Jesus, Master Of Creation

Jesus, Master of Creation

Matthew 8:23-27

October 16, 2005

Introduction

We had earlier discussed three things Jesus demonstrated his authority over. First we looked at the fact that he exercised authority over illness, whether it had "physical" origins or demonic origins.

He exercised authority over sin, by forgiving it, demonstrated in the life of the paralyzed man brought to Jesus by his friends.

And he exercised authority over death by raising the synagogue ruler’s daughter from the dead.

Today we come to another episode that’s right in the midst of all this and we’re going to look at something else Jesus has authority over.

Jesus is trying to get away and get some rest with his disciples. Jesus is so exhausted from meeting people’s needs that when the get in the boat, he’s out and sleeping.

Let’s pick it up in verse 23 of Matthew, chapter 8.

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!"

26 He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

27 The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

The temptation in dealing with this passage is to treat it like it’s just some kind of allegory - in other words, it’s not so much a real-life episode where Jesus calmed a real-life storm with his real-life power, but rather it’s a picture of how Jesus can calm the storms in our life.

And it can become "over-spiritualized" if we’re not careful.

If I were a betting man, I’d bet that just about every preacher who has ever preached from this passage gave a message about how to "trust Jesus in the storms of life."

And while I am going to deal with that aspect of this passage later in the message, I don’t think it’s the main thrust of the passage.

I think that above everything else its message is that Jesus, as the Son of God, had authority over the creation.

And when we can get a firm grasp on that, then we can better appreciate the fact that Jesus is there for us when times get tough.

So again, while I don’t want to ignore the deeper spiritual applications we can make from this passage, I think we at least need to make sure we’re not ignoring the basic lessons we can learn from this passage.

Let’s begin by taking a look at the first of these two lessons, okay?

1. Jesus has authority over creation because he is the Creator.

Track with me here, as we look at these verses from the gospel according to John:

John 1:1-3, 14 -

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

You see the connection? John is telling us that the Word of God is Jesus himself.

In other words, God spoke the creation into existence through Jesus.

Now that’s awesome. Jesus isn’t just some nice teacher. He isn’t just some moral philosopher with nice words about human relationships.

He is the creator! And he is worthy of our worship, if for no other reason than that!

So is it any wonder that when he gets up and orders the storm to be stilled that it obeys him? I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time imagining a storm giving Jesus any lip. How about you?

My hope is that as you ponder just the truth that Jesus is the creator, you will be filled with the same wonder that the disciples had when they said, "Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

Jesus created it and he controls it. Does that mean that he causes all the natural disasters we’ve seen lately? If so, then we have a pretty cruel God.

No, I don’t think that God causes all those horrific things. The Bible tells us that at times he has brought such things, but as judgments against specific people for specific reasons.

But let’s back up for a second.

When Adam and Eve blew it in the Garden of Eden, not only was man condemned as sinful, but creation itself was cursed because of their sin.

The Bible tells us in the book of Romans that creation itself waits for the final fulfillment of our salvation, which will happen when God makes the new heaven and new earth as described in Revelation.