Faith in the Midst of the Storm

So we're in the gospel according to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8 and we continue where we were last week and I'm going to read 19 through 25. Luke chapter 8 reading 19 through 25. Luke chapter 8 verse 19. Then his mother and brothers came to him and could not approach him because of the crowd and it was told him by some who said your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you but he answered and said to them my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Now it happened on a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them let us cross over to the other side of the lake and they launched out but as they sailed he fell asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and they were in jeopardy and they came to him and awoke him saying master master we are perishing then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water and they ceased and there was a calm but he said to them where is your face and they were afraid and marveled saying to one another for he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him. So I have good news and bad news for you tonight the the good news is you're getting two sermons instead of one the bad news is you're getting two sermons instead of one just that's the way the passage is so we're going to speak about Jesus and his parents and we're going to speak about the storm on the sea so let's begin in verse 19 then his mother that's Mary and his brothers came to him and could not approach him because of the crowd so the first thing that we have to speak about here is that Jesus clearly has brothers Jesus has brothers now to us it's not a strange thing to those who are Roman Catholic that is a very very strange thing because according to them Jesus is Mary is a perpetual virgin she did not have intercourse after Jesus was born and so she could not have had other children but clearly Jesus has brothers and we know that one of his brother's name was James who becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem now they are not going to deal with all the ways that they try and get around this none of it makes sense clearly this is Jesus's physical mother and his physical brothers this is not his cousins this is not his spiritual brothers these are his blood brothers because they are with his mother with Mary now the other question then is why do they want to speak to Jesus and you'll see that they they could not approach him because of the crowd so whether he's inside of a of a house or whether there's just a bunch of people around him and they can't get close to him and so they they send a message now looking at Mark's gospel it seems that the reason that they that they and this is a deduction this is not we can't say this for sure but they seem to become very concerned about Jesus particularly about his state of mind because he was doing all of these miracles and he was claiming to be God and you remember that his brothers did not believe in him until the resurrection and so it seems that they were concerned that maybe he wasn't all there and so at a different occasion they try to speak to him and try to put him back and that may be the same reason why they they come to him at this time it doesn't really matter but the fact is they want to speak to him and clearly this is not just a casual conversation this is a delegation the whole family Joseph is not there anymore Joseph his father had died when Jesus was younger we don't know when but he disappears off the scene and and so the whole family has now come together to speak with Jesus about whatever they wanted to speak to him about and it was told to him by some who said your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you so the message is passed along through the crowd and eventually gets to Jesus and the message is they they want to see they want to see Jesus and his answer to them is a little surprising because he said my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it in the gospel of Matthew is who is my mother and my brothers and so some people say Jesus is being disrespectful to his mother now we know that that is not true because we see at the cross how he took care of his mother and make sure that she is taken care of by John the Baptist and obviously because Jesus died sinless he had never sinned if he was disrespectful to his mother then he would have broken the command that speaks about honoring your father and your mother and so we don't believe I don't believe that Jesus is being disrespectful he is simply making a very important point and remember what he has been teaching right up to now and it's taken us three weeks this is the third week in this chapter but the whole point of the first part of this chapter is about hearing the server goes out and he sows the seed and some hear the word and others don't and eventually only some produce fruit and others don't produce any fruit at all then he speaks about the lamp on the lampstand and we spoke about that last week and said that that is the hearing the word setting it up as a lamp within our lives and hearing his word and then he also speaks about hearing they will not hear and seeing they will not understand so that the whole passage is dear dealing with hearing he also says he who has ears let him hear and so because he's been dealing with these things he is now using his family as a as an object lesson to make the point even further and that is that those who are my relations of those who hear the word of God and do it now remember that in all of the passages all of the verses up to now in chapter 8 he is simply speaking about hearing now he's going further than hearing and he's saying if you hear and do it so hearing must produce fruit in the form of action in the form of doing what we have heard now this was something that Jesus had said many many times at different at different times and in in different ways and I'm going to go very quickly to Matthew chapter 7 and have a quick look at three or four verses there where Jesus really amplifies this and and goes into much more detail and I want you to remember what he said let's go back again and just remember what he said my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it so in Matthew 7 to anyone not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven so Jesus is saying your relationship with me is not based on the fact that you're saying Lord Lord your relationship with me and with a father is based on obedience on doing the will of the father and of course there are there are many people in the world today some of them and pulpits others going to church on Sundays and and they say well we're Christians more than just saying on the census form that your religion I don't do I don't even remember if they ask that question anymore but you know more than just saying my religion is Christian but in fact saying I'm actually a Bible believing Christian and in fact what Jesus is saying is that your relationship with me is not based on what you claim or based even on physical birth in the case of his mother and his brothers but is based on obedience and so there are millions who are claiming to be Christians there are millions who claim to be believers but they do not obey God's word and on that basis Jesus says only those who not those who say Lord not those who say they have a relationship with me but those who obey and then the next verse 22 many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied and and I'm going to take liberty with this verse preached in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name so these people that Jesus is talking about here in Matthew are not just ordinary Christians but they are preachers they have prophesied they have preached in the name and just but by the way prophecy and preaching is not always exactly the same thing but I am paraphrasing this just to make the point or to get to the point so prophesied we preached in the name of Jesus Christ they haven't preached in the name of Allah or in the name of Muhammad but they have preached in the name of Jesus Christ and he says I don't know you he says they have cast out demons in the name of Jesus now that that takes quite some shall we say power some kind of authority to be able to cast out demons many people remember the seven sons of Sceva in the book of Acts they tried to cast out demons in the name of Paul that all Jesus that Paul preached and they couldn't do it so these people have some kind of power but Jesus is they not mine so where do they get the power well obviously from the devil and done many wonders in your name we must be careful of miracles miracles do not prove that someone is a genuine disciple or preacher of the gospel unfortunately too many people point to the miracles and say well you know there's that TV preacher and there's that one and look at the miracles that he performs he must be of God Jesus is performing miracles does not count at all what counts is obedience what counts is obedience those 23 and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness you practice lawlessness this word lawlessness just by the way just on the side here is a very very important word I'm going to speak about this word in the next few weeks but the church has become lawless the church does not submit itself to the Word of God and does not submit itself to the government and so it has become lawless in every sense and Jesus says I don't know you very very serious statement those Christians who say well you know we're under grace we're not under law Jesus says I don't know you because those who are true born-again believers obey his word obey his word and remember there is over there's a 613 commands in the Old Testament there's over 2,000 commands in the New Testament and those commands are equal to the commands in the Old Testament and yet we say well it it doesn't matter we don't have to obey Jesus says if you don't obey you are not mine and so who are my family who is my mother who are my brothers those who hear and do the word the will of the Father who are Christians those who hear and do the will of the Father who are the true preachers of the word those who hear and do the will of the Father nothing else counts you say well shouldn't they be preaching yeah well if they're preaching because they doing the will of God but if you're if you're preaching and you're doing the saying well I'm doing the will of God but he's telling you to do something else and you refuse to do that are you really his this is a very serious question it's a very important question Jesus said if you love me if you love me you will keep my commandments many people say they love Jesus but they don't love his commandments alright so let's go to verse 22 in Luke so here's the second message I did pretty good I think it's about 15 minutes so I've now got another two hours for the next session all right now it happened on a certain day Matthew and Mark make this the same day that Jesus preached the message on the on the sower and the seed and the incident with his mother and his brother so for some strange reason Luke just says it was on a particular day it doesn't matter I don't think that there's any significance in that so it happened on a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples now again it doesn't say whose boat it is but we assume that it was either Peter or Joe Andrew John's boats because they were fishermen and while they had followed Jesus they clearly still had their boats because after the after the crucifixion they went back to their boats so it may have been one of their boats doesn't matter they get into a boat it's not a canoe this boat is able to take at least 12 people and there may have been more with them so it's a sizable a sizable boat and he says to them let's cross over to the other side of the lake or the sea and they launched out this is the Sea of Galilee or Gennesaret it's about 7 miles by 13 miles so it's a it's a it's a sizable sizable lake there's nothing in our area here in Southern California that is anywhere near that's not that size except the Sultan which is basically double the size of the Lake of Galilee is very low at a 700 feet below sea level and remember that from there it flowed the river Jordan flows down into the Red Sea at the Dead Sea which is even lower down so this is below sea level and there are very steep hills on either side and sometimes at night the wind comes down from these hills and down the the valley that the river comes down on and causes these massive storms on the sea and so he said let's cross over to the other side of the lake it's it's not a long way and it should have been a pretty easy thing and it says they launched out but as they sailed he fell asleep so this is probably in the evening and Matthew and Mark do set this in the evening after he had preached all day he was tired and he falls asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake notice it came down because it comes down from the hills and they were filling with water and were in jeopardy so they're in serious trouble remember that at least three of these guys are seasoned fishermen probably more of them they know the lake very well they know the boats very well and they recognized that they were in trouble this wasn't just calling wolf this wasn't just saying well you know this is this is uncomfortable if they said that they were in jeopardy then they were in in serious trouble and so verse 24 they came to him and woke him saying master master we are perishing and then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water and they ceased and there was a calm I'm just going to go through the verses and then I'm going to come back and deal with the whole thing in in one go and so they they wake him up and and there's absolute consternation on the ship the the reason we know that is because in one of the Gospels in this one it says they said master master one of the others said he said they said Lord Lord and one of the others they said teacher so which one was it well nobody was pretty it was it particularly sure because there was chaos and but they're calling out to him and they and and he he gets up and he rebukes the wind and the raging of the water and they ceased and there was a calm now I just want you to notice this little detail if he had if he had stopped the wind the waves would still have continued for some time if you've ever seen the the sea down here the Pacific Ocean when the waves make little what we call white horses a little little waves the the wind may have stopped a few hours ago but the sea remains in turmoil so so he's really performing two miracles in one he's calming the wind and he's calming the water the two are not the one is not a consequence of the other because they they cease immediately and then in verse 25 he said to them where is your face Matthew says oh he of little faith and they were afraid and they marveled saying to one another who can this be for he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him so now I need to apply this and I need to ask you the first question the first question is why does he say where is your face what was he expecting of them was he expecting them to calm the wind was he expecting them to still the water no clearly not he was not expecting that from them so the face that they needed was not face to be able to calm the wind or the storm but the faith they needed was simply trusting in him that they would be safe while he was in the boat because he was the son of God and because he had come with a specific mission to die on the cross nothing could kill him before then remember they tried a number of times but obviously he would be divinely protected until he eventually faces the cross can you imagine what our face would be if Jesus drowned in the ship on the sea that's ridiculous the father would never allow that to happen obviously and so their face was not they didn't need face to still the storm they needed face just to trust him in the storm and somehow he would have seen them through and brought them out on the other side and of course the application is very obvious and that is that today we are facing storms in our lives Christians are facing storms like never before in all the years of my of my ministry I have never known a time like this where there are attacks on every side there are there is of course the virus and the fear that comes with that every time we have a little cough or we have a little scratchy throat and and I get those every day because I have a I have a post nasal drip and so every morning I wake up with a sore throat just part of life for me but every morning when I wake up with a sore throat I say well is this it have I got the the dreaded disease and so and and and all of you I'm sure have gone through that already at times when you when you're not feeling well where maybe there's a little bit of a fever or a headache or some aches and pains and you say well is is this it and so we're having to deal with the fear of that we're having to deal with the loss of loved ones and some in this assembly have already buried some of their family as a result of the of the virus then on top of that we have the economic collapse that has come with it and that has affected many many people have lost their jobs many people are out of work and and and on unemployment and and even that seems to be in jeopardy as the government fights about that amongst themselves but people's investments seem to be in jeopardy the whole economy seems to be crashing around us the political situation is is is the worst that and and obviously I've only lived in America 17 years but it's the worst that I've ever experienced other than the time in South Africa when when when things changed in in in my country but many people that I've spoken to say there's never been a time in America's in in living memory and probably Henry would be able to tell us better that there's been so much turmoil maybe there's been at the time of the Vietnam War maybe in the Second World War but but this is unprecedented time the politicians cannot agree on anything and and there is there is there is this animosity and this fighting and this lying that that is filtering down to the common man in the street everybody seems to take a cue from that and seems to say well you know if they can be nasty I can be nasty and if they can lie then I can lie and even preachers are taking their cues from the White House and feel that they can lie because that's become so become so common in in our country to to not speak the truth and people are saying what is the truth anymore people are going on on their own Facebook people are going on on the internet and they're saying I don't know what to believe there is no truth anymore is the virus real or is it a hoax will the masks help us or won't the masks help us will this thing end will there be a cure will there be a vaccine will the vaccine have side effects or whatever those may be the mark of the beast and all sorts of other stuff everything that we that we have had confidence in is taken away and on top of it we're facing a unprecedented falling away within the church and the body of Christ preachers that have been preaching for 50 years for 50 years have had a good track record of men even though their doctrine may differ from mine but a good track record of being faithful to the scriptures as much as they understand have become liars have engaged themselves in the politics and assorted politics of this world have turned to churches like our church and say you can't be a real church because you're not protesting against the government folk we're in trouble heresy and error has abound is abounding in an unprecedented level and no one is speaking out against it we've had all of the charismatic nonsense and all of the prosperity lies and all of that and that was during all of that time there was there was always men who spoke up against those things but today no one will speak up against what's happening in the church the coldness the lukewarmness the political politicization of the church and of Christians folk we're living in a time of a storm and we're in jeopardy I think we understand that word we're in serious mortal danger the men in the ship were in jeopardy they were facing death and folk and unless you live on another planet you will recognize that the church is facing death today we are facing jeopardy I don't know if the church in general in America will survive 2020 for two reasons one because they have associated with the politicians and number two because many churches have not reopened and many churches have lost members and people are defecting from the church I've never had so many offers to buy a church property estate agents offering churches for sale never seen so many other than when we entered into the Great Recession maybe it was similar then folk were in trouble the storm is getting worse and worse and as I've said to you before I don't believe it's going to get any easier as we get closer to November and depending on what happens in November I don't know that it will abate even after that and Christians are saying what do we do how do we we're perishing we're dying Lord don't you see don't you understand don't you know God are you sleeping your church is coming to nothing and we haven't even spoken about the personal crises that people are facing Jesus is where's your face where's your face I'm gonna twist these words a bit here but I want to ask you tonight where is your face and I'm not asking do you have faith I'm the first question I'm gonna ask you two questions the first question is what have you put your faith in is your faith in the church is your faith in me as your faith in the government your faith in your retirement and clearly we've seen that those things are not trustworthy because they are all failing around us and so here's the problem so many Christians right now are putting their faith in the elections they believe that the elections if it goes in a particular way will save us where's your face and folk I don't know what will happen if the elections don't go the way they wanted to go I don't know what will happen to people's faith because their faith is in in the White House their faith is not in heaven their faith is not in Jesus Christ oh yeah we believe in Jesus but their faith is in the First Amendment not in the scriptures and of course the question Jesus is really asking is do you even have faith can't you trust me I'm right here I've just performed all these miracles you've seen me raise the dead you've seen me open blind eyes you've seen me do all of these wonderful things casting out demons can't you trust me where's your face and I think that Jesus was rebuking them a little I'm not rebuking you tonight because I understand where we're at I understand the world that we're living in I understand the turmoil and the pain and the disappointment and the discouragement and the despondency and the discouragement I don't know if I told you on Thursday but during in the last week I've had at least five pastors tell me we're ready to quit we've had enough we can't continue to do the job and I'm not blaming them I understand where they're at I'm in the same position but where is our faith can we not trust him who has seen us through thus far has he not saved us and powerfully and miraculously transformed our lives that the old things are passed away all things have become new has he not carried us up to this point in every area of our lives financially physically in terms of our security in terms of of every area of our lives has he not provided for us up to this point can we not continue to trust him from here on out he has never failed us he certainly never failed me and he's simply saying can't you trust me you remember the problem with the people of Israel he brings them out of Egypt he performs the 10 miracles in in in Egypt he opens the Red Sea brings them through the Red Sea he gives them manna and he gives them water and he gives them a pillar of fire during the night and a pillar of cloud during the day every day he's revealing himself to them but every time they faced a new challenge a new problem they wanted to run back to Egypt they couldn't trust him but we need to raise our Ebenezer's you remember the Ebenezer was a rock that was raised up and it was a reminder and the word Ebenezer says hitherto to this point has God brought us God has brought our church to this point God has brought me to this place God has brought each one of you to this place he has provided for us he has protected us he's cared for us and he has never left us nor forsaken us and we need to raise up those monuments and say God is faithful and he has provided for us he has kept us and he will keep us to the end Paul says I I am convinced I'm persuaded by that which I've committed unto him he will keep even unto that day where's your faith and folk it's been easy to be a Christian up to now because it didn't require a lot of faith we all had our jobs we all had our retirement we all had our homes we all had our health we all had a relatively peaceful government and the falling away hadn't begun as it has now but now's the time that our faith is being tested now's the time that we need to walk by faith and say Lord you will carry me through you will provide for me financially you will help me emotionally that I not become like the unbelievers we're reading about suicides all the time we're reading about family suicides we're reading about the most horrific stuff happening out there in the world anger I didn't see it but someone told me that there was a massive fight somewhere at a sprawl some somewhere today over masks God will see us through but we need our eyes fixed on him and you remember that beginning of this whole process in March when we came back from Australia one of the first things I reminded you of is Peter and I've reminded you of him five or six times since then every month at least have your eyes fixed on Jesus because if you look at the way you will you will sink and these disciples instead of looking at Jesus they're looking at the waves and Jesus says where is your face why are you not fixing your eyes upon me and they were afraid and they marveled saying to one another who can this be for he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him you see what Luke has been doing up to now is Luke has been showing how that Jesus is the ultimate authority he is the authority over sickness he is the authority he's proven that he has power over the demons he has proven that he has power over death by raising the dead he has power in every area and he also has full authority as far as nature and creation is concerned and he stills the winds and the waves that same Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the majesty on high and while he was walking and doing these things in his humiliation as God in the flesh God has now given to him all the authority and he's seated at the right hand of the majesty on high and so there is nothing that is not under his feet there is nothing that is not under his control and there is nothing in your life that is not under his control everything must obey him and as long as he is in the ship in your ship in your life you're safe and then let me just close with these last words because I want you to see I'm going to change direction for a for a moment who can this be for he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him what is the theme of the passage of this whole chapter hearing and obeying and and and I think that Luke puts this in here and obviously is what they said and he's writing by the inspiration of the Spirit so the Spirit puts us in here on purpose he's not just saying look how powerful he is because the winds and the waves obey him but he is saying that even though Christians will not obey him even though Israel did not obey him and he sent them hardness of heart the winds and the waves obey him but we are much greater much better than the winds and the waves and if the wind will obey Jesus then I need to obey him if the wind and if the water will be still because at his word then can we be still in our own hearts at his word and obey him and here I'm not talking about doing some great thing but I'm talking about obeying him when he says trust me because I will never leave you nor forsake you let not your heart be troubled believe in God believe also in me that's what he's asking us to do today there may be many other things that God is speaking to you about but I believe that there's one central thing that the Christian today must learn to do more than ever before and that is to obey him when he says put your trust in me put your trust in me because I will never forsake you I will never leave you I will never let you down I will do and fulfill what I said and I will see you through to the other side father we thank you for your word we thank you for the Lord Jesus who indeed has all power and all authority and Lord we feel helpless sometimes in the midst of our situation in this world today and Lord we also remember that there are many others who are in much worse situation than we are the Lord I pray that we may be those who are able to put our confidence and our trust in you and you alone forgive us Lord for looking to our 401 retirement and looking to our social security looking to the government looking to to the church even looking to men of God that we thought were men of God and Lord help us to put our trust in you and you alone because you the only one who will never fail Lord help us to raise up those Ebeneezer's Lord help us to remind one another even as Israel was instructed to remind their children when they walk in the way when they sit down to eat when they lie down to sleep at night to remind them of the things that God has done how that God has provided and brought them out with a mighty hand and how he has given them the land and how he's kept them and protected them Lord help us to rehearse these things to one another help us to rehearse them to our children help us above all to rehearse them to ourselves father that we may not be those who have forgotten your goodness have forgotten your providence have forgotten your care and your your love have forgotten your protection but Lord that we may remember in order that we might trust you for the future we ask this in Jesus name we pray that you'd go with us now keep us protect us bring us together again safely on Thursday we pray in Jesus name amen