25 years ago I preached my first sermon on the Thursday night as I've mentioned to you in the prayer meeting in the hall behind us and it was on Jesus coming walking on the water on the Sea of Galilee to meet his disciples. Tonight I want to take you back to the same location but not the same event to the Sea of Galilee in Matthew chapter 8 verse 23 to 27. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves. But he was asleep. And his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish.' And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him. Amen. We'll end our reading there. The Lord Jesus leaves Capernaum, the city on the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee, to go to the other side. It says in verse 18. So he goes down through the streets of the city. to the harbour and the planks creak on the gangplank as they get onto the fishing boat. The fishing boats were only 30 or 40 feet long and between 7 and 10 feet wide. And it was just a normal day like any other day and they set sail to go to the other side. All was well experienced fishermen at the helm of the boat, and everything looked just perfect. It all began as a peaceful journey, six miles to the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee, to the bottom right, from the top left to the bottom right of the Sea of Galilee, six miles to the place called Gargassa. The journey at sailing boat speed in those days would take between two and three hours. So if they left at eight, they would be there by 11 o'clock in the morning. The Sea of Galilee is just a little bit bigger than Loch Ness. I want to give you five points again this evening, give you five this morning, five tonight, on this passage. We see five things. Number one, we see the furious storm. Secondly, we see the fearful, sorry, not, secondly, we see the sleeping savior. Thirdly, the fearful disciples. Fourthly, the lesson, because the passage always teaches a lesson. And fifthly, the God-man. Firstly, we look to this passage in Matthew chapter eight, the furious storm. It says in verse 24, I've turned the page. I'm looking at the wrong verse and behold there arose a great tempest in the sea and So much that the ship was covered with the waves But he was asleep Look at these words the first word is behold The Greek word means Low see pay attention to something very important behold there arose, there came into existence, there suddenly appeared a great tempest. Now remember those two words. It says a great tempest. Not just a tempest, a great tempest. Now the Greek word for great means an abundant, a great in size or in measure. And the word tempest is very interesting translated into the English It can sometimes be translated an earthquake or a sea quake if there's any such thing, a tempest. Let me give you a quote from the dictionary. Shaking and commotion, an excessive current of wind of great velocity, violence commonly attended by heavy rain, hail, or even snow. This means a storm of extreme violence. In some cases, this word is used for a tornado. So suddenly, there arose a great tempest. Not a normal tempest, a great tempest. In so much, the verse says, to the extent that the ship was covered with the waves. The ship was hidden or veiled, obscured by the waves, the foam as the waves broke upon it. Now, when you put all these words together, What the Bible is telling us here is this, the peaceful journey changed. Behold, all of a sudden, they were hit by a great tempest, an excessively big tempest, not a normal one, of great velocity, violent winds, maybe even rain, definitely rain, but maybe even hail or sleet to the extent that the boat was being veiled, obscured by the waves. You can picture it, can't you? The water coming in, feet being wet, bailing it out with buckets, spray everywhere as the next wave breaks, shouting as the next wave comes to hit, trying to get the bow of the boat round towards the wave because you can't let it hit the sides of the boat. And then another wave hits. You have to, in this passage, feel the violence of the raging storm that this is. Storms on Galilee are common, you know, in reality. This was not a normal one, it was an excessive one, a great tempest, but storms are common, sudden storms. Because the city of Galilee is 700 feet below sea level. Level of the sea in Belfast, 700 feet below that. Sleave Donnards 3, 2,900 feet above sea. The Sea of Galilee is inland and it's 700 feet below sea level. And to the north of the Sea of Galilee is mountains including Mount Hermon, which is over 10, 11,000 feet high and there's snow on it all year round. And to the east of the Sea of Galilee there's hills. And to the west, to the left, if you're looking at the map, is Moorhills and then the Mediterranean Sea. And the sea itself is up to 200 feet deep. So the cold air coming down from the snowy mountains in the north meets the hot air from A basin 700 feet below sea level, hotter rises, cooler comes down. And when the hot meets with cold, you get a crash and you get sudden storms. And they come up so suddenly. And that's just the normal weather conditions around the Sea of Galilee. And a more common storm, for example, was recorded in the year 1992 in the month of March. And it's normal in the Sea of Galilee when one of these tempests come down, the waves are normally about 10 feet high. Not too high, just up a little bit there above me, compared with where you are. But that's bad enough, isn't it? 10 foot waves, considering you're in a fishing boat and the side of the fishing boat are only four or five feet high. And the waves are 10 feet high, so it's scary. But an exceptional storm. A great tempest is recorded for us on the Sea of Galilee on the 12th of December 2010 where the winds were 110 miles an hour and waves were recorded 30 feet high or nearly 10 meters, over 10 meters high. That's the size of one and a half two-story houses It's the size of the waves on the Sea of Galilee in 2010. Because that was a great tempest, an excessive one, not a normal one. And that is precisely what is described in Matthew chapter 8. Not a normal tempest, a great tempest. Suddenly arose on the Sea of Galilee and the peaceful journey turned into the furious storm. How often in life, whether it is physical or spiritual. We set out to do something and it's a normal day. Everything's peaceful and all of a sudden it's not long before we soon encounter difficulties and problems and they just seem to come out of nowhere. That's what happened this day to these disciples. Which brings me to the second point, the sleeping saviour. You see, it says in verse 24 of Matthew chapter 8, four lovely words. But he was asleep. Imagine, waves higher than the ceiling of this church coming in. He was And the disciples came and they awoke him and said, Lord, which means master or doctor, save us, rescue us. We perish. We are going to die. That's what that means. Save us, we perish. We're going to die. And this is hardened fishermen saying this. to the Savior. One thing immediately sticks out from their fear, and then another thing flows from that. Firstly, we see their fear, the disciples. Hardened sailors are afraid. That says something to us about the fierceness of this storm. They feared they were going to die. Rescue us, we perish. They were afraid of imminent death. That is what is plainly being said here. They were in danger and they knew it and they were afraid. But secondly, we note their trust in the Lord. They woke him up. At least in their fear, in their fear of imminent death, they went to the right man. It's a little bit ironic, isn't it? A storm at sea. People are afraid. Who do they go to for help? Peter, you're a sailor. You own fishing boats. No, they don't go near Peter. Peter's one of the ones going to ask for help. Everyone goes to a carpenter from Nazareth. He's not a sailor, but he's so much more. He's a saviour. And that just means a rescuer. It's like us being on an airplane and the plane is beginning to have problems and instead of going to a pilot you know on the plane, you go to a welder. It doesn't make sense, sure it doesn't. They went to this carpenter from Nazareth. These disciples knew that Jesus Christ is so much more. than a carpenter from Nazareth. These disciples knew it from experience that he was their only hope in danger and fear of imminent death. They had seen his power before and now they're in danger and death is imminent and they go to him. They go to him. What about you and I? Have you ever known real danger? Have you ever thought death is close? Have you ever thought maybe this is it? What was your reaction? Fear? Panic maybe? I don't know. Anger? Emotion boiling over. Self-preservation, of course, would kick in. Do we react in real life, in real situations, in real pressure? Do we react in life as if we have real faith when fear and danger is near? That's the litmus test, you see. Geoff Thomas, a great preacher from Wales who went over to Waite, I'll be a few times. He's written many books. He's a great man. He says to me one day in the car, he says, you know, it's all very well being a fair weather Christian when the sun is shining. That's what he said. It's all very well being a fair weather Christian when the sun is shining. And then he says, and then you get the slightest bump, and then it's all, why is God letting this happen to me? Real faith acts in one of two ways in real pressure situations. Two ways. Real faith, when danger is near, will either simply trust in the Lord. I am trusting in him. Or real faith will also react in this way sometimes. It will cry out, Lord, Help me. It's one of those two ways. That's the way real faith reacts. But Jesus Christ is never left out if the person has real faith. So many in our society, we call it our society, and I tend to agree with them. A snowflake generation is growing up. You've heard the term. With this latest wee thing, we're all offended and hurt. So many, when real danger and real pressure is on, they panic and squawk and flap around like an owl bird. We're not chickens, it's humans, you know. They get themselves in a real flap. No! I am trusting in the God-man. Or, Lord, help me. The Lord's always involved. Real faith reacts. There's an action to real faith when the pressure's on. And the action's one of two things. We simply trust or we cry out to the Lord when danger and death are near. Our reaction is very telling. Fourthly, The lesson is in verse 26. And he, they woke him, they woke the Lord, Lord save us we perish. And he said unto them, why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Why? Simply means why? Why are you fearful? Why are you full of fear, O ye of little faith. Ye that believe too little. That's what the Greek word means. You trust not enough. Oh, you're afraid and in danger, the Lord's saying to them. Why? Christ says to them, your faith is little. You're trusting me too little. Now, let's bear in mind the disciples here, their faith is real. It's genuine. They're real Christians. But it was small. Genuine but small. What is the lesson? The lesson is there are degrees of faith. There are amounts of faith. Sometimes we can have little faith. Sometimes we can have much faith. At times in life it varies, doesn't it? Sometimes we are strong in the faith and at other times Well, we're weak in the faith because we're variable, we're human beings. But the amount is not so much important. The real measure of the strength, but more so the reality of our trusting in Jesus, is found in difficulties and in danger. It's not found One can see, sure it isn't. We don't find out too much when the sun is shining and the weather's fair, spiritually speaking, in the Christian life. But the strength and reality of our faith is seen in our reaction to the furious storm. Who do we go to? At that time, somebody that has no faith will panic. And I'm not saying this in a derogatory way, but so many people without faith in our society, and less and less people say they believe in the Lord and so on, but you should see them when they're in difficulties. A shipwreck of a life. Don't know what to do, don't know where to turn, because the truth is, if you're not saved, you have no anchor in the storm of life, none. None. Genuine faith, but weaker faith, will reveal itself because it will cry out to the Lord Jesus, saying, Lord, save me. Deliver me from my problems. Strong faith will trust him at all times. Trust him. When you think that this is it, when you think, maybe it's my time, When you think it's over and your life fleets before you, like a picture, a movie ongoing at high speed, is your faith strong? Do you simply trust in God, in the Lord? You know, strong faith says with Job, yea, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Even if I die, I'll die trusting Him. That's faith! That's real faith! Like Daniel and his friends going into the fiery furnace before King Nebuchadnezzar. All they had to do was bow down before the Golden Idol. Remember Daniel's words? Our God in whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace. But if not, we're still not going to bow down to your golden idol. You see, our faith doesn't rest on our miraculous deliverance. We need to have that faith that Daniel had. He says, God is able to save me from this. But if not, the but if not faith But if not, I'm going to trust him anyway. Faith doesn't depend on deliverance. It depends upon Christ at all times. Real faith, under threat of death, says, with old Polly Clark, the pastor in the early church, when he was asked to deny Jesus before they burned him alive, he said these words, 80 and 6 years have I served him, and he hath done me no hurt, how then can I deny my Lord who saved me? And they burned him. And the centurion that burned him got converted through the witness of that man's faith. This is the faith that Christians have all down through the history of the church and even to today in Nigeria where a thousand Christians were killed by Muslims in the last year and it's never on the news. And in China, where there's over a million locked up in concentration camps, but it's never on the news. Faithful even unto death and receiving a crown of life. Jeff Thomas said, he says, some modern Christians, he says in inverted commas, They crack their finger and heel and then they whimper about it like a wee pampered poodle. Is that the faith of the Christians of history? Fifthly, the God-man, the God-man. That's verse 26 and 27 of Matthew chapter 8. And he said unto them, why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and he rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. But the man marveled, saying, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? The God-man. He rebukes. That's a command word. He charges. He just tells off the wind. And he tells off the sea. And he says, keep quiet. Enough. Peace be still. And the wind and the waves, during a great exceptional tempest, and the Greek tense makes it very plain, were immediately calm. Immediately, there was a calm. The man who was sleeping in the back of the boat, the carpenter from Nazareth, rebukes the storm. He rebukes the waves and the wind. And in the midst of a great tempest, an instant calm, that is not natural, that's supernatural. Because if there's a storm on and even the wind stops immediately, it can take hours before the waves calm down, naturally. So what we have here is a supernatural calm, the power of the God-man. And the followers say, what manner of man is this that even the wind and waves obey him? He's God. Wind and waves obey him, and yet he's man because he's tired, sleeping in the back of the boat. This event bears witness to the divinity and the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me summarize what I've said, and then I'll apply it a little bit at the end now. The peaceful journey. Point number one, the furious storm. It was sudden, exceptional. Point number two, the sleeping savior. He's a man. He's tired. He is fearless, sleeping in the midst of danger. Nothing wrong with nap Stuart in the day. The Lord did it, didn't he? Get out of that one. The Lord did it. And it's an active verb. He deliberately did it. He was deliberately asleep in the back of the boat. He was actively determined to go to sleep. And it was the morning. The fearful disciples was my third point. Their fear and threat of death and critical circumstances. We see their faith in the same circumstances. The sailors went to the Lord for help in stormy seas. The lesson from the passage. There are degrees of faith. that we can have. But our faith is tested, not in fair weather, but in the fury of the storm, where little faith will cry out, genuine little faith. Strong faith will simply trust, and no faith will panic and flap like a tent in the wind. One night when I was in my twenties, James, my brother, and I went up into the morns with our friend Al, We were camping at the back of Sleave Donard in the marsh. And the storm, the wind got up and up and up. Of course, we being lazy, didn't put the inners in the tent, just the outer. Around about two in the morning, the wind gusted across and the rubber bands snapped and the tent just blew off us. Both at the same time, he's in one tent and I was in the other. And there it was, flapping like a tent in the wind, and we were being hit by the rain. So we had to spend the rest of the night holding the tent up with our hand and the rain dribbling down our arms. To panic, flapping like a tent in the wind, it's just all over the place. What are we like? Brethren, what am I like? Even in marginal danger, am I trusting in the Lord? Am I trusting in Him? Have we got strong faith? Or weak faith? Well, as long as it's genuine, it doesn't matter that much. I remember a man. This is an example of very dubious faith, I think. He regularly attended church every Sunday. And then he got news that he was going to have an operation within the next four months. Now it wasn't even a serious operation, it was just a knee operation. And you know from that Sunday, I never seen him for four months. He sat in the house worrying. He was a child, he was biting his nails. Worrying about a knee operation coming up sometime within four months. Is that the reaction of real faith? In life's difficulties? Polycarp wasn't like that. Jettison God completely? Don't attend church for four months because you're scared? No, no, no, no. What kind of faith is that? Real faith would Come, draw near to the Lord. Seek comfort in him. Share, tell the people of God to pray for me. Real faith seeks the Lord, or trusts in the Lord. Real faith in difficulty doesn't counsel God because they're afraid. No, very dubious faith of any faith. Faith is tested in difficulties. Strong faith trusts and accepts it and says, I am just going to trust the Lord because he's in control. Weak faith, but still every bit is genuine. Cries out in praise, Lord, help me in this. And he will help you in it. No faith drops God completely and panics. Now when danger is present and death is imminent, how do we react? We trust him. Do we come to other Christians and share it and they can pray for us at the prayer meeting? Or do we drop God? Our reaction proves something. You see, that was the fourth point. Fifthly and lastly, I'm just summarizing the points. The God-man come to Jesus in the wind and the storms of life. He is well able to deal with all your and my wee problems and all our sin when we trust him. Every time you see the word believe in the New Testament, or faith, or trust, it's usually the same, a play on the same Greek word, and you know it's almost always a present tense verb. Not I believed But I am presently believing that just live by faith every day. Today I believe and tomorrow I believe. It's a present faith. It's a life of faith. Trusting in Jesus Christ. Put your trust in Jesus Christ and he'll save you. And let me tell you, that's the only thing that matters. It's the only thing that really matters is if you're trusting in the Lord. Let me tell you this quickly and then I'll close. A few years ago I was up late at home sitting on the computer after midnight and all of a sudden I got extremely sore pains in my chest. Oh, it was agony. So I stumbled off from the chair and tried to get up the stairs and couldn't make it. So I went down into a spare bedroom we had in front of the house and lay on the bed. It just got worse. I was really, really sore and I thought at the time it was a heart attack. And I thought, I don't want to go to hospital. I'll just lie here for half an hour and then I'll die and I'll not have to go to hospital. That was my thoughts. Rebecca soon sorted that out when she found out. That was the wrong attitude. It was definitely the wrong attitude to have. But after half an hour, it was that sore and painful, I couldn't stick the pain. So I got on my mobile and I rang Rebecca upstairs, because I couldn't make it up the stairs. And she came down and phoned the doctor. And the ambulance came out, flashing lights. And they got me into the ambulance and took me all the way down to the hospital. And by this time, it's about 3 in the morning. And we're in resuscitation in the emergency for about two hours at least. They're sticking this thing down my neck into my vein for prepping me for surgery, because they didn't know what was wrong. And they told her back at the phone, the family, because I was very seriously ill apparently. And while I was sitting there with a warm blanket on, all of a sudden the blood pressure machine started beeping. And my blood pressure dropped from whatever normal was to about 20 over 10 or 5, really low. And all of a sudden the nurses and the doctors, Rebecca alerted them, they were all around, three doctors and more nurses, and they put me down on the table and lowered my head so that I could see underneath the tables at the side. They were made of aluminium, there's wee bolts in them, I still remember it to this day. And above me is all these doctors, surgeons, with the face masks and all on, giving you, sticking the adrenaline needle in and the morphine. And then you got past that wee bit and then you sat up again. And then within about five minutes the same thing happened. Blood pressure down. About 20 over 5. Which is quite dangerous. And now my head's down. Looking up underneath the table again. And a thought came into my head that night. Just there looking at the underneath of the table. Maybe this is it. Am I ready to meet God? And then I said in my mind, well, the only thing I know is that I am trusting in Jesus Christ. And if that's not enough, nothing is. But let me tell you this. It didn't come into my head that I was a preacher. It didn't matter that I'd made a profession. It didn't come into my head I was a minister. One thing counts when you think it's the end. Am I trusting Jesus Christ? It's the only thing that matters. The only thing. Am I trusting Jesus? John Calvin, you've maybe heard of him, he says this. It is a real unjust trial of our faith when God bids us to depend upon his word. Faith, he says, is no idle feeling, but an energizing principle. It's an action. That's what that means. The valor, the bravery of the godly rests on the word of God and proceeds from faith, trusting in the word. The bravery of the Christian proceeds from trusting in the word. Valor, that's it. Let us be brave in the Lord. One more story, and that's me. The American Civil War, the first Battle of Manassas, the Union soldiers, the Bluecoats, were beating the Southerners, the Confederacy. And a man called General Jackson was sent with the Virginian Division to the battle to back up the Confederates. And he arrived at the battlefield And the Confederates were in retreat running up the hill. He told all his men to lie down on the ground, the whole division, so that the bluecoats coming up wouldn't see. And he sat on his horse out in front of all the soldiers, the front line, and waited while the Confederate soldiers retreated past him. And the bullets were whizzing past and cannonballs And he was standing, sitting on the horse, holding up his hand. Jackson was a good Christian, by the way. He trusted in the Lord, and he prayed before every battle. And if you read his biography, you'll know he was a really good Christian. But one of the bullets took his finger off. And one of the retreating soldiers, seeing this, said, look at him sitting there like a stone wall. That's where he got the name Stonewall Jackson. And this encouraged the retreating soldiers. And when the Virginian division stood up The rest of the soldiers came back and they fired one volley and they charged the blue coats and drove them off the field of battle. And the Southerners won the day. But after the battle, one of the captains that watched what Stonewall Jackson did that day said these words to him, how can you remain so serene and calm? with bullets and bombs screaming around your head. Just sitting there. He said these words in answer. Captain, he says, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe on the field of battle as in my own bed. Because God has set the time for my death and I do not concern myself with that. but to be always ready. That is the way, he says, all men should live. And if they did, then all men would be equally as brave. Valor springs from faith when imminent danger is looming. Faith in Christ the Savior. Trust Him, if you haven't already. Amen. Thank you for your attention this evening. We'll sing... Well, let's just pray. Let's pray, brother. Lord, we thank Thee for the privilege it is to worship You. And we thank You for the privilege it is to study Your life, O Lord Jesus. Your greatness. Lord, we thank You that we can have faith in You, and You are the answer to our every need. Oh Lord, part us tonight in your fear and favour and bless it. And Lord, use your word we pray this day to save men and women and boys and girls from the world of flesh and of devil. In Jesus' name, Amen.