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Sermon from Mathew 8:23-34
All right, let's once again, open up to the gospel of Matthew chapter eight. Matthew chapter eight, and the title of this message is Jesus calms the storm. Jesus calms the storm. So we're gonna look at first verses 23 through 27.
This is where Christ and his disciples were in the boat and the storm was raging. And you remember Jesus was off fast asleep. And people wonder how could he sleep during such a violent storm? Well, the disciples, they woke him up, fearing for their lives.
And what did Jesus do? He rebuked the wind and he calmed the storm. Then in the next passage, which we'll look at in a moment, Jesus encounters two demon possessed men with really a different storm raging within them.
And Jesus simply speaks the word and there is calm. The calm is restored. And then they're put back into their right mind. So we see in these two stories, Jesus has the power of God. We see the power of God on display, the deity of Christ on display.
I actually think this is probably the moment where his disciples realized that Jesus was God in the flesh. But it just shows how the Lord has power to bring calm and peace to every situation. So let's begin reading Matthew 8, starting in verse 23.
We'll read the first story first. Says, now when he got into a boat, his disciples followed him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves, but he was asleep.
Then his disciples came to him and awoke him saying, Lord, save us, we are perishing. But he said to them, why are you fearful? Oh, you of little faith. Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm.
So the men marveled saying, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him? So that question, who can this be? Well, that's easy for us to say, right? 2000 years later, reading this story, knowing really the full story of Christ, it's easy for us to say, yeah, he is the son of God.
He is God in the flesh. Skip ahead to verse 29 for a moment. When Christ encounters the demoniac, it's not the man speaking to Jesus, understand this. It's actually the demon or demons, plural, speaking from within.
And what did they say to Jesus? What have we to do with you, Jesus?
What?
You son of God, have you come to torment us before the time? So even the evil spirits recognize who Jesus is. They knew who he was. He was the Holy one of God. He is God in the flesh. And that's what the term son of God means, which we'll talk about.
So the world really is full of people who don't know who Jesus is. At this point, his disciples, they're starting to figure it out. But most people don't know who Christ is. Maybe people have heard of Jesus.
Maybe they know something about him. The average person might say that, oh yes, he is a good man, a good religious teacher, but they don't really know him, right? People know about Jesus, but they don't really know Jesus.
And of course, this is the responsibility of all of us as followers of Christ. For those of us who know Jesus, we want to what? We want to make him known. So this phrase or title, son of God, if somebody asks us, who is Jesus?
Tell me who is Jesus? This is what you might say. He is the son of God. But what does that mean? So son of God is a statement of deity. Let me illustrate it this way. And really to know Christ, to really know who he is, you have to believe and understand on some level, the deity of Christ.
So just to put it this way, you and your father, your biological father, you possess the same nature, right? Now, for some of you, that might be a scary thought. For others of you, yeah. But you understand, yeah, we are both human beings.
I share the same nature as my father. Therefore, Jesus, who's his father? Was it Joseph? No, it's God the father. Therefore, Jesus possesses the same nature as his father in heaven. And really this is the profession of the Christian church.
Who is God? Well, the father is God, the son is God, and the spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit of God. So we call this the Trinity. That's the best term we have for really what is indescribable.
But we believe the point is Jesus is what? He is divine. Jesus is divine. So his disciples are starting to get it. Are they all fully there yet? I'm not sure. At first, they didn't know that, but then they came to know that.
And once they knew it, then they wanted everyone to know. But I think at this point, they're reluctant to say it out loud. They already believe that Jesus is the Messiah. That's why they are following him.
But you know, there were different ideas about who the Messiah was and what he came to do. There's still different ideas in the world about the Messiah. So the point is, it really wasn't a given that the Messiah would be God in human flesh.
If you ask the average religious Jew today, who they don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, but they're still waiting for a Messiah, they don't believe that the Messiah will be God in human flesh. So it wasn't a given that that's who he was.
This profession that Jesus is deity, this profession of him as the son of God, it really doesn't come until Peter confesses this, and that's in Matthew chapter 16, a ways away. But again, I think at this moment, they're starting to figure it out.
I hope each and every one of you have already figured this out. Now, if you're a baptized member of this church, you've already professed that you believe this, but I hope everybody this morning understands who Jesus is.
He is God in the flesh, because if that's true, it changes everything, right? All the people in the world who say, well, I believe in God, and people in Eastern religions, they might say, well, I believe in a God, or yeah, but what does that mean?
Who is this God? If it's Jesus, that changes everything. So admittedly, this is a difficult thing to wrap your mind around. When Jesus, did the piano just make a noise?
Is that possible?
Okay, how did that happen?
All right.
Yeah, that's weird.
I think it's the kids downstairs.
Oh, it's downstairs, okay. Good, I was a little worried there for a moment. I don't know what to think. So we are talking about demons here this morning,.
So I don't know.
So who can this be, right? This is, all right, let's focus. Who can this be that even the winds and the storm obey him? You know, it might be easy for us to say about the disciples like, come on, guys, how do you not know this by now?
How have you not figured this out? How can you not see it? Jesus is God, but admittedly, this whole thing about God in the flesh, it raises a lot of questions. It's really impossible to fully understand, but the question is not what if, the scripture plainly declares it.
It's just a matter of understanding what is being said. I don't think the average Christian really feels the weight of this. When we see or read Jesus being called the son of God, I don't think we feel the weight of it because we're so used to hearing that, hey, we're all Christians.
Those of us who are believers, we're all children of God, right? Isn't this what you're used to hearing? Well, I'm a child of God. I'm a son of God. I'm a daughter of God. Well, that's true, but that's totally different from Jesus being called the son of God.
Here's the thing. There was a point in time where you became a child of God, right? Jesus was always the son from what we might say eternity past. So I don't think Christians fully understand the weight of this.
John 1 verse 12 says, but as many as received him to them, or we might say to us, God gave the right to become children of God. Notice that we became God's child. For some of you, you became a child of God over this past year.
Some of you, you remember it was back in 1974 or 1992 or whenever it was, you became a child of God. We don't start out that way. We become a child of God when we believe. Elsewhere in scripture, it describes this as becoming God's children through what?
Adoption, right? We were adopted into the family. Jesus, on the other hand, is called God's only begotten. He is God's one and only son. So hopefully we understand the difference. And again, to illustrate this, those of you who are brought up in your father's house, you never became your father's child.
From day one, you were your father's child. Today, we talk about how you have the same DNA, but there are maybe one or two listening,.
You were adopted, right?
Those who were adopted, you became your parent's child in a moment in time. You did not start out that way. So that's the difference between us being called children of God and Jesus being called the son of God.
So we understand the difference, okay? We do not share that same divine nature that Jesus shares with the father. I wanna spend some time on this because it's so important because we live in a day and age where people are now starting to teach.
You have Christian churches starting to teach that really all human beings are children of God. I've heard professing Christians say, have you heard this? They'll say, every person has a spark of the divine.
Have you ever heard that term? You know, that's a red flag when you hear that. That's not true. Not everybody is a child of God. This is the teaching of universalism. We're talking about Jesus calming the storm.
Well, let me just put it this way. There is a storm coming. It's called the judgment. And the only way you're gonna find refuge from that storm is to become a child of God. But when people teach that, well, everybody is just automatically a child of God, that is telling people, hey, there's not a storm coming.
Everything is fine. You're gonna be okay no matter what. So this teaching of universalism, which I've talked to you before, they say everyone is a child of God says no verse ever. The Bible never says that anywhere.
The Bible does say that we are what? We are image bearers of God. So being a image bearer and being a child of God, two different things. God does have a general love for humanity, but in regards to salvation, because this is another thing you hear, that God's love is unconditional.
Who's heard that? The love of God is unconditional. Again, says no verse ever. God so loves the world, he loves humanity in a general sense, but you know, there really is a condition for God's everlasting love.
You know what the condition is? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So there is a storm coming, and in order for you to be protected and saved from that storm, remember the disciples are in the boat, they thought they were all going to perish, and they called upon who?
To save them.
Jesus.
So people today need to call upon Jesus to save them from the storm that is coming. All right, look at Matthew 28. Matthew 28 says, "'When he had come to the other side, "'to the country of the Jurgissims, "'there met him two demon-possessed men, "'coming out of the tombs, "'exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.
"'And suddenly they cried out, "'saying, what have we to do with you, "'Jesus, you son of God? "'Have you come here to torment us before the time?'. So I just find it really interesting that the demons fully recognize who Jesus is.
You know how they know that? Because Jesus is the one that created them. Jesus is divine. Jesus is their creator. They know him. And they also understand that Jesus has power over them. So Satan and the demons have a very good understanding about who God is.
People in the world, they don't. And that's where we come in. We need to tell people. So they know who the Lord is. They know that he has power to heal these men. And if these demon-possessed men are going to be healed, that means the demons have to be cast out somewhere.
So where is Jesus going to send them? Verse 30, now a good way off from them, there was a herd of many swine feeding. This is maybe one of the more, you could say bizarre stories in the New Testament.
So the demons, verse 31, they begged him saying, if you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine. For whatever reason, it seems like demons, they want to possess a body. Why is that? That's a different subject, but that's what they want.
They want to be able to possess something. So he said to them, go. And when they had come out of the men, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea and perished in the water.
Then those who kept them fled. And they went away into the city and told them everything, including what had happened to the demon possessed men. And behold, the whole city, after hearing of this great miracle, they came out to meet Jesus.
And when they saw him, they begged him to depart from their region. You know, this is one of the saddest statements that you find in the gospel. They saw the power of God. And what did they say? Get away, depart from us.
There's many people who witness the power of God. Maybe it's just the power of God and transforming a person's life. And they see that and they want to be kept away. So the demons feared Jesus. The men of the city feared Jesus.
This was an unhealthy fear.
Why?
Because they lacked faith. Did the disciples fear the Lord?
Yeah.
Why is that not unhealthy? Because fear, here's the thing. Fear is okay if it's connected with faith. Fear that is not connected with faith is only terror. The Bible says we should fear God. Being a God fearing person for 1950 years, it was understood this was a good thing.
But today people don't talk like that. So they fear the Lord. People of the city fear the Lord. Christ's disciples, they fear the Lord also, but the difference with them, they love him. The disciples wanted to stay close to Jesus.
Jesus rebukes them saying that they had a little faith, but did they have some faith? Yes, they had some faith. They had enough faith. Because if you have just a little faith, what does the scripture say about faith?
It can grow, it's like a mustard seed. It can grow and grow and grow. So the disciples having a little faith, they're starting to realize who Jesus was, that he is in fact God incarnate. And once they realized that, once all of us realized that, then it just makes the whole scripture so very clear.
This is how Jesus could say, because this is one of the big issues that people have about evangelical Christianity. When we, and it's not really us who say this, it's Jesus who said it. Jesus said that he is the only way to God, right?
John 14, verse six, "'I am the way, the truth, and the life. "'No man comes unto the Father except through me.'". How can Jesus say that he is the only way to God? Well, if you understand that he is God in human flesh, then you can say, well, obviously this is the case because Jesus is the only God in existence.
And if you reject him, you have rejected the only God that there is. So whatever misunderstandings people have about God, and there are many misunderstandings, Jesus came into the world to set the record straight.
And then he worked these miracles to prove that he was who he claimed to be. Go back to Matthew 8, 23 for a moment. Matthew 8, 23 says, "'Now, when he got into a boat, his disciples,' what? "'Followed him.'".
And that's what we should do. Wherever Jesus goes, whatever he says to do, we follow him as opposed to the men of the city who said, get away from us. Verse 24, "'And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea "'so that the boat was covered with the waves, "'but he was asleep.'".
So in the Galilee region, it's very common because of the topography that storms would arise very quick without any warning. So this must have been a very violent storm because the disciples are all convinced that they're going to die.
So that tells you something about the storm. "'Jesus, however, is fast asleep.'". And this is hard to imagine. Well, he's the Lord, he's not worried about anything. Well, that's true. I think there's another significant reason why this is in this passage.
A passage clearly about the deity of Christ, it's also telling us about what? His humanity. "'Jesus is asleep.'. This shows us that he is not just divine, he is also human.".
Because God doesn't sleep, but Jesus, the man, does. Or he did, I don't think he does anymore. But this is probably why the disciples waited so long to recognize his divine nature, because they fully understood his human nature.
There was no question that Jesus was a man. So the idea is, well, how can he be both, right? Have you ever, I know you've thought about this, or you've asked this question, how can he be both? I was talking to a Jehovah's Witness about this one time, because they don't believe that Jesus is God in human flesh.
They believe that Jesus is the Archangel Michael, which is another subject. But I just asked one of the witnesses, I said, well, humor me for a moment. What if, what if Jehovah wanted to come to earth in the form of a human being?
Could, I mean, he's God, could he do that if he wanted to? And the Jehovah's Witness said, well, yeah, I mean, if he wanted to do that, he could. And it's like, well, I just need to convince you that he did do it.
Because that is, if you don't hear anything else I say, hear this, that is the profession of faith that saves. Jesus is Lord. And when we say Lord, like the Lord, like the Lord of the Old Testament, God, he is divine.
That is the profession of faith that saves. But it's still a mystery. 1 Timothy 3, 16 says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifested in what? God was manifested in the flesh.
So what people need to believe in the world, what we need to convince them of and using scripture to do it is that Jesus is God in the flesh. It's not enough to say, well, I believe in God. There is a God or there's some sort of being out there somewhere.
No, you need to place your faith in Jesus. When we, and when we find ourselves in the middle of a storm, you know, metaphorically speaking, when we're afflicted by our problems, when we face difficulties in this life, where do you turn?
Where should you turn? You know, some people turn to the bottle. Some people turn to gambling. Some people turn to all these different ways to try to numb the pain or do whatever to stop thinking about it, to relieve stress.
When you face a storm in life, where do you turn? Be like the disciples in the boat. Turn to Christ. He's the only one who can really fix it. Like these other methods, they just kind of, you're just pushing it off for another day.
Jesus is the only one who can fix it. But Jesus sleeping in the boat and we're almost done, this speaks of his humanity. But the other detail, the storm being so violent, this highlights his divine power.
And think about it, he just speaks the word. It's such a violent storm, they think they're all gonna die. He rebukes the wind and immediately it becomes calm. Turn to Mark chapter four, because in Mark's gospel, it says there was a great calm.
Almost like the calm, it's so calm, it's like a supernatural calm. And I would say this is another thing the Lord does. God can give us a supernatural kind of calm. Christians enjoy the peace of God, talking about the peace of God reigning in your heart.
God can give us that calm in our spirit. Look at Mark 4 .39, it says, and he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said to them, why are you so fearful?
How is it that you have no faith? Now, in the other passages said, oh, you have little faith. So we have to balance that out. But in other words, he's saying, well, why don't you trust me? Don't you get it by now?
Why are you not trusting me? Don't you understand who I am? So they were afraid of the storm. They were afraid they were going to perish. And when Jesus, this is the amazing thing, when Jesus calms the storm, now they're even more terrified.
You notice that? Now they're terrified that they might be in the presence of God. And they didn't even know it. I mean, think about this. If you're in the presence of God, you wanna be on your best behavior.
Right?
There's a story I heard of, this is different, but it gets across the same point. There's a story I heard about a pastor. He went golfing with a group of guys. And there's only one guy in the group who knew what he did for a living, right?
So there's this group of guys, none of them know he was a pastor. So on the first hole, the guy hits the ball. There's a bad slice. You can imagine some of the things that come out of his mouth. One of the balls goes into the drink, hits it into the water.
They're saying things they normally wouldn't say if they knew. And then by the fifth hole or whatever, it comes out that, oh yeah, he's a pastor of a church. And then all the other guy like, oh, sorry, we didn't realize.
And they're thinking back at the things they said and how they're getting mad and all the rest. Well, just imagine if you spent the past six months or however long it was with God and you didn't know it.
And now you just realize it. You're thinking back, oh man, what did I say? What did I do? I mean, that's kind of a frightening thought. Of course, God is omnipotent. He's all knowing, he's omnipresent.
So it really shouldn't matter either way. But I think you can understand why they're so afraid at this point. It says, now they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?
I think they were terrified because they knew what the answer was. Being in the presence of God, if you read through the scripture, no matter who it was, whether it's Moses or one of the prophets, when you experienced God, it was a frightening thing.
So their response is a common response and an appropriate one. Proverbs 9, verse 10 says that the fear of the Lord is what? It's the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
So in wrapping this up, we have this knowledge, don't we, of who Jesus is. Now we want to share it with others. We want to share with people how Jesus is the only one who can calm the storm. So let's finish in Matthew chapter eight.
Matthew chapter eight, Jesus has control over all of creation, over the natural realm and rebuking the storm. He has authority in the spiritual realm and casting out the demons. Jesus has the power to bring calm over every situation.
Do you believe that this morning? Matthew 8, 29, and suddenly, this is the demons, they cried out saying, what have we to do with you, Jesus? Oh, son of God, have you come here to torment us before the time?
The demons feared because they knew that Christ had the power to send them into the abyss. I know this isn't a thing that's talked about a lot, but God has that same power to send people there. What's the solution?
What's the only port in the storm? What's the only refuge from the storm? Call upon the name of Christ. Look at verse 33, last point, those who kept the sheep, I'm so used to saying keepers of sheep and not pigs, because the Jews didn't have herds of pigs, but those who kept them, they fled.
So once again, what is the response fear? It says they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men, and behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to depart from their region.
But notice this, and this is in Mark's account, so you'll just have to take my word for it, you can look at it during the week. But the man who was healed, put back into his right mind, healed of the demon possession, Jesus tells him, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you.
The people of the city didn't want Christ, they said, leave, depart from us. But this man loved the Lord, why? Because Jesus saved him. And because Jesus saved him, he wanted to tell everyone. So Jesus says, go and tell them how the Lord has had compassion on you.
And it says, and he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him and marveled. So just ask yourself, what has Jesus done for you? Have you seen his wonderful works, whether it's in your own life or in the lives of others who are touched by the grace of God?
Are you willing to tell others about the things that the Lord has done, how he has had compassion on you? And maybe we've never seen the Lord calm a physical storm, but the Lord has calmed many of the storms of life.
He has rebuked the winds and parted the waters to give us passage into our promised land. So every good gift and perfect gift is from his hand. It's just a matter of us recognizing that, praising him for it and going and telling others.