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This message was given at Grace
Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information
about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your Bibles, let's
open up to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 8. Luke, Chapter 8. I told the folks this morning,
and I hope you'll agree as well, This passage is a gift from God
to us, especially this day after this week. Luke chapter eight, picking up
in verse 22. This is the reading of God's
word. One day he got into a boat with
his disciples and he said to them, let us go across to the
other side of the lake. So they set out, and as they
sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on
the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.
And they went and woke him up saying, master, master, we are
perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the
wind and the raging waves, and they ceased. And there was a
calm. He said to them, where is your
faith? And they were afraid and they
marveled saying to one another, who then is this that he commands
even winds and water and they obey him. This is the reading
of God's word. Truly, this text today is an
incredible blessing. I told Brian, you were there,
many of you, I told him all I have next week is the next text. And
God in his providence has given us what I just can't imagine
a better text for how this week has been. For many of us, this passage,
speaking of fear, Speaking of uncertainty in the face of that
fear, it hits close to home. It hits home in our personal
lives because I have no doubt with a room this size, I can
say at any given time you were going through trials and I'm
right. Because I know many of you are going through trials
and you know what it is to have an ordinary day transformed by
something you weren't expecting. by tragedy, by threat, by fearful
developments. This text hits home to us in
our life as a family, as a family united in Christ. What Pastor
Brian has been going through with his surgery, it has seized
our hearts, sent many of us to our knees in prayer before our
God. This is close to home. Although the scenery may be different,
we all know what storms feel like. And for whatever the differences
between my trial and your trial, our trial and the disciples'
trial, for whatever the differences, the same Lord leads us through
these dark valleys. And whether we're on a boat on
the Sea of Galilee, or in a waiting room at the hospital, our God
offers the same help, the same faith, the same way through the
trials. The situation for the disciples,
it started on an ordinary day, just like every day seems to
start before that one thing happens. It's a normal evening after a
busy day of preaching. And Jesus gets in the boat with
his disciples and he charts the course. He says, let's go to
the other side of the lake. Lake Gennesaret being another
name for the Sea of Galilee. Let's go to the other side. And
they set out. They set out and Jesus, after
a full, full day of preaching and ministering, he is tired.
and he falls asleep after his busy day. Then there you have
it, the Savior sleeping, the disciples doing the work the
boat requires to get across to the other side and a sudden storm
falls upon them. The power of the sea, the power
of water has a particular way of showing men their powerlessness. When the sea rises up, Being
in some boat is a pitifully small protection. And so there they
are fighting against the waters, but to no avail, to no avail,
it is too strong. The storm is too much. The situation
has rapidly transformed from an ordinary trip across the lake
to a battle for their lives. An important detail, Jesus is
still sleeping. And how do they respond? How
do they respond? They totally panic. They totally panic. Master, master,
they say, we are perishing. A little note for when you read
Luke's gospel, every time the disciples called Jesus master,
they don't seem to get what is going on. They do not understand
what is going on. And this time it is no different. They do not get what is going
on in the midst of this storm. They say, we are perishing. You, talking to Jesus, you, you are
sleeping and we're dying. You can hear the accusation. You can understand their reaction.
You really can. They feel the power of the storm. They are losing the fight. The wind is too strong. The waves
are too big. They can't keep up with the water
that's spilling into their boat. And in their mind, the conclusion
is near certain. We are going down. Who knows if the way their minds
have leaped already, they're already thinking, how long can
we even stay alive when the boat goes down? Sure, Jesus is there. And maybe if he were awake, he
would be comforted that he was there. But Jesus is sleeping
through the whole ordeal. whatever they know of him, whatever
they know of the power he has shown, it just doesn't seem relevant
anymore. Because it's like he is totally
tuned out from this fearsome event. So the disciples in their
panic, they leap to the worst possible conclusion. Jesus isn't
going to do anything and they are all going to die. We can understand their reaction.
We can also understand their reaction because brothers, sisters,
it's been our reaction too, hasn't it? We too have faced fearful
and uncertain trials. We too have looked around and
haven't seen any sign that God is working. And while we look
for him, our trials aren't going anywhere. In fact, it's like
our trials are only growing bigger while we wait. And so many of
us have done exactly what the disciples are doing here. We've
panicked. Why did they panic? Why did they
panic? You see, we're not talking about
fear. We're talking about panic. Fear can be totally appropriate
in a number of situations. An overwhelming storm that threatens
to take your life and the life of all your friends, That is
truly fearsome. It would be wrong to tell you
all that you should never fear. But God does have a standard
for how we are supposed to handle fear. And God's remedy to fear,
it's not simply don't fear. God's remedy to fear is to trust
him. The believing heart is meant
to respond to fear with faith. You see this balance captured
perfectly in Psalm 56 verses three and four. I'll read it
for you. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose
word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can
flesh do to me? You hear what he says, when I
am afraid. The fear isn't a sin. It's not condemned. But I want
you to understand fear isn't a destination. In other words,
you're not supposed to just wallow in a state of fear. Fear is meant
to lead us somewhere. David's faith in that Psalm,
David's faith, harnessed his fear. His faith took that fear
and used it to draw closer to the Lord. Consider also the famous Isaiah
41 verse 10. Do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you
for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely
I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with
my righteous right hand. God doesn't just say stop fearing.
We always want to do that. Stop fearing, like that's going
to solve it all. God doesn't say stop fearing
and just end it. He gives a reason why. Do not fear for I am with you. The reason we are not to fear
is because God is there. God is helping. The reason we
are not to fear is because God is near to his people in their
affliction. Trusting in these truths is the
alternative to being given over to fear. See, faith plus fear
can add up to strengthened faith. Faith plus fear can add up to
strengthened faith. But the disciples weren't resting
in faith. They weren't. They were absolutely
afraid and looking anxiously about them. They were lost in
unbelief. And unbelief plus fear, that
adds up to panic. Unbelief plus fear adds up to
that uncontrollable, self-destructive fear. In panic, those disciples
fled the peace of God and they ran right into a swirling storm
of chaos and distress. Spiritually speaking, the problem
wasn't the storm. The problem was their unbelieving
hearts. The storm did not produce their
unbelief. The storm only exposed their
unbelief. You see that unbelief in a number
of ways. You see how they were doubting
and disbelieving what they should have known. They doubted Jesus's character,
even though they had been front row seat kind of witnesses of
Jesus's character. They had seen how he sought them
out. They had seen how he poured into
them, training them up for his purposes. They'd seen how his
heart was moved when he saw other people's grief. They saw how
his compassion regularly led him to take action. And yet here
in the storm, they doubted it. Forget his love, forget the time
he spent, forget the compassion. This time, he was going to let
them die. They doubted his character. They
also doubted Jesus's ability. They had seen him perform miracle
after miracle after miracle, seeming to say with every miracle
that the laws of nature don't apply to him. Yet here, their
despair erupts because they are sure that they are in too deep. They are sure that their crisis
is too big. In that moment, they can't recall
a single miracle of Jesus because all they can see is the storm.
It's all they can feel. They doubted his character, they
doubted his ability, and they also doubted his intent for them. The simplest intent was just
how we started the journey. He kicked it off by simply saying,
let's go to the other side of the lake. This miracle performing,
authority wielding guy who seemed to act like he was God, he intended
for them to get to the other side of the lake. Do you think
he was good for a simple journey across the lake? On top of that,
he had promised, I'm going to make you fishers of men. Did
the disciples have any reason to think that he wouldn't live
up to his promised intent for them? But the disciples in this
passage, they don't have a lot of trust in them anymore. They practically accuse Jesus
of sitting idly by while his disciples all die. everything
that they had seen and known about Jesus. It just goes right
out the window. Faith just shrivels up. They don't understand what's
going on. They don't understand how this mighty Messiah can be
letting them die. Fear meets unbelief and they
are in an all-out panic. But then panic meets power. They wake Jesus. You imagine,
you imagine the scene, right? The swirling winds, they're yelling
at the top of their lungs to be heard and they're shaking
him. Jesus! Jesus, wake up! Wake up! Scriptures, you do so well to
just pause sometimes, meditate on what these moments are like.
What do you think this moment looked like? They wake him up.
And then I think Hollywood has conditioned us to think that
Jesus struck some glorious pose, right? He puts one foot up on
top of the boat, hand out over the waters, be still, right? His voice echoes and everything
goes quiet, but maybe Jesus was still just incredibly groggy,
having been ripped out of his exhausted sleep by his disciples
who are yelling at him that they think they're about to die. I
actually favor the second picture a lot more because, well, that's
kind of like what I'm like when my kids wake me up when I'm exhausted,
right? So something to do justice to the idea that Jesus was not
just God, he was the God-man and he was exhausted and he was
so tired. He was sleeping through a storm
that could genuinely endanger all their lives. He was that
tired. And then they wake him up, but he gets up. And though he's speaking to the
storm, the words really seem relevant to his disciples too.
Luke doesn't record it, but Mark does. And he says, he records
of what Jesus says. He says, peace, be still. Tell me that doesn't apply to
the disciples too. Jesus responds to their panic with power. Jesus rebuked the wind and the
raging waves, and then get this, and they ceased. You can hardly do justice to
those three words, and they ceased. Imagine again the scene, the
wind, which had been howling so loud, goes quiet. The sea, which had been threatening
their lives, raging against them. It's like someone pulls the power
cord and it goes still. And terror gives way to peace. And all because Jesus commanded
the storm to cease. The power of Jesus' word is emphasized
over and over again in the gospel. He heals with a word. He raises the dead with a word. He forgives sins against Almighty
God with a word. Now with one more word, he shows
his authority in a new way. Nature. is under his control
too. But it's not like he had to conquer
nature. It was his creation after all. As one esteemed theologian wrote,
who also wrote the Jesus Storybook Bible for kids, the wind and
the waves recognized Jesus's voice. They had heard it before,
of course. It was the same voice that made
them in the very beginning. They listened to Jesus and they
did what he said. Exactly. Even though the disciples
didn't get it, even though humanity didn't get it, it seemed that
creation gets it just fine. Creation recognized the authority
that Jesus possessed. The creator commanded his creation
and the creation obeyed. And so now the wind and the waves
have died and an eerie calm has replaced the storm. And Jesus
turns to deal with his disciples. Where is your faith? He says. The son of God rebukes
the storm and then he turns and rebukes his disciples right after.
Where is your faith? It's not that they didn't have
any faith whatsoever. They did in fact leave their
lives to follow him. But their faith is clearly not
where it should have been. It was riddled with doubt and
their doubt made no sense in light of what those disciples
should have known. Who had Jesus shown himself to
be? Who had he shown himself to be? See, chapter by chapter,
we're getting used to it, but we're witnessing Jesus establishing
his identity. He is the one who commands demons
and they obey. He is the one mighty over disease. He is the one who raises the
dead. He is the one who governs the Sabbath. He is the one who
can forgive sins. His opposition in that passage
in chapter five, his opposition captures the sentiment perfectly.
Who can forgive sins but God alone, they say. And you want
to say exactly, exactly. Who can forgive sins but God
alone? It must be God. Jesus had shown beyond a shadow
of a doubt. that he was God. The disciples
were traveling around the countryside with God. All the evidence was
there. And now they witnessed this extraordinary
act of power and common sense is rising up and declaring that
he is God. If they needed more, which they
shouldn't have, they could have gone to the Old Testament. They
could have gone to the scriptures. You remember when Jonah runs
God says, go to Nineveh, Jonah. Jonah says, nope, not doing it.
And he heads off trying to go the other direction, books passage
on a boat, goes out. God's not going to be eluded
by someone going out on a boat. Sends a storm to swamp them. Jonah has to admit to the sailor
saying, this is my fault. I'm running from, I'm running
from God. That's why this storm has come
upon us. You have to throw me in the water. That's the only
way this ends. They don't want to do it, which
is amazing. The sailors have more character than the prophet
in this passage. The sailors, they say, okay,
fine. They throw them in the water.
And then the craziest thing happens. The storm stops. And they can
put together the pieces too. The one who can stop the storm
must be God. You can look at the Psalms, Psalm
107. I'm not going to read it for
you because it's a little long for our purposes, but 23 through
32, the Psalms lend their own authoritative voice to this event. They speak of a God who raises
the stormy wind and sends it and sends his people to their
wits end. And that same Psalm speaks of
the God who stills the storm. who hushes the waves in response
to his people's distress. Maybe you don't need the proof,
but the Old Testament will connect the dots for you if you want.
The one who can command creation is the creator. He is God. The acts of Jesus were proclaiming
to a lost world that he was God. The disciples were traveling
around with God. They had seen his character.
They had seen his power. They had seen his intent. In
other words, they had no reason anymore to panic. And they had
every reason not to. They knew enough. They had learned
enough. They had experienced enough to
be able to cling to Jesus, the son of God, and not be thrown
into this unbelieving panic. Faith in their Savior could have
filled their hearts, filled their hearts so full that there was
simply no room for panic in there. But they did not flee in faith. They were swept away in unbelief. And this is not the faith that
Jesus wanted for them. That self-destructive unbelief
was not what he wanted for them. He wanted his disciples to have
the blessing of faith. So he rebukes them with this
rhetorical question, where is your faith? We're going to talk
about that more in the afternoon and I hope you stay because there's
a lot to learn from Jesus on this. The disciples at that point,
they respond a bit better, although a bit better relative to outright
panic is, you know, relative, but their response is still hugely
lacking. See, it starts out on the good
note, starts out decently. They were afraid. And this might
be a glimmer of that fear of God that is supposed to characterize
all of God's people. So in that way, it might be good.
They might be feeling that awe and that reverence of being near
God. And that's good. Being near God
should affect us deeply. They also marvel. They're amazed. Again, another appropriate response. They just saw a man who was so
weary that he slept through a life-threatening storm. They just saw that same
weary man wake up and then exert his supernatural control over
a raging storm. That is an extreme contrast of
weakness and strength. They sit there marveling at the
amazing things they have just witnessed. But then, in my opinion,
they completely drop the ball. Who then is this, they ask. Everything we just talked about.
The answer might be obvious to us, but it wasn't to them in
the moment. Remember, the one who controls creation is the
creator. The one whose power defies natural
laws at every turn is the one who transcends the natural laws. Yet the disciples don't seem
to quite be there yet. So they ask, who then is this? And it's a question that has
been dogging them at every step. Who then is this who commands
the sea, heals the lame and raises the dead? Who then is this who
governs the Sabbath and forgive sins against God? This persistent
question demands an answer. Who then is this? And you want to scream the answer
to them. It's God himself, don't you see?
It's God himself. At some point, you have to stop
asking questions because you don't need any more questions. You know the answers. You need
to start believing the answers. All their fear and all their
marveling misses the cornerstone of the whole event. Who then
is this? This is God. Jesus is God. Don't fear and marvel at a mere
man. Fear and marvel at God himself. Do away with the illusion that
in Jesus Christ, you're dealing with anyone other than God almighty. He will not be your friend or
your savior without first being your God. He offers no forgiveness
or help unless He is first your God. He brings you no light or
life unless He is your God. This is Jesus Christ, the one
who calms the storms and would one day conquer the grave. Don't
question what you have good reason to know already. This is to us. Don't delay what you owe him
today. Though fears loom large, let
fear drive you to him. Find your peace in him. Find your hope in Him. Find your life in Him. Above all people, He is trustworthy. So trust Him. Who then is this
Jesus of Nazareth? Behold, He is God. My prayer today is that there
are many here who, like the disciples, are not quite there yet. And my prayer for you all is
that today would be that day. Today would be your day. My prayer
is that by the Holy Spirit, you would see your situation and
the state of your soul clearly, maybe for the very first time.
My prayer is that you, like the disciples, might cry out to the
God of all creation that you are perishing in your sin. My prayer for you is that the
looming storm of God's judgment would stir up in your soul a
godly fear. My prayer is that God would give
you the faith to take that fear and run with it all the way to
the cross of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that God would give
you a new heart. One that would claim the Savior
who died and rose from the grave so that you might live. Who then is this Jesus of Nazareth
I pray today that you would believe a new answer. I pray that today
you would call him your God. I pray that today you would call
him your savior. Let's pray. Our good God, We praise you, the one who is
mighty over the storms. We praise you, the one who is
mighty over trials. We praise you, who is mighty
to save. And we pray you would save, save
today. Save the ones who have only been
hearing and never believing. Save the ones who have never
known the peace of faith, who have only known the panic of
unbelief. Give them the eyes to see, the
ears to hear, give them the hearts to understand and to believe.
And for those who are in Christ Lord, may they find confidence
there. May they find confidence before
their storms and their trials, the waves that come crashing
down on them. May they have the peace of knowing that you are
their God and that you will help. We pray this in Jesus's name.
Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message
from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a
copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516
or visit our website gracenevada.com.
Panic Meets Power
Series An Exposition of Luke
| Sermon ID | 51161537380 |
| Duration | 33:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Luke 8:22-25 |
| Language | English |
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