The past few weeks the Gulf Coast has been hit hard by storms. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike ravaged Louisiana and Texas. Many people are homeless and have suffered immeasurable loss. Many questions arise from the midst of the storms. What do we say? Where are the answers? I want to use these storms as a teaching point today. I do not have easy answers. I do not have quick fixes. I do find encouragement from the scriptures.
In Matthew 8:23-27 we find one of the occasions when Jesus dealt with a storm. “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, O 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?” From this text I want to ask some questions that arise from the midst of storms.
First question: where is Jesus during the storm? As you examine this text you discover that Jesus was with His followers in the midst of the storm. Look at verse 23 and 24. “Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm.” Notice two things about Jesus during the storm. First, Jesus was with His disciples in the midst of the storm. That is one of the clear teachings of the Bible. When you go through a storm, Jesus also goes through the storm. In Ps. 23:4 it speaks of going through the valley of the shadow of death. In that valley God is with us. In Daniel 3 we find the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace because they would not renounce their faith. The Bible tells us that when the Babylonian officials looked into the fire they saw a fourth individual who was like the Son of God. (Dan. 3:25) God was with these men in the midst of the trial.
God understands our trials. The Bible says we do not have an uncaring God. “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testing we do, yet he did not sin.” (Heb. 4:15- NLT)
The story is told of a hardened old sea captain who was quite vocal about his atheism. One night during a storm he was washed overboard and his men heard him crying out to God for help. When he was finally rescued one of the men asked him, “I thought you didn’t believe in God.” He replied, “Well, if there isn’t a God, there ought to be one for times like this.”
The second thing you notice about Jesus presence in the storm is, He was asleep. That does not mean He was uncaring. It means He is unmoved by the storms of life. They do not upset Him. He does not loose sleep over them. He understands the source and the solution. We do not have access to this information. This is where trust comes in.
Second question: what does Jesus do about the storm? (vs. 25) In this text Jesus responds to the storm in three ways.
• He allowed the storm. Sometimes he allows storms in our lives. As you study the Bible you come to understand that sometimes God allows storms to blow. Job is a case in point. Job was blameless before God and yet he suffered a tremendous storm.
• He stopped the storm. Sometimes Jesus will stop the storm. In our text he allowed it but he also stopped it. I remember an occasion years ago when I went to visit an elderly couple in a church I served. The man was ravaged by anxiety and depression. As I visited in their home I discovered the man’s condition. Before leaving I asked if I could pray for them. The man was shaking uncontrollably. As I prayed he suddenly became calm. I do not claim to have the gift of healing but God blessed my prayer and gave that elderly man a sense of peace.
• He delivered his disciples from the storm. (vs. 26)Sometimes the greatest miracle is to see God’s handi-work in the midst of the storms. Joni Erickson Tadi is a case in point. This lady was paralyzed, from a diving accident, yet she has become a beautiful testimony of God’s enabling power.
Third, what part does faith play in a storm? Notice verse 26. “But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Even though the disciples’ faith was weak during the storm it played a part.
In his sermon on dealing with trials, Nashville pastor Byron Yawn points out: "For most, especially American Christians, even the remotest suggestion that there could be value in our suffering is viewed as uncaring and insensitive. We have been conditioned by our culture to believe the opposite. A collective attitude that exalts comfort and views personal happiness as the end of all things has blurred our perspective. There is no place for pain in American Christianity. "Because of this distorted perception, we rarely stop to search for the ’hand of God’ in the midst of our trouble. Seeking to understand God’s purposes in our pain is all but foreign. As a result, embracing pain’s role in our sanctification is usually the farthest thing from our minds. As one so aptly put it, ’Most people count it all joy when they escape trials. James said to count it all joy in the midst of trials.’ We need to come to grips with a significant truth: God’s will is not our happiness, but His Glory. The two may, or may not, be directly related."
( SOURCE: PreachingNow Vol. 1, No. 20. Tue 9/3/2002.)
Jesus is more concerned with building faith than protecting us from storms! He taught His disciples some valuable lessons from the midst of the storm. I notice three lessons.
1. We should come to Jesus in humility in the midst of storms. In this text Jesus disciples come running to Him for help. These were professional fisherman who spent their lives living and working on the water. For them to ask Jesus for help was a sign of brokenness and humility.
2. They came to Jesus as Lord. Even though they were fearful they came to Jesus and addressed Him as Lord.
3. Jesus expected them to trust Him. Jesus wants us to trust Him in the midst of every storm. Someone once asked Jay Kesler, former president of Youth for Christ International, if he believed that God could make a fish big enough to swallow a man. As a college president and above average in intelligence, in a world in which we have learned to split the atom and go to the moon and send spaceships to Neptune, did Kesler really think that God can make a fish big enough to swallow a man? I mean really? Dr. Kesler’s reply is one of simple trust in a great God. He answered, "Let me tell you, I not only believe that he can make such a fish, but the God who made the sun and the moon and the stars, if he wanted to, could air-condition and carpet the fish!" [Belief in the Word, 1001 More Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, p. 38]
Fourth question: what does Jesus give His followers in the midst of the storms? (vs. 27) In his commentary on Matthew, William Barclay repeats a story from Margaret Avery. In a little village school in the hill country a teacher had been telling the children of the stilling of the storm at sea. Shortly afterwards there came a terrible blizzard. When school closed for the day, the teacher had to practically drag the children through the tempest. They were in very real danger. In the midst of it all she heard a little boy say as if to himself: "We could be doing with that chap Jesus here now." We need Jesus during the storms of life.
• He gives a sense of calm. In 1969, the “Eagle” landed on the moon and set up Tranquility Base. It was an ironic name for such a daring and dangerous mission. It seemed as if NASA was communicating a biblical principle: you can have peace in the midst of turmoil. The same can be said on earth as well. Oceanographers say the sea remains tranquil below twenty-five feet. No matter how bad the storm rages on top of the ocean. The waters are peaceful down deep.
• He gives assurance.
THE CROSS AT GROUND ZERO I’m an excavation laborer, and a member of union local 731. Pick-and-shovel work is my trade. I live in New Jersey, but I’m a New York City native, Brooklyn born and bred. After the Towers collapsed, my city was hurting. When I heard they needed guys like me for search-and-rescue work at Ground Zero, I couldn’t get there fast enough. I’d seen the news coverage, but that didn’t prepare me for the reality. Down there it was like hell on earth. Fires burned out of control. Destroyed vehicles littered the streets. Everything was blanketed with dust; the air was filled with a choking stench. I soaked a bandanna with water before wrapping it around my head to cover my nose and mouth. I went to work wondering if I’d be able to get through this. Six firefighters and I entered World Trade Center building six, which had been flattened by Tower One. We took a smoke-filled stairway down into the garage levels, searching for survivors. There were no cries for help, no signs of life. We spray-painted orange Xs to indicate where we’d searched and to help us find our way back. After 12 hours of searching, we’d recovered three bodies. By then I was exhausted, but I couldn’t quit. “Think I’ll take a look over there,” I told the firemen, motioning toward the remains of the lobby atrium. Picking my way through the massive piles of debris, I peered into what had become a sort of grotto. Illuminated by the pale light of dawn were shapes . . . crosses. What? How did these get here? The largest was about 20 feet high. It must have weighed a couple of tons. In that little grotto I felt a strange sense of peace and stillness. I could almost hear God saying, The terrible thing done at this site was meant for evil. But I will turn it to good. Have faith. I am here. I fell to my knees in front of the largest cross. Tears came, and I couldn’t stop them. I cried like a baby. Finally I was able to pull myself together. I grabbed my gear and left the strange grotto to go back to search-and-rescue work. But first I spray-painted “God’s House” on the atrium ruins. Digging day after day at Ground Zero was the hardest work I’d ever done. Often I was so drained I felt I couldn’t go on. That’s when I’d go to God’s House. Standing there in front of that 20-foot-high steel-beam cross, I always felt my strength and spirit renewed. Word spread. The cross had the same healing effect on others too. Firemen, police, volunteers, grieving survivors, visiting dignitaries and clergy. They would walk into God’s House, see the cross and fall to their knees crying, like I had. Some people sang, some prayed. Everyone left changed. There are some who say that the cross I found is nothing more than steel. That it was just plain physics that broke the steel beam into the shape of a cross when it plunged through the roof of building six. But I believe differently. So does my friend Father Brian Jordan. He was a chaplain at Ground Zero, and is a priest at St. Francis of Assisi in midtown. When the time came for what was left of building six to be removed, God’s House faced demolition. Father Jordan talked to officials and persuaded them to save the cross. After it was removed from the site, ironworkers fixed the cross to a concrete base, then hoisted it up and mounted it atop a 40-foot foundation that had been a pedestrian walkway outside the World Trade Center. It stood high enough that the rescue workers who were down in the pit could see it whenever they lifted their heads. Ground Zero was not obviously a place of hope. But it was there that I learned we can always have faith. In fact, we must have faith if we are to go on. New life will rise from the ashes. I know that because the cross was a sign, a promise from God that he is with us even in the face of terrible evil and untold suffering. Especially then. SOURCE: by Frank Silecchia, Little Ferry, New Jersey. This article originally appeared in the September 2002 issue of Guideposts magazine.
The storms of life will come. However, Jesus is always in the midst of the storms. God has always been active in the events of this world. The storms may not be pleasant but God always has control and will bring victory from it.
