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Luke 8:22-25 – All Age Service
Are you ready for September? Doesn’t matter, ready or not,
September is here. Are you ready
to go back to school? Doesn’t
matter, ready or not, term time is about to begin. Ready to leave holidays behind? Ready to face an autumn and a winter?
Doesn’t matter, ready or not, here it comes. And maybe you have a heavy, sinking feeling about
that. Maybe you dread what’s
coming. Maybe you feel like there
are storms on the horizon. Well
I’m here to tell you, if you feel like that, it’s not just paranoia. The Bible promises you storms
are on the horizon. If you’re not
in a storm right now, there’s a storm in store for you just around the
corner.
What do I mean by a storm? Well in the Bible storms are,
so often, a picture of trouble in life.
And according to the Bible you can go through a storm without a
drop of rain falling.
Have a look at the screen and we’ll see a
prayer by King David from the Old Testament. He was going through a really tough time and he prayed this:
[SLIDE – Psalm 69]
Save
me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in the miry
depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the
floods engulf me. 3 I am
worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking
for my God.
Now David is nowhere near water when he prays
this. In fact, he might even be
in a desert. But life has got on
top of him so much, he feels like he’s drowning. Can you relate to that? Do troubles in your life feel like
drowning? David’s up to His neck,
his foot is slipping, he is hoarse from crying out for help. His troubles are a deadly storm that
looks like it will swallow him up.
Throughout the Bible when people get in trouble they don’t just
say ‘God, I’m in trouble’ they say ‘God, I’m drowning.’
And you know, it’s not just King David or the
disciples or people over there who have to go through such storms. The storms of life will hit. Jesus told a story of a wise builder
and a foolish builder. The wise
builder built his house on the Rock of Jesus and His words, the foolish
builder built his house on the sand of sin and self. And then Jesus says “WHEN the storms
came.” Not “if”, “WHEN!” Whoever said “into every life a little
rain must fall?” Well that sounds
like a kind of Enid Blyton truth – it’s not just a little rain that we
must face. We must all face
storms that shake us to our foundations.
And what aare we supposed to do when the
storms hit? Well our video showed
some prayers from the Bible that people have offered as they’ve faced
storms. In all of them, people
cried out to the LORD God in the midst of storms, because, according to
the Bible, only the LORD can help you in storms like these. He alone is the Storm Master.
As we face the beginning of a school year, as
we leave the summer behind us and enter into autumn and winter I thought
it would be good to prepare for the storms. If you’re in one now, listen in, the LORD wants to teach you
and draw near to you in the midst of your storm. If you’re not in one now, there’ll be
one on the horizon, so let’s get prepared and have Luke chapter 8 open in
front of us. Page ______
There’s just one big picture I want to get
across this morning, and it might be a familiar picture to you.
[SLIDE – big fish eat the
little ones]
A small fish chased by a larger fish who’s
going to get eaten by the biggest fish. We are like small little
fish.
[SLIDE – us]
And the Storms are bigger than we are.
[SLIDE – Storms]
The good news is that Jesus is bigger
than the storms.
[SLIDE – Jesus]
That’s the big picture. Storms are bigger than us and one day
they will kill us. But Jesus is
bigger still. What does that say about
how we should think of ourselves?
How should we think about storms?
How should we think about Jesus?
Well let’s look at our passage from Luke’s
Gospel. Chapter 8, v22
One
day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of
the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A
squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and
they were in great danger.
Now what the heck is a squall. I looked it up – this word that’s been
translated ‘squall’ can actually be translated hurricane. So this is not a small thing.
[Do storm thing with
congregation]
The wind is blowing a gale. The waves are mounting up, crashing
over the sides of the boat. It’s as if the whole lake is trying to chew
this boat up in its powerful jaws.
As Luke writes ‘they are in great danger.’
Now remember that many
of the disciples were fishermen who had grown up on this lake. This was not the first storm they’d
ever sailed through, but when this storm blew in they thought it
would be their last. In v24 they
say ‘we are going to drown.’
So there they are,
staring death in the face. So
what do they do? Well, according
to the Bible, what are you supposed to do in a storm? Where do you turn? Who is the only one who can help?
That’s right – a
carpenter. Strange when you think
about it.
It’s not in any of the
sailing textbooks, they don’t teach you this as a Sea Scout: when the
boat’s about to sink – find a carpenter.
Why do that? – unless Jesus is more than a carpenter. A lot more.
The disciples must
have remembered enough of their Old Testament to know that when the
storms hit you call on the LORD.
But these disciples didn’t have to call on the LORD up in heaven. Because they had the LORD in the stern
of the ship. And so they wake the
LORD Jesus. He is going to sort
things out. But how is He going
to sort things out?
I’ll tell you what
would happen if this was a movie.
If this was a Hollywood film, right at the end of v24 there’d be a
close-up on Jesus eyes. They’d
spring open and the music would change.
There’d be this insistent beat… Jesus would jump to His feet and
start barking orders at the disciples (Peter, do this, James and John go
there.) Then Jesus would race to the helm and He’d have to duck under a
swinging boom, and He’d take the wheel.
His muscles would be glistening as His wet clothes cling to
Him. He’d still be yelling orders
to the disciples as He steers the ship bravely through the waves and out
into safety. That’s how Hollywood
would finish v24.
But actually that
would be a very weak Jesus. The
real Jesus is far more powerful than that (v24):
Jesus
got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided,
and all was calm.
Do you know what rebuking is? It’s when you tell someone off. Jesus is treating a hurricane like a
naughty child. He’s saying ‘Now
stop that.’ And the hurricane
basically says ‘Sorry Boss!’
Have you ever told the rain to stop
falling? I do all the time. It never listens. Jesus commands
nature, and nature obeys His voice.
In a second the lake is flat as a pancake,
not a puff of breeze. The water
that had been crashing into the boat is now just dripping off the mast,
dripping off the disciples’ drenched hair and noses and ears. These men are soaked through and
breathless, and their jaws are on the decking. Jesus has their attention. And so Jesus turns from addressing the
storm, and now He addresses His friends: (v25)
25 "Where is your faith?"
Where is your faith? Faith is just another word for trust,
for belief, for reliance, for dependence. And Jesus says ‘where is your trust?’
Well where had it been?
To begin with their faith was in Jesus. He said – ‘Let’s sail.’ And they said ‘Alright, Jesus, we
trust you.’ And they sailed. But then some time between that moment
and v25 the disciples’ faith had drifted from Jesus.
I mean after all they were experienced
sailors, they could handle some blustery weather. And when the waves started to crash
in, they could bail themselves out couldn’t they. Where was their faith? Only when the
waters were ‘raging’ (that’s the word in v24), only when they thought
they would drown did they realize something they should have known all
along: ‘I am a little fish. The storms are much bigger than me.’
This is what storms are meant to do. Storms take away all our
resources. One of the only things
these fishermen could do was sail.
Then God brings a storm and now they can’t even do that. And now in the midst of the storm the
one and only thing they had going for them was Jesus. Storms do that. They bring you to the point of saying
“All the things I had trusted in aren’t working – the only thing going
for me is Jesus.” In the story of
the wise and foolish builders – they both used their skill and hard work
to build, but when the storms came, none of that mattered. The storms reduced everything to the
one simple question – are you with Jesus or not. That’s what God does through
storms. Through storms, God
arranges it so that the things you have trusted in fail. And then you have to turn where you
should have turned long ago.
Maybe you’re in a storm right now. And you’ve been bailing, bailing,
bailing and it’s just not working.
Our whole stupid attitude is to grit our teeth. And we bail and we bail and we bail
and we bail. Bailing fails then,
maybe, we turn to Jesus.
Where is our faith? Do we
think we can handle the storms?
Jesus wants us to stop putting faith in ourselves. Where is your faith? Do you think you can get the job
done? Because you can’t. You are a little fish. We need to turn to Jesus and say ‘I’m
drowning – you take over.’
When we do that it may not turn out exactly
like it does in our story. He may
not quieten our storm straight away.
He could – in a second!
But He may not. He may
tell you ‘Batten down the hatches, hold your course, we’re in for a wild
ride.’ But you see He’s in charge.
And if you hand control to Jesus at least you’ll be sailing with
Jesus at the helm. And whether He
chooses to take away our storm or to help us sail through it – either way
we will get to know the real Jesus.
That’s what the disciples found. Verse 25:
In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this?
He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."
The disciples had been terrified of the
storm. Now, 6 seconds later,
they’re terrified of Jesus. Of
course they fear Jesus, He’s just proved Himself more powerful than a
hurricane. So much more powerful
than a hurricance, this isn’t even a contest. Jesus speaks and it’s over. I really think that even if Hollywood stuck to the script
on this scene they wouldn’t be able to resist some special effects
contest between Jesus and the storm.
Maybe some kind of lightning bolt coming out of Jesus’ chest and
clashing with the lightning bolt from the storm. Crackling energy fields in a deathly
battle. “You shall not pass!” But it’s just not like that. Jesus gets up says ‘Shut up storm,
disciples where is your faith?’
It’s like a vast army amassed against an unarmed king and all the
king has to do is say ‘go home’ and the soldiers go ‘alright then.’ Battle over. No contest. That’s
power.
And the disciples marvel ‘who is this?’ And they’re not idiots. They know their Old Testaments, they
know that Jesus has just pulled off what only God can do. When they say ‘who is this?’ they’re
not uncertain they’re just getting their heads around it. God’s in the boat. God’s in the boat.
They used to fear the storm, now they fear
Jesus. And that’s the way the
Bible says you should fight your fears.
What are you afraid of?
What do you fear? The
Bible says fight fear with fear.
Replace your fear with a proper fear of Jesus. The Bible’s always saying ‘fear not’ –
it’s the most common command in the Bible. Fear not. But
there’s one thing you are to fear, fear the LORD. So fight fear with fear – don’t fear
trouble, fear Jesus. Don’t fear
the medium sized fish – fear the biggest fish?
What kind of fear am I talking about? Am I saying we should think of Jesus
as Scary and run away from Him.
Is it that kind of fear?
No – it’s the fear you would have if you’d just seen Jesus flatten
a hurricane. It’s the awed hush
in the presence of something much, much bigger than you. When you fear Jesus like that – every
other fear is dwarfed, flattened, silenced.
How do we get this fear. V25 tells us this fear comes as we
start answering that question ‘Who is this man?’ Everyone here this morning needs to
answer that question for themselves.
If you’ve never been to church before or if you’ve been a
Christian your whole life. We
must keep on rolling this question around in our heads and wrapping it
around our hearts. Who is Jesus, who sails with us through the storms and
yet rules over them by the power of His almighty word.’ You become a Christian when you get
that question right. Once you say
‘Jesus is the God who sails with me and who rules over
me.’ that’s when you become a Christan. You keep going as a Christian when, every
day, you tell your heart to believe it. In every storm we encounter we must know ‘Who is Jesus,
who sails with us and yet rules over the storm?’
We must know Who is this man. Because that’s the whole point of
these storms.
That’s the first of two brief conclusions.
[SLIDE – the POINT of the Storm]
The point of the storm is to know Jesus.
[SLIDE – knowing Jesus]
Whatever other purpose there is to this storm
a foundational purpose is for you to know ‘who is this Man?’ In every storm there is the
opportunity to know Jesus better.
In Psalm 46 God calms a storm with His word and says “Be still and
know that I am God.” That’s the
point – to know Him in the midst of the trouble. In Philippians chapter 3 Paul says “I
want to know Christ” and then He says how he’s going to know Him, he
says, I will have ‘fellowship in His sufferings.” We have fellowship, friendship, we
know Jesus in suffering. Because
He is the great Suffering Servant – He is One who knows all about storms
– He went to godforsaken hell for us, the waters completely swept over
Him at the cross. Abandoned by
us, abandoned even by His own Father on the cross – Jesus knows about
storms. And He journeys with us
in the midst of our storms. The
point of the storm is to know Jesus in the midst of it. Did the disciples know Jesus before
the storm? Sure they did. But
after the storm: with fear and amazement they marvel ‘who is this? He
commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him.’
From my experience,
and I know many of you can say the same, I have known Jesus in the
midst of the storm better than I’d ever known Him in fair
weather. And I can testify that a
storm with Jesus is better than a thousand sunny days without Him.
Remember the point of the storm – knowing
Jesus.
And then remember the POWER of the Storm
Master.
[SLIDE – The POWER of the Storm Master]
What is the power that overcomes this
storm? The Word of Jesus.
[SLIDE – His Word]
The Word of the LORD is very powerful. It is God’s power to create and
rule. It flattens hurricanes – it
can calm your fear. In the midst of our storms we need to hear the Word
of Jesus. And we don’t need to go
and wake Jesus up to get it – it’s right here in the Bible. And maybe you’re thinking – “Here goes
the preacher, telling us to read our Bibles again. Checking up on us,
making sure we’re doing our spiritual duties.” But your Bible is not a weight around your neck. It’s a lifeline in the midst of the
storm. I’m not telling you you have
to read your Bible because there’s a law written down somewhere. It’s not that kind of ‘have to’. It’s a much more urgent ‘have
to’. You have to read your
Bible because only the Word of the LORD can get you through the
storms. You will go under without
it. When we read our Bibles let’s
not read them like we’re ticking some spiritual box or enduring some
heavy burden. Let’s read them
because we’re going to need a lifeline when the storms hit. You will need to take the Word of
Jesus out into your day. So scour
it in the morning, find a promise, find a command, find a Word from the
LORD and wrap it round you like a safety rope because we need the Word of
Jesus to handle our storms.
And actually our storms will help us to read
our Bibles. In the storm you
search for the Word of Jesus with more eagerness than ever and you
appreciate it like never before.
Martin Luther once said the three things you need to understand
the Bible are prayer, meditation and suffering. You don’t need to have a degree or learn ancient
Hebrew In the storm you need His
Word and you appreciate His Word the most. Will you allow the word of Jesus to calm your fears? Will you pick up the Bible and ask
Jesus to speak through it, to speak His word into your life, to calm the
raging waters. Will you make the
effort and come to church and let’s hear together the word of Jesus which
is powerful to speak into the fiercest storm.
Have a look at the screen – look at the
little fish, do you recognize yourself as helpless compared to the storms
of life? But do you see Jesus as
the Storm Master, the LORD of Creation?
The One who sails with us through trouble and yet rules over us by
His Word. How do you respond to
the POINT of the storm – do you want to know Jesus? How will you respond to the POWER of
the Storm Master – will you cling to His Word? A few moments to think about these things and then I’ll
pray.
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