Luke 8:22-25 - Pastor Jon Noyes

Thought maybe he wanted to preach, we'd have a preach off. We could have a preacher, like. Like a dance off, but a preach off.

Let's continue reading God's word out of Luke eight. Our passage this morning picks up in verse 22. It's just three short verses through 25. So Luke 8, 22 through 25. We'll read it, pray, and then see what happens.

One day, he's talking about Jesus here. 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 on the lake, and they were filled with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, master, master, we're perishing.

And he woke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased and there was calm. He said to them, where's your faith? They were afraid. And they marveled, saying to one another, who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.

Lord of mercy, we come before you this morning in full knowledge and understanding of our desperate need for more of you. So it's that which we ask of you right now. Just give us more of you this morning. God, continue the work that you've started in each and every one of us. Don't allow any of us to leave this place unchanged.

So that when we lay our heads down tonight. When we lay our heads down tonight, we look just a little bit more like your son. Christ, we thank you for the life that you've given us. We thank you for our time today. Would you use me as your instrument?

And most of all, we thank you for Jesus, our Lord and savior. In Christ's name, amen. Please have a seat. It's really good to be back. I feel like I've been gone for months and months and months.

I don't normally do this, but my passage this morning is like the shortest I've ever written. So why not use some time?

I was in Santa Cruz two Sundays ago, preaching to about a hundred high school students on the exclusivity of Christ. And then this last Sunday, I was just in Laredo, Texas, which was really fun. Spoke seven times in two days, and I had a ball. But I missed you guys terribly. But I am listening to the sermons, and you've had a couple really good ones.

If you haven't, you should actually go to our podcast, I think. Is it a podcast we have? Go to the podcast and listen, because they're in YouTube and YouTube, whatever that is, and catch up. Because what my fear is this morning, as we get going, I don't want the echoes of, especially the previous two parables to go unheard on us, because they actually weigh in, not just on our message this morning, not just Jesus calming the storm, but for what's to come over the next couple of weeks as we lead into Easter as well. In the background of this aquatic journey we're going to go on this morning is the idea that the kingdom of God is even more important than family bonds.

We just heard this, and that might not mean much to you this morning. I don't know where you're at, most of you looking out, and the ones I know you come from, what I understand, fairly decent families, but there's drama. I come from a fair amount of dysfunction, which explains kind of how I am, why I am the way I am, and then Rihanna comes from even more dysfunction. So we're just two people trying to figure it out. That's why our family is sometimes a mess.

We're just trying to figure it out without much help. But for some of you, family is everything.

For some of you, you are a tight. I think of the Lasalles. I love your family, and I love the way that you guys love each other. The Deutsches. I mean, you couldn't shake the Deutsche off of you if you tried.

But I think in order to understand kind of what we've been going through the last couple of weeks, we have to understand. Actually, even the first century jewish family was central to who they are. Their identity was in their family. And Jesus here is blowing this up. He's saying that, yes, maybe the family is important, but the kingdom of God is more.

You see, friends, church, hearing and doing the words of God is even more important than your family. And does this mean we abandon our family? Of course not. But if you find yourself here today, as a Christian, it's important to understand, as we lead into this passage this morning, that God has ultimate claim on your life. He is the authority and he is absolute.

And this is something that actually, if I'm surveying my family, who are all filled with non believers, atheists, they just don't get that about me. Unless God grants them the grace that he's granted many of us here today, they'll never get that. That the family of God is more important than blood and dna.

And this is the same for Jesus's family. Even we saw it in the previous passage when he put his family, earthly family, here, on hold. His mother and James. And there's a tension in all of this, a tension between the old ways of an old world and the new world of the gospel. And in order for us to understand this morning's passage, we have to first understand that the heart of the last three or four messages from Luke's gospel is that God's doing something new, and that new thing cannot and should not be kept a secret, which is something Pastor David spoke to and Jeremy last week.

In fact, something the followers of Jesus are learning is that it's impossible to keep this news a secret. The time is coming when secrets will be published. Dark will become light, and God's kingdom will be unveiled in all its glory for all to see and all that was once hidden, once veiled from the public eye, public consumption will be seen. You see, Luke is a real person writing to a real person in a real time, right? He's writing the Theophilus, and he has purpose in this, and he's writing in a historical context.

And he has certain things, and this is one of them. In his sight, he has the cross and the resurrection. He has the fall of Jerusalem in his mind as he writes this orderly account. But as the disciples step into this particular boat on this particular day, on this particular lake, they don't have these things in mind yet, but they're about to. It's a very short journey to the cross for us.

So Jesus and his group of people, they get into a boat and notice a few things. First, Jesus trusts these guys because for the most part, they are accomplished fishermen. They are doing the ordinary at this time. In fact, Jesus, he trusts them so much that he lays down and takes a nap. So they set out, and as they sailed, Jesus, he fell asleep, is what Luke tells us.

You see, Jesus, he knows how to rest. And then, guys, honestly, when I'm going through this, what's more restful for me, at least some of you are not going to agree with this, but what's more restful than taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon on a boat? If you have a boat, feel free to invite me on a Sunday afternoon, but do not expect much other than sleep. But this is Jesus, right? Except, of course, for the windstorm that became so fierce that water is coming up into the boat.

And these seasoned fishermen, they feared for their lives, and so much so that they wake Jesus up. Master. Master, we're perishing. Jesus. Jesus, wake up.

We're going to die. We're dying. And then there's a lot here for us. There's a lot here. First, as we survey this passage, if we recall previous passages and accounts, the sea was the setting for the display of Jesus's authoritative teaching and power.

For example, remember Luke five? When the crowd is pressing in on Jesus, what's he do? He gets on a boat. It's on that boat where he calls his first disciples. He calls them to himself.

And then after finishing the calling, what happens? He instructs them to go fishing in a lake that they've been fishing on all night and didn't catch anything. Only this time, when they go fishing, Jesus, he puts on display his power over natural things by causing them to catch so much fish that they nearly capsize. But there's more. You see Luke's audience being first century jews.

Here, they would have understood the appearance of a raging sea is more than simply bad weather. It's more than a meteorological phenomena. They would have attributed it to primeval powers of chaos that God subdued. In the creation account, if you remember Genesis one, the earth was formless and void, right? And darkness was over the surface of the deep.

And the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. But there's even more still, Luke says, and he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased. And there was a calm. And psalm 74 would have come to mind in the disciples lives right now. And the early readers, they would have recalled psalm 74, yet God is my king of old, who works deeds of deliverance in the midst of the earth.

You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. Or how about Isaiah? Isaiah would have rushed back to them.

Isaiah 51 ten to eleven. Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed, the crossover. So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting. Zion and everlasting joy will be on their heads. See?

No wonder the disciples were afraid. No wonder they marveled. All of this stuff is in their background. No wonder they asked, who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water, that they obey him.

I think they knew who he was, but they were just scared.

I think a lot of people know who God is, but they're just scared.

After all, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, right?

And here we see why. This Jesus isn't just a man from Nazareth. He's the God man who has authority and dominion over the chaotic, uncontrollable creation. Creation.

After all, he's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. I think sometimes we lose sight of what it actually is to come into the presence of God.

If I look back at my own life, just for example, when I was becoming a Christian, going from atheism to Christianity, I was scared. If I'm honest, I was scared because God is powerful. I mean, there's a reason why when people are confronted by just angels, they respond in fear. Never mind being confronted by God. I mean, this is the God who, when asked to show his face by Moses, what'd he do?

He placed Moses in the cleft of a rock, right? He placed Moses in the cleft of a rock and says, I can't show you who I am. Why? Because he's going to die if he does that. And instead, what he does is he covers Moses'face and then allows him to view his train.

And the translations say it's his shadow. So God allows Moses to just see his shadow. And then what happens to Moses? He starts to shine. His face is, like, glowing in the dark.

This isn't because he's suffering from some phosphoroluminescent material rubbed on him. He's come to encounter just the shadow of the living God. This is scary stuff. This is scary stuff.

But God's in control, and he's all powerful, and he uses these things to build us, I think, a practical outworking of the passage that we have before us. And stick with me, guys, because some of you are going to be like, I can't believe he's saying this right now, but hear me. A practical outworking of all of this that we've been talking about for the last 15 minutes or so in our own lives is trust. The fear of God drives us to trust the grace of God. The fear of God drives us to trust the mercy of God.

And we come to the end of our own resources. We discover the haunting and beautiful truth that we find everything we need in Jesus, because there's no one and nothing else that can help us. And this is scary for somebody who doesn't have God yet. This is scary from somebody who's coming from a worldview that teaches them that they are the end of themselves.

This is a scary thing. I'm not in control. Thank God.

The choice of faith, though. The choice of faith is absolute. You see, on the christian worldview either we trust him or we're left at the mercy of the storm. And I love this. I'm going to read a short poem by this hymnist, Annie Johnson Flint.

She knew this perhaps better than most. This is a woman who was orphaned by the time she was eight. Both her parents died, and then she suffered a life of illness that I can't even describe here. And during the most immense parts of her suffering, she wrote these words. He giveth more grace when the burdens go greater.

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase to added affliction. He addeth his mercy to multiplied trials, his multiplied peace. When we've exhausted our store of endurance, when the strength has failed, the other day is half done. When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our father's forgiving has only begun. Fear not that thy need shall exceed his provision.

Our God ever earns his resources to share. Lean hard on the arm, everlasting availing the father both thee and thy loader will upbear. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure, his power, no boundary known unto men. For out of his riches, out of his riches in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again.

Jesus is worthy of trust. Friends.

And listen, guys, this passage is not about Jesus calming the storms of your life. That's not what this is about. That's not what I'm saying. It is, however, about the supremacy of Jesus in all things, including the storms of your life church. Jesus is so much more in control that he sleeps while other people freak out, not because he's ignoring the troubles that we're in.

You see, in the Old Testament context, again, the sleep is a symbol of divine rule. And Luke's readers would have understood Jesus sleeping as a sign of divine sovereignty. Jesus is in control. And also, the story is not about his absence in times of stress. It's about his divine power to rescue the perishing, which is why we need to spread the good news, which is why we can't keep it under a ja jar jar.

Sorry. I'm tired. Tired. Notice here, guys, that Jesus doesn't pray to God to deliver his disciples either from the wind and the waves. If jesus doesn't pray to God, no, Jesus does what God alone can do.

He calms the sea, and he does it with a word. The psalmist says, you rule the swelling of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them talking about God. You notice the disciples call Jesus master, master. But he's more than just a leader among men.

And this event demonstrates that Jesus is Lord, Lord of all. Jesus is lord of everything. And then the Lord of all asked the disciples, where's your Jesus? It's an interesting reading here. Jesus doesn't scold the disciples for being afraid and having no faith.

After all, they went to Jesus and these veteran fishermen who have no doubtedly faced similar circumstances that they find themselves in at this moment. They woke Jesus at least with the expectation, I think with at least the expectation that maybe he could offer them some type of help, even if it's just comfort. Or maybe they're just waking him to tell him that he's going to die. I don't know, but I don't think it's that. I think that they see something in Jesus and they have some semblance of trust in Jesus so they're waking him for help.

So there's a trust there, but not maybe what Jesus wants mean. Either way, Jesus is asking them why they aren't trusting him as having divine authority over everything, Lord of all. After all, Jesus has already demonstrated this over and over and over again. When the disciples are in the presence of Jesus, they shouldn't fear. Know the psalmist says that God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear. Though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the hearts of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountain quakes at its swelling pride. You see, these folks that were with Jesus on this boat that day have had the greatest opportunity to see and hear Jesus. But they're filled with doubt and fear in times of danger. And when Jesus says, hey, let's go to the other side of the lake, what the disciples should have trusted Jesus is saying, hey, let's go to the other side of the lake, the disciples, they should have trusted that Jesus is going to get them to the other side of the lake.

No matter what. It doesn't matter what's in their way, Jesus is going to get them there. Because Jesus doesn't break his promises. You can trust who Jesus is and he's demonstrated this and he's going to demonstrate it again. They should have trusted Jesus is going to get them to that other side regardless of wind, rain.

And I have to mention this, the faith here, the faith that Jesus is talking about, because I'm an apologist, the faith here, it's not blind faith that Jesus is talking about. It's not a leap in the dark. It's a calculated trust based on evidence of the events that these disciples have witnessed with their own eyes. Remember Luke one. Luke is writing this as an orderly account.

Most excellent, Theophilus. So that you would believe with certainty the events that happened. He's basing these things on eyewitness accounts. This is stuff that happened in real space time. It happened in history, and these disciples experienced it.

So their faith and distrust of Jesus is based in actual events. The distrust of Jesus isn't a blind allegiance to something, but he's proven himself worthy, and he's done it again. And he's asking for an allegiance grounded in the demonstration of who he is. According to his teaching, fulfilled prophecy and acts like raising the dead, casting out demons, and calming storms, all of which Jesus does. In the next two weeks, we're going to see Jesus has authority and dominion over creation right here, over the demonic.

Next week, and even over death. Jesus is lord of all. And when things are out of control, when things are out of our control, they're not out of his control, which is why we do well to trust him. When the things of life come against know, Pastor David and I and all the pastors, actually, we kind of throw ideas around via text most of the time, at least, I do it mostly via text. And we're talking about this passage and just kind of comparing ideas.

And this is an important note. I think, that we both agree that the faith issue here comes out of the parable of the soils. We're seeing it played out before us. It's the issue of faith that unites this entire section of scripture, maybe this whole chapter together. And then the disciples here, the disciples are portrayed as people who have heard the word, but whose faith has not yet proven itself through testing.

And later, in two weeks, we're going to hear about some people who are in that third category, where their faith is tested and shown to be reliable. When we talk about was Gyrus and the woman right?

After seeing all of this and after Jesus confronts his disciples, they ask him this question. And this, for me, is really the crux of this passage. Who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him, actually. I mean, guys, this right here is the most important question any of us are ever going to ask.

Who's Jesus? Our students, our kids. Guys, you're going to go on a lot of journeys, and you're going to be filled with amazing adventures. Your life is. And you're going to be wrestling with a lot of different ideas.

But the most important idea that you will ever wrestle with is, who is Jesus? Because our eternity literally hangs on that you see, when we get before Jesus, when we get before the judgment throne, God's not going to ask us what's your view of baptism? He's not, he's not going to ask us is it trans substantiation, consubstantiation or something altogether different? He's not, he's not going to ask you age of the earth.

He's going to ask you who is my son?

If you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and you confess with your mouth, if you believe in your heart that Jesus has been raised and confess with your mouth that he is Lord, you will be saved is what Paul says.

This is the most important question that any of us will wrestle with. And the answer to this question is going to find its first real answer in the next chapter when Jesus is with his disciples. If you remember it in chapter nine, he feeds the 5000 with just a couple of fish and a few loaves. And I love this story because the Jesus asks his guys, he's going to ask his guys who do the people say that I am? And then the disciples are going to say John the Baptist.

And others say Elijah and others, they're one of the prophets of old who's risen again. But then Jesus, he stops them and he asks his disciples, who do you say that you know? The disciples are wrestling with the question who's Jesus? And we said it three or four times. Now Jesus is Lord over all.

That means he's lord over the sea and its diabolical forces. And Jesus will require the disciples to give an answer to the question they now ask. And Jesus, he requires us to answer the same question. Who do you say Jesus is this morning? Who do you say Jesus is?

Yes, Christine, praise God. I love my charismatic friends. I love know. I love Lewis too. C.

S. Lewis. I'm sure you guys have read him at least the Narnia stuff. You should read mere christianity in it he says, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. He's talking about Jesus, about Jesus.

I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That's the one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice.

Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He's not left that open to us.

He did not intend to. You see, Peter, he's going to eventually step up to the plate and take a swing, and he knocks it out of the pack. Who do you say that I am? Peter's going to say, you're the Christ of God. Home run, Peter.

Praise God. You know, I mean, way better than here, where they're crying out to him, not sure who he is. And then Jesus tells them, after they answer who he is in the next chapter, he's going to tell him not to tell anybody because he has to go suffer and die to be raised again. And he tells Peter eventually that he's going to deny him three times. I can't even imagine that.

You see, none of us will give the right answer to the question of who Jesus is until we realize what it means to commit so incredibly and totally to him, to trust him, to obey him. And we do so because he's the only one deserving of our trust and obedience. He's the only one who showed himself worthy. And the disciples, they had their first real test here in our passage this morning. And, I mean, they didn't do all that well.

Fortunately for us, the story is not over. The story is not over. But we, like Luke as he wrote this, we live in a time and a vantage point where we have the full picture in our sight. Two Corinthians 520 says that we should be begging, begging the world on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God as we seek to transition our focus at solely to be looking out into the communities around us. I want to encourage you guys.

This is a message that everybody needs to hear. And we come at it from a place that we have full understanding. At least we have the opportunity to full understanding because we have the scriptures before us. We have the history of Jesus, the life of Jesus, right here in Luke.

The question is, who do you say Jesus is? And when you come to the conclusion that he's lord of all, I feel like we should be moved to sharing that with the people that we love most of all. I don't come from a christian family. I don't. I don't know if you guys have non christians in your life.

I hope you do. And more than that, I hope that you're sharing this amazing news with them. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to be in your grace today. I thank you for the words that you've given us this morning and the opportunity to serve you in every capacity.

Lord, help us move into the places that need you most. Even if they're our neighbors houses, the cubicle next to us, our boss's office, whatever it might be. Lord, help us be bold. For your name's sake, Lord. And as always, just help us love you more and each other better.

In Christ's name, amen.