Let Us Go Over
Luke 8:22-25
There are many places to which we can “GO”. We can go bowling. We can go to the grocery store. Each day some of you get up and go to school. Each day some of you go to work. On Sunday and Wednesday we can go to church. Once or twice a year many of you go to a theme park such as Cedar Point. There if you are daring you can go on some of the wildest, scariest roller coasters known to man. For me, there’s not a coaster in the park that scares me. But that Power Tower frightens me. Fortunately nobody in my family is brave enough to go on it so I haven’t had to worry about it for several years. We go on mission trips. We go to camp. For some of you the thought of either of those two things scare you to death while to others they are the highlight of your summer. We go on Monday night visitation. For some of you the scariest thing in life would be talking to one of those people that you don’t know. Very soon some of you will be going off to college. Some will go to a local college. Some will go away to college. Some will just stay home and not go at all.
I am here to tell you this morning that if God is in control of your life, you can go without fear. Fear affects everyone. It’s not just for the shy nerdy teen-ager who’s afraid of his first day away from home. It affects and controls moms and dads who are afraid to send their children away. It affects otherwise seemingly normal people who seem self-confident and capable. It affects those who have had past failures as well as those who have had past victories.
Jesus has a word for you today. LET US GO OVER. LET US GO OVER. Let’s put the past behind us. Let’s press on towards what’s ahead. Let’s face it together. LET US GO OVER.
Jesus’ precise location as He begins this trip with His disciples is unknown. He is somewhere along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Lake Gennesaret, possibly on the west side of the lake near the town of Magdala. This possibility is due to his recent meeting with Mary Magdalene, Magdalene meaning she was a woman from the town of Magdala, which we read of in verse 2. He is going to end up on the east side of the lake near the land of the Gadarenes, as the story which follows this one pertains to the madman of Gadara. If we were to look at the map we would see it to be a trip most likely of 10 – 15 miles. In this trip we will see three things. First will be the challenge given by Jesus. Let us go over, unto the other side. Second will be the concern of His followers. Master, Master, we perish. And last will be the change. What manner of man is this…?
So the challenge was Let us go over to the other side of the lake. This seemed to be a simple enough task. It was not night time. In fact verse 22 tells us it was during the day. It was not a task that they were unfamiliar with. They had traveled by boat before. In fact, if you’ll remember with me a number of the men were professional fishermen before they decided to leave all and follow Jesus. Jesus had not yet sent them out two by two to evangelize the world. They had not yet received the great commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. They were not yet on trial for their lives. They were not about to be beheaded for the Gospel or burned at the stake for the sake of the Word. Not one of their friends had been stoned or throne in jail.
You could say that they were not being sent away by their parents to a strange school with strange people they had never met before. They weren’t heading into the nursing home. They weren’t being sent to knock on the door of a house where they didn’t know anybody. They weren’t trying to witness or invite to church somebody that they went to school with at the danger of being cursed or mocked. They weren’t headed off to a faraway state or a foreign land on a missions trip.
It was just another day beautiful day in the neighborhood. They were with Jesus. The one whom they had seen perform miracles. The one who had come to establish His kingdom and to defeat sin and evil in the world. But it was training time because Jesus knew that those days were coming. Jesus knew what lay ahead. Just as He knows what lies ahead in your life and in mine, He knew what lay ahead for these disciples, the men who would one day soon spread the Gospel throughout the world. Simple men, tax collectors, fishermen, just common every day folk. Normal people like you and I whom He is still using, but first we must be prepared.
Calm quickly changed to concern. It must have been peaceful out there at first. Jesus laid down and went to sleep. The winds began to blow. The rain began to fall. Waves began to come over the sides of the boat. As fast as they could cup their hands together and try to bail it out they could not keep up with the rising water in the boat. Men who knew the ways of the sea, men who had spent many days and nights out on the water and knew about storms and how to handle a boat became frightened. Just an ordinary day. Just business as usual. That’s what this day should have been. But suddenly things changed. Something unexpected happened. It was training time. There was fear, there was great concern. What will happen to us? The Bible says their lives were in jeopardy. That means they were in peril, in great danger, or at least that is the way they felt.
Storms come to our lives. Great challenges sometimes come our way when we’re serving God, when we’re being faithful, when we’re trying our best to do what’s right. God blesses us but in a way we would never expect Him to. Think about when you want to get your driver’s license for the first time. You’ve gone through driver’s training. You’ve studied the manual. You’ve spent all of those hours behind the wheel listening to mom or dad nag you about your driving. But when you walk into the Secretary of State they don’t just hand you your license. Because you’ve taken the driver’s training, because you’ve studied your driver’s manual, because you put in all those hours with mom and dad, you’ve earned the right to take that test and soon you’ll be driving.
Many times in our lives God says well done my child, well done. You’re ready to move on in my plans for you. Let me take you through this time of testing. I think you’re ready for it now. 1 Peter 1:7 speaks of that testing as gold being tried by fire. With the finished product coming forth purified, ready for use. James chapter one says that the trying of our faith worketh patience. It goes on to say the end result is that we are perfect, complete, wanting nothing. These times in our lives often bring great concern. They are usually quite unexpected. They often come up at the most unreasonable times but they are preparing you for those times down the road when your faith will be truly put to the test, when you are truly ready to step out by faith and serve God as He has called you to do. At work or on the mission field, God is preparing you right now and the test is on!
Finally we see the change. Situations around us always change. The storms come and go. Jesus awoke, stood up and rebuked the wind and the waves and they became calm again. But this is not the change that we are talking about or are concerned about. The change that He is talking about is the change that is to take place in our hearts and lives for the next time that we encounter a storm. God wants us to come to a place where we can say I’ve seen the wind, I’ve seen the rain, I’ve been in the storm and God has always taken care of me. I have learned that no matter how deep the water, God is still in control of my life. This would be a perfect place for you to write down in your notes Romans 8:28.
Jesus asks them a question, you might call it a rhetorical question as He was wanting them to think, not to respond. Where is your faith? And look at the change that has taken place. What manner of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him. He had told them that He was God in the flesh. They had professed to Him and to others that Hew was the Son of God. And you see, most of us here, if I were to ask you who created this world would say God did. And most of you here if I asked you who Jesus was you would say the Son of God. But until the words get from our head to our heart, they don’t really mean much. It is through the trials of life, as God prepares to use us that those words make their way from a head knowledge to a heart knowledge.
And so I ask you to decide today, how will you respond the next time God sends a trial your way? Will you thank Him for it or will you fight Him because of it? Your answer to that question will determine much of your success in life as a Christian. Jesus says to each of us today, Let us go over.
