Amen. Well, my name's Eric.
I am glad to be here with you guys here at Redemption Church,
North Ogden. And we are continuing on in our
series, Our King and His Kingdom.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is represented as not only just
king of the Jews, but king of the whole world, the whole
universe. And he came and he started
setting up his Kingdom. And we as the church are the
visible Kingdom of God here and now.
Even now, spiritually speaking, God is taking more and more
ground. It's only really visible where
the gospel is preached and presented.
But the more people come to faith, the more the Kingdom
grows. And so as the church were tasked
to help build this Kingdom, he uses us to do that.
But along the way, it can be scary, it can be troubling, it
can be hard. If anybody ever told you that
becoming a Christian is going to make your life so much better,
you're going to be wealthy, healthy, and happy.
They were lying to you. They're probably a false
teacher. I'm not saying that there isn't
much joy. In fact there's more joy as a
Christian than there is to be a non believer.
But it does not mean that your life will in fact get easier.
In fact, Jesus has been teaching his disciples up into this
point. We're in Matthew chapter 8 and
he's been teaching his disciples about what it means to be a
follower of Jesus and what it means to set up the Kingdom of
God on earth and how much work it will be and how much
rejection there will be, how many trials there will be the
the spiritual warfare that happens in this life.
And so if you're here today and you can resonate and relate to
some of that, that maybe life isn't always gum drops and
lollipops for you, well, you're in good company because that is
what Jesus said was going to happen in this life.
It was going to be difficult. And for us then as followers of
Jesus, as disciples, we need training in order to live this
life. And, and so Jesus is in this
section, Matthew is revealing to us some things about Jesus and
his teachings where he's doing a lot of miracles in chapter 8 and
9, where he focuses on these miracles of Jesus.
And it's to prove his power, to prove who he is and also to show
us what the Kingdom looks like that that there will be no more
sickness and death and evil in his Kingdom as he casts out
demons and he heals lepers and he heals the centurion servant.
And but he's also teaching along the way.
There's all these lessons that we can learn for our own lives.
And in this lesson today, we're talking about going through a
storm. Jesus leads the disciples
through a storm, and I've titled the message Fear through the
storm. In fact, that's a wrong title.
Let me just change that really quick.
It's supposed to be faith through the storm.
Now, fear is what we see, the natural reaction of the
disciples when they're first on these waters and a storm pops up
in the boat. But really what they're supposed
to learn is to fight their fear with faith.
We are a people that live by faith in the midst of trials and
storms. And I want to ask you this
question then. How do you react to fear when
things pop up in your life that that maybe 'cause you to to be
afraid, to be worried, to have anxiety?
Well, I've heard that it was said that there are kind of
three reactions to things in our lives that can be troubling or
scary, and it's the fight, flight and freeze.
It's almost like a physiological reaction that's built in US.
You see, fear isn't necessarily always a bad thing.
Fear is an emotion given to us. It can be healthy or unhealthy,
but by itself it's kind of neutral and it's emotion that
helps us be vigilant about our safety.
That's the the first reason for it is automatically when fear
pops up as an emotion. You're not in sin because of
fear, but how you react. That's the difference, how we
react in fear. Are you one of those people that
automatically fights? I was watching you.
Ever seen those a video where there are people like that where
I was watching this family where somebody was dressed in like
this clown had a clown mask on and was hiding around the
corner. And as soon as someone jumped
out or as soon as someone was coming around the corner, he
jumped out and immediately the guy just punched him in the
face. Like that's a natural reaction.
I was, I was pretty amazed by it that he was that quick.
You know, that's a fight reaction to fear, just automatic
response. Some of us are the flight.
Is that you when you get afraid immediately you run for safety,
run for cover, try to get alone, try to to get away from the
chaos that's causing the anxiety.
Or are you one of those people that freezes where it's like
something happens automatically, your brain shuts down for a
moment. You can't even move.
You can't even talk. I've I have been that way in my
own life where when a lot of chaos is going on, all of a
sudden I can't think. I think there's a fourth one
though. All these words that start with
F and today, what do you think that word is that?
I think our reaction should be faith, fight, flight, freeze or
faith. And Jesus wants to teach us
today that faith should be our reaction in situations that
bring about fear. So the context, as I've said,
we're in in in Matthew chapter 8, we're going to be in verses
23 to 27. Dwight, just read those verses.
This is a famous story where Jesus calms the storm, and so
far we've seen all these miracles.
But today we're adding to the list of the miracles that we've
seen. This is now a nature miracle.
Not only does Jesus have the power to heal your physical body
or to cast out evil spirits to fight against evil and darkness
in the world, but he has control over nature itself.
Now let me give you a little visual or a geography lesson
about this, this place, where are they at in the water?
This is the Sea of Galilee. And on the Sea of Galilee, it's,
it can be treacherous water sometimes because it's
surrounded by mountains. And, and with that, the swirling
winds can come and, and, and bring about waves really
quickly. And it can get get pretty
treacherous sometimes because of the weather and the winds that
swirl. It's about four times the size
of Willard Bay over here. So if you can think of that or
imagine that. And in fact, I have a friend who
used to be, you know, Box Elder County Sheriff, and he used to
get called out to Willard Bay often.
Willard Bay is this shallow body of water.
And when when it gets really windy, it's very easy for boats
to capsize. I know, I'm not saying you
shouldn't go there and have fun on the water.
You should. But I'm just using this as an
example that it can it can turn ugly really quickly if it gets
really windy, like water, big waves.
And so that's the context of where we're at.
Jesus had just got done preaching the Sermon on the
Mount. He's come to Capernaum where
he's doing miracles. And now in in verse 18, if we
back up, it said now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave
orders to go over to the other side.
And so where are they going to the other side?
They're trying to escape this crowd that's been following
because of the miracles. He's become famous now and it's
getting a little bit chaotic and they're like, we, we need to go
to the other side. But along the way, Jesus wants
to teach them lessons. And that's my first point.
There are lessons in the storm, verse 23 and 24.
When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him, and
behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the
boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep.
So they get into this boat. They're on their way over the
Sea of Galilee. A storm pops up.
In fact, that word in the Greek here is seismoth and it comes we
we get our word seismograph from that, which literally means a
quaking or a shaking. And in this context it's the
shaking of the boat or the shaking of the the waves in the
water. Other places in the Bible this
is a word used for a literal earthquake.
Now, we don't know that that's what happened, that it was an
earthquake that caused these waves or if it was just the wind
alone, but this meant that it was a great storm.
That's what it says, great storm, a violent shaking and
quaking. And just so you know, there's
there's in the Bible and in our faith in especially in the Old
Testament, the seas, the ocean, the waters, they represent a
powerful and scary place that can cause pain and death.
Did you know that it wasn't until about the 1800s that
people started swimming recreationally?
Before that, people were have been afraid of the waters for a
long, long time. Recreational swimming worldwide
didn't become a thing until about the 1800s because people
always looked at the water and kind of saw this.
There's kind of an unknown. There's an uncertainty about it.
There's a scariness to it. There's a there's an immensity
to the global water. In fact, the stories of the
flood, God has used water in judgment.
If you go back to the beginning in in the book of Genesis,
before God created everything, he did it in sequential days.
And in the first day, it says the spirit was hovering over the
waters and the, the everything was formless and void.
There was a darkness. There was a deep darkness and a
chaos. And it wasn't until God said,
you know, let there be light and, and made the sun and the
moon, the stars on the different days and things like that, he
was bringing, he was bringing order into chaos.
So I say all that to say, in Old Testament theology, there's the
fallenness and A and a, a darkness, even some fearful
undertones of great bodies of water.
We have to take these into consideration when we're reading
these texts and their stories because there's lessons for us
to learn in here. Not only were humans, by the
way, when they sinned in Genesis chapter 3, cursed, but it says
the whole world was cursed. And so there's this proper fear
probably of great bodies of water.
Now, these were fishermen though, so we need to understand
that they were comfortable in a boat.
So it must have meant that this was a very scary situation.
Now I, I have to tell you this, that Jesus is sovereign.
He is God in the flesh. Do you think that he knew what
he was doing? Do you think he knew what was
going to happen when he called them to go into the boat to go
to the other side? I submit to you, He knew all of
it. He knew everything.
He knew the outcome, He knew what he was going to do, and he
purposely sent his disciples through this storm for a
training time, for a lesson. These were his, his followers
that we're learning how they were going to have to pick up
and carry this thing after Jesus died, resurrected and ascended.
They were going to now be the ones left to start building the
Kingdom. And they needed some training.
They had a lot of gaps. They had a lot of things to
overcome. They needed their faith to be
strengthened, and Jesus is the great Master and instructor and
He uses this storm to help them contemplate their lives, to
contemplate their hearts, to test their faith.
Storms are the same for us. Then it might not be a literal
storm in our lives that God uses, maybe sometimes an
earthquake, a hurricane. But this is although this is a
literal story, what we are supposed to consider here is
what happens in scary moments of our lives.
What's the point of it? Do we ever consider God?
What are you doing here? Do we have that type of faith?
Do we believe God is as big as the Bible says he is, or do we
think that he's some kind of some kind of man upstairs?
You've heard that saying before. He's just the man upstairs who
he started everything. He set it in motion, but now
he's sat back and now he just watches us.
Let's see how this all turns out.
Let's see what they do. That's not what the Bible says
God is like. In fact, God is ordaining all
things that come to pass. He looks at everything and he
says, OK, I will allow that, or oh, I will cause that, or oh,
this is going to be good for us. Though we see trials in our
lives, we see storms in our lives as man, this is terrible.
This can't be from God. Certainly God has no hand in
this whatsoever. But remember, Jesus is in the
boat with them. Jesus is with the disciples in
the storm. He's not worried.
He's actually asleep is what this says.
He knew He had the power to stop the wind and the waves, but if
he has that power, does he have the power to start them as well?
I don't think we think of God this way sometimes, but this
story is what is trying to show his disciples and us is that
sometimes God calls us to go through a storm.
Now, sometimes storms come in our lives because of our own
sin. We cause problems, but the Bible
says that God is a good father who disciplines those in whom he
loves. But sometimes storms in our
lives aren't anything to do with because of our decisions.
It's because God wants to strengthen our faith.
He wants to teach us something through this.
So what are some examples of storms marriage problems?
Now I would probably say that most of our marriage problems
are probably because of sin, because of your sin, husband,
wife. But sometimes God even puts us
with a person who will almost be the exact opposite.
Why? Because he wants us to be more
well-rounded. He wants us to be a a full
person, not just this one sided person.
He wants to humble us. He wants to make us into people
that are more like Christ. And the only way we can do that
is to be put with someone who can help us get there, whether
through the loving way or through the the hard way.
God uses marriage problems to bring about yours.
And my Holiness, I want you to understand that if you're going
through something right now in your marriage, don't blame the
other person. I know that's what we always
want to do. We want to blame the other
person. Well, they do this and they do
that, and our marriage would be good if they would just stop
doing this or that. But have you ever thought that
maybe God wants to change my perspective?
Maybe God wants me to be forgiving and gracious because
he doesn't hold all my sins against me, that I shouldn't be
holding all my sins against them.
How did he change us? Did he come to us and say, I
will only be in a relationship with you if you love me
perfectly, but every time you mess up, I'm out of here?
No, he said, I love you. I came and died for you while
you were still a Sinner. God is teaching us things
through our marriage, through our family problems, through our
wayward children. When our children walk away from
the faith or are being rebellious, is that I?
I hope that causes us to question, man, did I do that to
my parents? Right.
Or do I do that to my heavenly Father?
It's a grace of God for us to learn these lessons in these
hard times about financial issues.
We've gone through the Sermon on the Mount where he says, don't
worry, don't have anxiety over money.
I will provide for you. How about physical ailments,
problems in our bodies? They're wearing out.
Did you know it's the grace of God to remind us, hey, that this
body isn't going to last forever, but I'm going to get
one that does one day and live for eternity.
Is he not trying to build our faith through the, the, the
struggles and trials of our life?
And we think God has no part of any of this.
And yes, he does mental and emotional disorders.
How about accidents? That happen in life.
Are there really truly accidents if God is sovereign.
They seem like that. And sometimes we don't know.
I mean, so many, you know, car wrecks have happened and just it
seems like senseless evil throughout the world.
And we, we think, how can any good come from this?
But yet, as believers, we're supposed to say, wait a minute,
God causes all things to work together for good.
We need to look at life's storms, even natural disaster,
spiritual warfare as opportunities to see God's
transforming power and His work in our lives.
This verse, I love this verse because it reminds me how
sovereign God is. Isaiah 45, seven.
He says I form light and create darkness.
I make well-being and create calamity.
I am the Lord who does all these things.
So I tell people all the time, did you know that God uses
trials for his purposes and it's OK Then instead of saying this
is unfair or I can't believe this randomly happened to me or
all this evil is coming against me, it's OK to say instead, OK
God, what are you trying to teach me?
If we, those people of faith could come to every trial and
storm this way, rather than the faithless way or reacting with
fear, I think we could learn our lessons a lot quicker.
That's my my healthy fear of the Lord, or at least I try to have
it as soon as something comes up in my life, I have to remind
myself, OK, God, you're solving. What are you doing?
What are you doing in this? What do you want me to know?
But as we move on then from learning lessons in the storm,
we need to understand although this can make seem make God seem
like wow, he can be extreme sometimes or maybe that's mean
to make people go through such difficult circumstances.
But just remember, as I said earlier, that Jesus is with us
in these storms. God himself came down to earth
to be with us in all of this, to be mistreated by others, to go
through the ultimate storms and trials and tribulations of being
rejected by His own people, suffering and beaten and taken
to the cross and be put to death.
That was the most unfair act in human history, that He was the
one and only man who never deserved, served punishment,
never sinned. He's not a God who's trying to
put us through all kinds of things that he wouldn't go
through himself. Jesus is with us in the storms.
He's with his disciples in the boat.
And there are three things I want you to see in this point
here is that he's calm, caring and in control.
Verse 25 and 26 and they went and woke him, saying, save us,
Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, why are you
afraid, O you of little faith. Then he rose and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
Now it's interesting because Jesus is sleeping, and yet Psalm
121 tells us that God never sleeps.
It says he neither sleeps nor slumbers.
And that Psalm is meant to be a Psalm of, of giving us
confidence and assurance that while we are going through this
life, that he's there to protect us.
He protects us. It says he's he's the shade for
us. And it's a it's a Psalm of
protection for God's people as they go up the mountain.
It's called one of the psalms of ascent.
When they go up to worship at the temple, they would sing this
song that God never sleeps nor slumbers.
But Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man.
OK, so in his humanity, it shows that he is fully human as well.
Here while he was on on Earth and even now resurrected, he's
in his human flesh, in heaven, glorified.
But on Earth, he'd been doing all these miracles for hours on
hours, lacking sleep, worn out. People were pressing in, coming
to to find him, to get him to do miracles for him.
And so he was tired and he was able to sleep, but not only was
he able to sleep because of his body being worn out, but he's,
he's, he's able to sleep because he's calm.
Why is he calm? Because he's God and he knows
what's going to happen. He was not worried whatsoever.
I could you could just imagine that Jesus is sleeping, maybe
even snoring at the front of the boat.
The disciples this, this, the storm comes up and they're like,
what is going on? And you, you hear it in their
voice. Save us, Lord, we're perishing.
God's not wringing his hands during our storms as if he's
worried how it's going to turn out.
The version of this in Mark chapter 4, verse 38, it's
interesting we see a little bit more in the dialogue of what the
disciples say. It says he was in the stern
asleep on a cushion, and they woke him and said to him,
Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
And here's the second part of that.
We know he's calm through our storms, but he's also caring.
They say, do you not care? And he awoke and rebuked the
wind and said to the sea, peace be still.
And the wind ceased and there was a great calm here.
The disciples are downright rude and unfaithful.
They've watched Jesus do all these miracles time and time
again and yet right next to him even and they say, do you not
care? Maybe that's a question when
we're going through tough times in our life for us, Have you
ever thought that about God? Do you even care, God?
I mean, this is intense. This is a big deal.
How are you allowing this to happen in my life?
But he does care. He's proven that he cares.
He cares. He he wakes up immediately
rebukes them, but then rebukes the wind and the waves.
He says, OK, I'll take care of this.
God hears our prayers even if we're rude sometimes.
I'm not saying to do that, don't be rude, but you can ask God
questions. Like I said.
What are you doing in the storm? Lord, do you care?
He hears our prayers even in our frantic fear and our
unfaithfulness, even in our sin. He hears our prayers because we
are his children. I love what Psalm One O 7, 28
through 30 says. Then they cried to the Lord in
their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were
hushed. Then they were glad that the
waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired
haven. He hears our cries.
And this is interesting. By the way, this is written
about 1000 years before this even happened.
And this to me looks like a fulfilled prophecy of the story
that we're reading right now. Why is he calm?
Because he knows he's the caring God who is going to deliver
them. But sometimes it's not in our
timeline. Sometimes it might take a long
time. Sometimes now we know that the
disciples make it to the other side.
We have the story delivered them to their desired haven.
But what if in God's will, the desired haven is heaven?
Are you willing to endure and have faith that long?
God does care. Through our tough times and
trials, Jesus is a compassionate God.
We've seen it time and time again when He He does miracles
that He doesn't have to do for people, and He did not have to
come and die for us so that we could live in an eternity in
heaven with him. That's a caring God.
He's also in control. As I said, He's sovereign.
He's not worried, He's trying to teach them that they don't need
to worry because he's the promised king who has not only
authority over sickness and disease, but now over creation.
Do you know who stands among you?
Basically is what he's saying to them.
By doing this miracle, only God can have control over the
weather and over the waters, over the the universe, and
that's Jesus. It's the Bible says in him all
things hold together. Jesus even now holds all things
together. Without him this world would
spin out in chaos, but he holds his creation together.
Psalm 89.9 says you rule the raging of the sea when it's
waved, waves rise, you steal them.
Jesus can command with a word. He's in control.
And I know we say this a lot as Christians, God's in control,
God's got this, but we have to be reminded from Scripture time
and time again to fight our fear.
Going back to this, I want to see, I want you to see how
powerful he is. It says he rose and rebuked the
winds in the sea and there was a great calm.
Now most of us probably imagine him saying something.
Peace be still and all of a sudden it just slowly, have you
ever seen like a, a tub of water and you move it back and forth
the waves and then you stop it and it just slowly comes to a
calm. Well, that's not what happened
here. I don't believe that that's what
happened here. Immediately it was windy and
crazy and WAVY and shaking. And immediately with the word,
it's like the sea was a sea of glass and all it says a great
calm. It didn't say eventually there
was a great calm. It said there was a great calm
after he rebuked the wind in the waves.
My commentary from William Hendrickson says wind and waves
synchronize in the sublime Symphony of solemn silence.
That's a beautiful thing to think about in your mind, even
in a in a storm in your life. A lot of the storms that we have
are internal, aren't they? Like the things are going on
outside. But the real problem is in our
hearts and in our minds. It's our little faith, as he
says. Why are you afraid?
Often times we worry about things that 90% of the time
don't actually come about and don't actually happen.
We work ourselves up in a frenzy over fear and if only we could
go to the Lord Jesus because He cares and he's with us and
believe that he could calm us that way, would you start doing
that, Christian? Me too.
We we all together need to stop in our fear and by faith pray to
the sovereign God who's in control when we're worried and
in fear. And one of my favorite quotes is
from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who says this, when you go
through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which
you lay your head at night, giving you perfect peace.
There been things going on, you know, recently, like in my own
life, anxiety, I've had fear, you know, about certain things.
And I don't know if you know what it's like.
I'm sure you do. But when your mind is racing
about what could happen or what's going to happen if this
or if that, in fear of a situation, you can't sleep when
you're overthinking. But this gives me comfort.
Why am I overthinking things and circling around this fear of
this possible trial when I could be excited about what God is
going to do, even though it's scary, even though I have to go
across this, this stormy, raging sea of uncertainty and darkness?
If God is in control and He has my good and His glory in mind,
then what if we started getting excited when trials came?
I know that sounds extreme, right?
Or at least when we're lying in bed trusting God's got this, He
is in control. Why have I worried time and time
again when He has come through time and time again?
And that's the last thing I want to talk about.
Then he's trying to teach us to fight fear with faith, hearing
this story back to our verses again.
And he said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?
Then he rose and rebuked the winds in the sea, and there was
a great calm. And the men marvelled, saying,
What sort of man is this that even wins?
And sea obey him the disciples fear revealed their lack of
faith and really that is kind of the great battle is fear and
faith our faith is really put into action and proved when
these circumstances come up and here's the crazy thing they were
with him. They've watched him deliver,
they've watched him heal, they've watched him do miracles.
And I know in our world, when we're fans from far away, we're
really impressed by somebody, right?
Like think about your favorite musician or your favorite
athlete. And from far away, we think so
highly of these people. We're so impressed with these
people. But what happens when you get
closer to these people? You, you know them.
You start to become less impressed and you start to
realize they're just a regular person.
You know, there's nothing really impressive at all about them.
John MacArthur once told this story about his grandson who
came in and sat on his lap after, you know, Sunday morning
preaching. And he said, you know, Grandpa,
you are really something when you're up there in the pulpit
preaching. You really are.
People are listening to you and they follow.
And he's like, when you come down there, come down from the
pulpit, though, and in your regular life, you're really not
that special at all. And isn't that the truth of
regular people? We can idolize people out there
in the world and you get to know them and they're just as fallen
and just as broken as we are. And they're not really that
impressive. But it is the opposite with the
God man Jesus Christ. They should have been more and
more and more impressed the closer they were to Him.
And they were failing in their faith.
They still weren't close enough to him in relationship to trust
and know who He really is. Their faith kept wavering.
This proves this is one more lesson and among many other
lessons he's going to teach in the book of Matthew and in the
narrative of a of his life that the the short three-year
ministry that he had on earth of of why we should trust him as
his followers. But we got to get closer to him.
We've got to know who he is. We've got to know the words that
he said, we've got to pray to him, and we've got to look at
the miracles He's already done. We need to look back at life,
our lives as believers, and all the times that we have worried
about this or that or the other thing.
And how many times has He come through for you?
How many times did that storm not turn into such a storm at
all? Or how many times did He deliver
you through a hard situation, but you've come out on the other
side as someone with greater faith, more maturity?
How many times has God taken care of you?
Are you not close enough to even notice?
Do you not have the faith to notice that the good and the bad
in your life He has been sovereign over?
He's been trying to teach you something this whole time, and
just the fact that you're here, living and breathing is the
mercy and grace from Him. When will we recognize who He
is? That the even the wind and the
waves obey Him. When we recognize that Jesus
Christ is God in the flesh who created everything and His, and
He rules over all, He is the King of kings and He is the Lord
of Lords, we should not fear, we should not worry.
We are favored by Him. Did you know that that's what
grace means, the word grace, it's favor.
We as children of God are favored by Him.
He looks down on us like you favour your own children over
other people, but even more so, God is like, I've got plans for
them, I want to teach them, I want to provide for them, I'm
going to use them and I am going to bring them all the way to
eternity, to heaven one day where they will never have to
worry about anything ever again. That is our future, that's our
inheritance, that's our hope. And with that type of promise,
can we not go through some things here on earth with faith?
The Bible 365 times at least says do not fear, fear not
Isaiah 4110, fear not, for I am with you.
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with
my righteous right hand. When he says you have little
faith, you know that we we think of small faith, like barely
believe, but really it means not lasting faith, short faith,
wavering faith. Your faith is like the waves of
the sea. It doesn't last.
When things pop up, you're just like this up and down and up and
down with your faith. You believe me a week ago when I
delivered you from the one thing, but now the new things
popped up and you've you've got little faith again.
It's short, it's not lasting, but we and I just, I just need
you to know I'm here with you like I am constantly repenting
for my lack of faith almost on a daily basis.
Am I saying, Lord, forgive me, I didn't trust you here.
I had fear here I had. I was so afraid I wasted hours
in a day and I didn't get sleep at night and I was useless the
next day because of my own fear. I'm sorry, Lord, I do have
little faith. Forgive me.
Give me great faith. And by the way, there's a
healthy fear that I talked about.
The wrong fear is fearing the storm, the anxiety, the worry,
the the being afraid of what's to come.
The right fear is the fear of the Lord.
That's faith. Proverbs 910 says this.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the
knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
In our verses it said man, what kind of man is this?
And then in Mark 441, in that version, it said they were fear
filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is
this, That even the wind and the sea obey Him.
They weren't filled with fear anymore about the storm.
Why? Because that was still there was
no more storm anymore. They said, wow, they had a
reverent fear for Jesus. That's a good thing.
Not because he's going to judge you Christian, but because he's
he's powerful. And God as a father does want to
teach you and I lessons. There's a healthy fear from a
kid to a parent. If I do something wrong, he's
not going to disown me, but he's probably going to discipline me.
He lets a lot of things slide, I'll tell you that.
But I have a healthy fear of my Heavenly Father if I do this
thing. I don't want to have to go
through a self caused storm, so I'll just trust you in that.
Jesus is the God who will save us through the storms.
So I want to close then with answering the question, who is
this man? We've already talked about it,
but I need to end with who he is.
He is God, He is good, He is the second member of the Trinity.
The Son of God who came down 2000 years ago, was born as a
human. He took on human flesh.
He lived here, lived a sinless life, and at the age of 33 or so
he was wrongfully accused, arrested, tried and persecuted,
convicted wrongly as a blasphemer and as a Sinner.
And they beat him and hung him on a cross to die.
But it didn't stop there. He rose from the dead, proving
even greater than his power over creation.
He rose from the dead, proving he was God who had power over
sin and death. He went through much trial and
much pain. He didn't try to escape the
storms that were, by the way, sovereignly ordained in planned
by God before the foundation of the world.
Everything that happened to Jesus was in God's will and
plan. You think?
And I think then that somehow our lives aren't ordered by God
as well. Well, I'm here to tell you that
they are Christian Christ follower.
He has all of the things that happened in our lives planned
out as well. We must then know and have
confidence by faith that He's got a reason for this, That my
Savior didn't try to escape. He never had No Fear or worry.
Neither shall I, because He will deliver me one day, whether it's
here on earth or in heaven, I will get safely to the other
side. So let me say this about Jesus.
Proverbs 30 told us verse four, Who is ascended to heaven and
come down? Who has gathered the wind in his
first? Who has wrapped up the waters in
a garment? Who has established all the ends
of the earth? What is his name and what is his
son's name? Surely you know?
And then Job 98, we know all the things that Job went through,
and even Job comes to know who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the sea.
We know it's none other than Jesus Christ God in the flesh,
and he will deliver us. And he asked for our faith.
If you're not a believer here today, I plead with you to say
what the disciples said, save me, save us, O Lord, I'm
perishing. Will you do that today?
You don't know what what's happening tomorrow.
You don't know what your life is going to be, but do know that
there is a God that can save you through the trial and
tribulation of this life. And ultimately, if we wait too
long, there will be a storm like nothing compared on earth for
eternity for those who will not submit and bow to King Jesus.
And that is in a place of eternal destruction in hell.
So ask Him to save you today. For the believer, we've must
trust Him as sovereign Lord over our life.
He hasn't brought you this far to not bring you through
whatever it is you're going through.
He chose these disciples shortly before He.
He took Him through this storm and He's chosen you.
He's got a plan to strengthen your faith.
Will you follow him without having to be dragged kicking and
screaming? Will you see the trials in your
life as a way to deepen your walk with Him and rejoice,
knowing you will be delivered to the other side, whether it be in
this life or the life to come? Let's pray.
Father, we are amazed by you and your plan.
Your ways are so much greater than our ways.
We acknowledge that you are king of all things, that you do have
control, that you are big enough to do whatever you want.
And if you have that power and you are doing your will in our
lives, then we say, do with me what you will only Lord, stay
close to me. Help me in my unbelief, in my my
weak faith sometimes, Father, deliver us, Father, through the
storms in these in these trials in our lives, and help us to
have peace as we follow Jesus. And it's in his name I pray.
Amen.