Meet Me In The Storm

Meet me in the storm

John 6:15-21

Intro: have you been in a storm lately?

1: properties of a storm

a) Rain- so much rain you can’t see.

b) Wind- wind so fierce it knocks over trees and peels roofs back.

c) Thunder- the sound so deep and rumbling it shakes the ground you stand on.

d) Lighting- the most fascinating and terrifying part of a storm, it lights up the sky with beauty, but also has the ability to set fire and destroy anything in its path.

Point: we’ve all been in at least one severe storm we understand that there is danger in these storms. I would like to show you how at times in our lives God allows us to get right in the middle of a storm. And how he delivers us and keeps us safe through it all. Sometimes right in the middle of the storm you’re the safest.

2: God’s work God’s will

a) they had just fed the multitude with five loaves and two small fishes

b) 5,000 men, if you add women and children it was probably more like 9 to 10,000 people

c) what we have here was a mobile mega church, phenomenon that people just flocked to

d) they followed Jesus because he could perform miracles and heal sickness

Point: the disciples were surely taken by this movement and felt as though they were truly serving the messiah. These people though they only followed Jesus because he was meeting a physical need that they had John 6:2. God’s men the Disciples of Christ had to feel empowered and as though nothing could beset them or the work they were doing. As quick as the sun sets the storm can rise.

Body: Jesus departs

1: Back to the mountain

a) they wanted to make Jesus king because he fed them

b) they wanted to lift him up

c) little did they know he would be lifted up on a cross at Calvary

d) his throne was not of this world, but at the right hand of the Father in heaven

e) he left, went back up into the mountain

Point: he went there to pray, we should do as the savior does. At times we should retire in solitude to have commune with God in prayer. Jesus a little talk with Jesus makes it right. There are times when we need one on one time with the Lord, where it’s just me and the Lord. Find your mountain and go there from time to time.

2: The disciples go down to the sea

a) Matthew says he constrained them to get in to the ship

b) He sent them over the sea

c) It was dark as they sailed to Capernaum

d) That would seemingly make it more dangerous

Point: I don’t always understand the why or the how or even the when, of what God does. But I do believe that God’s will, won’t carry me where God’s grace can’t keep me. They got into the ship surely with some reservation, but the Lord commanded that they go ahead. So they went, and probably questioned within themselves what or how or why Jesus decided to stay behind, how would he get back, why did stay, the bible says to send the multitude away, but what was he doing? Jesus was praying.

3: the sea arose

a) it got angry

b) it got violent

c) it was dangerous

d) waves crashing into the boat

e) water filling the boat

f) the wind howling, thunder and lighting

Point: every aspect of this physical storm had the ability to engulf and destroy these men in this boat. The actual boat they were in was wooden with a sail cold probably hold up to 15 men, this was no commercial fishing boat or some big coast guard ship it was a boat with oars. It was common in the 1st century for people to travel across the sea in these boats. So the disciples really didn’t think anything about getting into the boat right at sunset.

4: sea of Galilee

a) sits 680 feet below sea level

b) it is bounded by hills and mountains some reach up to 2000 feet high

c) in the heights the air is cool and dry

d) around the sea the climate is semi tropical with warm moist air

e) Because of the difference in height between the surrounding land and sea it causes large temperature and pressure changes.

f) The sea is only 150 feet deep in it’s deepest portion, and has a total area of 64 square miles

g) The winds drop down from the hills and hit the center of the sea and because it’s shallow it churns and stirs the sea up very quickly and very unexpectedly