know, I remember that
time two years ago, the Lord really showed up in my life. And man, I thank him for that.
And that's where their faith is. Their faith is not with them
today. Their faith is really back there.
And if a trial should come and shake them up, they would discover
that their faith is back there. other words the disciples could
have been being asked by Christ I've been with you now for six
months to a year and I have called you on a journey of faith of
which I have furnished you with evidence upon evidence upon evidence
upon evidence upon evidence of who I am and what I'm doing what
did you do with your faith did you place your faith at the wedding
of Cana of Galilee when I turn the water in the wine see people
put their faith in events Or did you place your faith at that
event where I multiplied the loaves and fed the five thousands
and when we returned the bread again it was more than what it
was at the beginning? Did you place your faith in that
event? People have an historic faith that's predicated upon
events. Are you placing your faith in you being fishers of
men? We just caused a great drought
to take place a few weeks ago when you guys saw that I knew
where the fish were I caused the fish to jump into the nets
and though and it just over it overwhelms you you got out of
your boats you cast your nets behind you left your boats and
you followed me where's your faith is your faith in an event
is your faith in a hopeful objective, our goal, our plan that you want
to be accomplished because if it is, watch this, if anything
should take place that crosses your plan, you lose your faith.
Am I making some sense? If people have their faith placed
in hopes and aspirations and desires and goals, and then providence
seems to go contrary to that. Now, all of a sudden, your faith
is blown out of the water. Where's your faith? In other
words, here's the question that Christ was asking, of which we
must grasp. Did you fellas put your faith
in things, events, yourself or me? Isn't that good? Where's your
faith? See, now watch this. If their
faith had been where faith must always be at all times, and that's
in Christ. Our faith must always be in Christ.
It must always be in the person of Christ, not just the work
of Christ, but the person of Christ. Had their faith been
where it was supposed to be at the first place, they never would
have had a problem. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Gospel faith is faith where it's convictions of truth land square
on the person and work of Jesus Christ and nowhere else. We don't
leave from Christ and go to hopeful events and hopeful plans and
hopeful agendas. We stay on Christ. See, to the
degree that your faith stays on Christ, now you have an anchor
in the midst of the storm that will never cause you to lose
your way. faith in Christ after all wasn't
he in the boat had their faith been in Christ at that moment
conscientiously in the Savior and then they would have recalled
how the Savior turned the water into wine how he multiplied the
loaves how he multiplied the fish how he healed every one
of those that came to him with sicknesses then they could have
said My faith is in the man that's in the boat with me who did all
those things. Certainly he can deal with this
too. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And see, listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, your life and
mine is going to be filled with trials. Trials that are going
to be so formidable, so difficult, so enormous that there will be
no safe place for faith but in Christ. The mind will not be
able to get around the event. It won't be able to secure itself
or comfort itself in the prospect of recovery. There won't be any
hope in some situations. The situation will be dire. The
situation will be black. You won't get any counsel from
anybody. Not everyone's going to be able to deliver you from
that trial by telling you it's going to be alright. Sometimes
it's not going to be alright. It's not going to be all right.
But it's got to be all right if my faith is in the Christ
who commanded me to go. Since he loved me and gave himself
for me, and he saved me by his grace, and he quickened me by
his Spirit, having washed me in his blood, having raised me
from the dead, having sealed me by his Spirit, having qualified
me to do ministry, isn't that same God who loved me enough
to give himself for me going to keep me daily through those
trials? But do you know what he would
have your faith and mine to do? It's to grow in a knowledge of
him in every trial we go through. Their job was to turn, look at
Christ in the midst of the boat while the water's coming in,
sleeping on a pillow. Their job was to go find a pillow
and get over there by the Lord Jesus and say, Lord, scoot over.
Scoot over, Lord. I'm going to sleep with you.
If I perish, I perish with you. If I survive, I survive with
you. Where you go, I'll go. Where
you live, I'll live. Where you die, I'll die. Am I
making some sense? Amen. Amen.