WWUTT 2353 Jesus Calms a Storm (Luke 8:22-25)

Jesus calmed a storm in his disciples' presence, and was their reaction to Jesus calming the storm, oh, we have nothing to be afraid of, we have Jesus in the boat with us. No, now they were afraid of Jesus when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When We Understand the Text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Luke 8:22-25 and Christ's Authority Over Wind and Waves

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Luke, we're still in chapter eight, where we've been reading about Christ's authority, especially the authority that he has in his word. And today we're gonna see how even his word can calm winds and waves.

Let me read from Luke 8, verses 22 to 25. Hear the word of the Lord. 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 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. Now, you've probably heard me say before that a man's ability to sleep through anything is a Christ-like quality.

I've said that in sermons. So if you've listened to this program for a long time, you've probably heard it in a sermon clip. It's pretty amazing that Jesus is able to sleep through this. I mean, the most incredible thing about this, of course, is that he just speaks to the wind and the waves, and everything is calm.

But it's always amazed me, too, that he was sleeping through that. Especially when you consider that the way that Luke writes it here, the boat is filling with water. How is he sleeping through that exactly?

That's amazing to me. Oh, the peace and the calm of Christ. That's exactly the kind of peace that I want, that I might be able to sleep through anything if I have that kind of comfort. So let me come back to verse 22.

And as I said, what we read here even with Jesus rebuking the wind and waves, and everything is calm, we're seeing this theme throughout Luke 8 regarding Christ's word. Remember that in the parable of the sower, we have the seed that represents the word.

And the word, the message of the kingdom, or the message of the gospel, falls into various different soils. You have seed that falls on the path, in the rocks, in the thorns, and even in good soil. And some people will hear the word, and they will look like that they believe it, and even for a period of time, will proclaim to be Christians.

But then something happens, and it turns out to be unfruitful. With the rocks, it was the cares and concerns of the world. With the thorns, it was the deceitfulness of riches that choked the word, and it proves to be unfruitful.

But with the good soil, the message of the kingdom falls in there, and grows up and produces a harvest. With the parable of the lamp under a jar, Jesus said, take care how you hear. For the one who has, regarding understanding, more will be given.

If you have an understanding of the word, you will grow in that understanding, that you may know God and his way and his will all the more. But from the one who has not, who does not have understanding of the word, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.

But this word, as talked about in that particular parable, is like a light, and is able to expose dark places, and even vanquish sin. As one who hears the word is convicted of their sin, repents before God, and desires to walk in the light of his word.

Yesterday, we read how those who do the word of God are Jesus' mother and brothers. Even his own flesh and blood mother and brothers are not closer to him than the ones who hear the word of God and do it.

And now here, with regard to the storm, Jesus speaks a word to the storm, and it is calm. And of course, what we see in this is Christ's power even over nature itself, because he is the creator of all things.

So he has power even over wind and waves, but we see especially the power of his word, because that's the theme that's been going on, that's been going through here in Luke chapter eight. So again, verse 22, one day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, let's go to the other side of the lake.

Now, it's always kind of funny when Jesus and his disciples get into a boat, because it probably makes you think, where did they get that boat from? It's not like they're walking around all over Galilee with a boat, just so they can get to the lake and drop it in there, and that way they've got a way to get to the other side.

Well, these were like community fishing boats. I believe I've talked about this before, but the whole coastline might consist of these boats. And it's not just like one boat after the next, but you're just going to have dozens and dozens of boats all the way around the Sea of Galilee, so that when it came time for a person whose occupation was fishing to go fishing, they would just hop in one of these boats and go out and get their catch of the day.

And it was also used for travel, of course, as well. Somebody taking a boat to the other side, kind of like a ferry. So they grab one of these boats, they pull it out there, and they begin heading to the other side of the lake.

Probably takes them a couple hours, but it is a lot faster than if they were to be walking all the way around the lake, right? So they set out, and this boat may have sails on it, or they may be rowing, or it could be a combination of both.

You've probably seen the illustrations, either the black and white, oh, what do they call those, etchings, engravings, or it's the painting of Jesus with his disciples, and the waves are kind of hoisting the boat up into the air, and it looks like some small kind of sailboat.

For as you go on in verse 23, it says, and as they sailed, he fell asleep. So the word there that's translated for sailed, it could be that they really did have a sail, or it could be a generic word that's just used for the movement of a boat as it traveled.

Like I said, it may have been some combination of both wind power and manpower that gets this boat a-moving. So here they are out on the lake when this huge windstorm comes up. As they sailed, Jesus fell asleep, and a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.

Now, all it says here is that it's a windstorm. How do you often see this depicted? Whether it's in the paintings, or whether it's in a TV show like The Chosen, or whether it's in one of the cinematic portrayals of Jesus and his disciples, how do these storms often look?

Not just here in this account, or where we might have a similar account in somewhere like Matthew, but even with the account of Jesus walking on the water. It's the same sort of thing. What does this storm look like?

It's always a great big thunderstorm, every time. I mean, every single time. I don't even know if there's an exception to this. Does anybody know of a movie or a show or something like that, where there isn't a raging storm overhead with lightning and thunder and just pouring rain?

Can anybody think of one? Because every time I have ever seen this depicted, that's exactly what it is. And it doesn't matter if it's an illustration or it's a TV show or a movie. It's always the same.

It's a great big thunderstorm. And it's whether it's the account of Jesus asleep in a boat and his disciples are afraid that the boat is gonna capsize, whether it's that account, or it's the account of Jesus walking on the water.

Either one, they both depict massive storms. But the narrative doesn't ever paint that picture. It's never talking about peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. It's always just a windstorm. And even with Jesus walking on the lake, coming out to his disciples, yes, they're caught up in a windstorm, but it doesn't say anything about it being overcast.

There's not clouds overhead. It's just a windstorm. That's scary enough. A windstorm out on open waters is a scary thing. I've been out there before. I've been in this situation before. I have been in a boat out on the ocean and it gets windy and those waves get choppy and trying to get that boat back against the waters to get back to the shore is quite a chore.

And it could be a pretty scary thing, especially when you don't have a motor and you're just trying to use your manpower to get that thing going back to the shore. If you're sailing, I've never sailed, but I would imagine that would be even more trying because here you're trying to go against the wind to get to where you wanna go and the wind is just not gonna cooperate with you.

The wind is gonna toss the sail to and fro. It's gonna threaten to capsize your boat. That's a scary situation to be in as well. These things are not easy. Even a windstorm can be a very, very dangerous thing out on the water and you don't need a whole huge thunderstorm overhead or water spouts in a hurricane to make this a threatening situation.

Obviously the disciples think they are in danger. Water is even coming into the boat and they think it's gonna capsize. They're gonna tip over. They go and they wake up Jesus. How is he sleeping through that?

That's amazing to me too. I don't get it. But he has such comfort in his heavenly father. If we're gonna glean that from Jesus being able to rest in the midst of this chaos that they go and wake him up saying, master, master, we are perishing.

And Jesus wakes up and by his word, by the speaking of his word, he rebukes the wind and the raging waves and they ceased and there was a calm. Now, how is that often portrayed in the shows and in the movies?

Like Jesus just speaks to the wind and the waves and then it gets calm. It stops raining, maybe the clouds part so they can see the stars overhead or something like that. It's never quite instantaneous, but this has all the appearances of Jesus saying, peace be still, as we know from other gospel accounts.

And then they're just instantly still. The waves just, that's it. And the wind, the wind's not even blowing anymore. There's no clouds that have to break. Because again, there's nothing in this that tell us that it's a cloudy stormy night with lightning flashing all over the place.

You've got other things to be concerned about than just wind and waves if lightning is snapping around you when you're out there on the water. Because lightning will go for the tallest object. And if you're out on just flat water out there, I mean, it's not quite flat, of course, because the wind is stirring up the waves or whatever, but you're still the tallest object out there.

And you're in danger of lightning striking your boat. I think that would be scarier than just watching the wind whip the waves around you. But there's nothing like a storm overhead. There's nothing like that.

And even if there was, even if it was a cloudy situation, Jesus rebuking the wind and waves doesn't mean the clouds just disappear. Just means the wind stops and the waves are calm. And that's what happens.

And it doesn't say anything about this even being at night. So this is in the middle of the day, as far as we can tell. I guess Mark's account, it is, actually does say that this happened when evening came.

So I guess it is going on at night. And Mark also adds that Jesus is asleep on a cushion. So here, Luke is talking about water coming into the boat. I'm pretty sure Mark's account says that as well, like the waves breaking into the boat.

So he's on a cushion. And this just adds to my interest here in how Jesus is able to sleep through this.

He's on a cushion?

He's on a cushion when waves are coming into the boat. Is he on like that elevated portion at the front of the boat, maybe? The cushion is up there, so it's not down in the boat when it's getting wet because of the waves coming in?

Even still, I think waves would get over it and it would just be soaking wet. I'm baffled by the fact that Jesus is able to sleep through this, but he is the son of God. So who am I to question this? So he rebukes the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased and there was a great calm, it says.

And then Jesus says to them, why'd you wake me up? That's kind of his response. Why'd you bother me? I was having a good dream. It was a nice resting sleep. He says to them, where is your faith? Why did you think something was going to happen to us?

Don't you know who's in the boat with you? This is really kind of the underlying question that he's asking the disciples here. And it says, though, look at their response to Jesus' question, where is your faith?

Look at their response to what they just saw happen. They were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, who then is this? That he commands winds and water, and they obey him. Like you got to watch a comic book movie or something like that to see somebody with that ability, who has the power to control storms or the power to control water.

It's usually two different characters doing that, even when you're watching some sort of adventure story like that. Jesus, being the creator himself, God incarnate, speaks to the wind and the waves, and they obey him.

And the disciples, the disciples were at great peace about this, right? Oh, what did we have to be afraid of? We have the God who created all things right here in the boat with us. So now we can relax, because everything is calm again.

Was that their response? No, it says they were afraid. I shared this in a sermon a few weeks back. It was when we were in Romans chapter one, but it was Sigmund Freud who once said that people will create religion, they'll make up a God or gods, thinking of the pantheon of gods that the Romans and the Greeks worship, they'll make up these gods for themselves that have more power than the things that scare them.

So if you're afraid of a storm, you think of a God of the storm, Thor, the God of lightning, or Zeus, or somebody like that. And they have power and authority over even the storms. So that I can trust in that God that I've made up in my mind, and therefore I don't have to be afraid of the storm because the God that I worship is bigger than the storm, and now I can be at peace.

That was Freud's thinking over this whole thing. So people come up with these ideas for these gods they worship, and the Christian God, it was the same sort of thing for Freud, because he mocked God, he did not believe in God.

So he thought Christians even, they believe in a God that is higher than everything else that made all things, so that the things that scare them won't scare them so much. But an account like this flies right in the face of Freud's theory, because the disciples were not at peace, considering the power that Jesus had over the storm that previously scared them.

The storm scares them. The power that is in the storm. And man, I'm a storm chaser, or used to be. There aren't really storms for me out here in Arizona to chase. There's, what would you call those? The dust devils and stuff like that.

I can't chase tornadoes out here, but I can chase dust devils, which is a lot safer, let me tell you. And then there's the sand storms or the dust storms that'll roll in. There's not really much to those either.

There's not storms out here in Arizona like there were when I was living in Kansas or even in Texas. But I used to be a storm chaser. And let me tell you, they are terrifying. Storms can be pretty terrifying.

Even as many as I've chased and have been through, you don't really get used to it. And if you get too comfortable, that's when you can potentially put yourself in danger. You constantly have to be on the alert and watching the storm and knowing how things are moving and stuff like that.

I did that for a lot of years. And it still fascinates me to this day. It's something that I miss about living in the Southwest all the way down here that I don't get to see storms like that anymore. But I've been in storms.

I know how scary they can be. Here they had just a wind storm that was on them in the middle of the lake and wondering if they were gonna capsize and go down because of how ferocious the wind and the waves were.

They were afraid of the storm and then come to find that they had someone in the boat that had more power than the storm itself. So their natural reaction to that is not going to be, oh, good, now I don't have anything to worry about.

There's something more powerful than the storm. Why would that make you feel at peace to know that Jesus has more power over the wind and the waves that previously scared them? Now they're still afraid, but for a different reason.

Who is this that he commands even winds and water to obey him? We think this would be cool if we could be in their position and we could see that. We would just marvel and be like, oh boy, that was amazing, do that again.

Can you bring it back and then make it calm again? That would be great to see. You just don't understand how abnormal this is, how people don't have the ability to do this, how scary it is to be out there on the water and see something like that and then to just have Jesus wake right up and rebuke it and then it's all calm again.

There is something incredibly humbling about that, terrifying about that, to see somebody with that kind of power. And we see that throughout the gospels, Jesus demonstrating power like that, and it's scaring the people when they see it.

As much as we think we would wanna see it, it's a pretty terrifying thing to be in the presence of the power of God like that. The disciples realize their mortality. They realize their unworthiness, that Jesus has more power even over the storms itself.

Remember what we read previously in Luke when Jesus first encountered Peter and told them to drop their nets and they pulled that catch into the boat that was so, it filled their nets so that the nets were tearing and it was even making their boats tip over.

Peter falls down before Jesus and says, depart from me, Lord, I am a sinner. He sees this incredible thing and knows he is in the presence of one who is holier than he, one who is other than, one who is set apart, one who is above, and it humbles Peter.

And knowing this, we can be comforted knowing that we worship the God who does have the power over the storms that threaten us. So we can rest in him knowing these things are not gonna have victory over us.

In fact, as Romans 8 says, we are more than conquerors over these things through him who loves us. So we have nothing to fear of those things that life throws at us. It doesn't mean it's instantly easy to deal with, but it will be easier knowing that we can trust in God who is sovereign and holds all things in his hands and is working all these things out ultimately for our good and for his glory.

So we can have a peace about that. We can have a comfort about that. But most of all, what we need to recognize is the power that he has as judge and creator of all, that it would humble us before him.

And in that humbling, that we would even confess ourselves before him. As said in 1 Peter 5, humble yourselves before God, casting all your anxieties upon him. Because he cares for you. When we don't take our troubles and cares and concerns to God, that's actually arrogant.

It is to say that we have more control over these things than God does. But we need to recognize our humble state and present these things before the Lord and trust in him and marvel, still marveling and saying, who is this?

That even all of creation obeys him, the power of his word, even to convict our hearts and draw us to himself. Let's finish there with prayer. Heavenly father, I do ask that we would trust you, that we would cast our cares before you, that you would comfort our hearts, that you would calm and still the storms in our lives, knowing that we worship the God who is greater than all these things that threaten us or come against us.

May we not despair. May we have faith. As Jesus had said to his disciples, where is your faith? We trust in you knowing that you are greater than all these things. And it creates in us, it stirs in us even a reverent fear of God.

For we know you are in control and we know that you are God and you are judge of all. You search mind and heart. You know the words before they are even on our tongue as said in Psalm 139. So we cast ourselves before you.

We trust in you, Lord comfort us by your spirit, lift us up and deliver us through the storms of life to the other side. That we may marvel at and glorify you for your goodness and grace to us. It's in Jesus name we pray, amen.

When We Understand the Text Schedule

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand the Text.