ISN'T THAT A LITTLE HARSH? Why does Jesus rebuke the disciples for what seems a pretty reasonable request?
- Matthew 8:25.
- Why are the disciples chastised for what seems a pretty reasonable response? Wasn’t fear a reasonable response?
- Most of us would look at that situation and say, “Yeah, that’s just about what I would do in that situation!” So we wonder why Jesus is pretty harsh with them in response.
THE PROBLEM: The issue was not that they asked Jesus, but that they accused Jesus.
- Matthew 8:25.
- I don’t think that Jesus expected them to be unconcerned.
- They were fishermen. They had been on the water enough to know when they were in real danger. They knew the nature of this storm made it a dangerous one.
- But notice in v. 25 how they come to Jesus: “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
- They come with an accusation. Their words drip with it: “Why aren’t You doing anything? How can You sleep at a time like this? Aren’t You going to save us?”
- Now, note that the earlier parts of chapter 8 make it clear that they had just experienced great miracles. They should have had some residual trust lingering from all they’d witnessed. But they didn’t.
- It’s amazing how quickly we can go from praising God for His provision and blessings over to griping and whining that God isn’t doing what we want how we want.
- We have such short memories. We hold onto that trust so briefly.
- There is a difference between asking and accusing.
- There is a difference between praying and pointing (fingers).
- There is a difference between using the language of trust and treachery.
- There is a difference between speaking from faith and from fear.
- The tone and words of the disciples make it clear that they believe that Jesus isn’t doing His job. They are upset with Him.
- Certainly, it’s a situation that is serious, but just because it’s serious doesn’t mean that we need to lose our trust.
- How do we do this today?
a. We praise God for a financial blessing, then wail about a questionable test result that leaves uncertain about the future.
b. We praise God in church for a great service, then act like He’s failing us because we’re continuing to have problems with our teenager.
c. We praise God for our spouse, then fuss the next day when they aggravate us.
- The problem is not that we acknowledge that we have a problem. The problem is not that we talk to God.
- The problem is that we talk to Him as though He has not kept up His promises.
- Our words and tone accuse God of having left us hanging. Our words and tone accuse God of not coming through for us. Our words and tone accuse God of hanging us out to dry.
- God always fulfills His promises.
- We can go to Him with questions. We can go to Him with our needs. But not with a finger pointing.
- Here is the base issue here: the disciples’ words betray their lack of trust in Jesus.
- And the base issue for us is often the same: when we get in the storm, we don’t trust Him to do His job.
- Why do some of us spend so much time worrying? Because we don’t trust God to do His job.
- Why are some of us so resentful? Because we don’t believe God is fulfilling His end of the deal.
- Why are some of us so lacking in joy? Because we feel like everything is up to us.
- We know from other passages that God wants us to bring our honest questions to Him.
- He knows what we’re thinking anyway, and He wants us to bring our concerns to Him.
- Compare if they’d gone to Him and said, “Jesus, we need Your power to take care of this.”
- They’re still acknowledging a need there, but in a way that expects that Jesus is able to take care of it.
- There is a difference between waking Him and waking Him scared.
GAINING MORE FAITH TO FACE STORMS CONFIDENTLY:
1. Accept the fact that there will be storms.
- Matthew 8:23.
- Some of us expect that having God in our lives should mean that we don’t have problems.
- Many of us believe that our lives should be storm-free and we get hacked off when it’s not.
- Of course, that’s not a promise that God made to us. In fact, the Bible promises the opposite, but we ignore those passages.
- They are literally following Jesus and He leads them right into a storm.
- Jesus most likely took them out there knowing that there was a storm coming. It was a test that would push them.
- Not all tests in our life come because God has directed us there, but some do. Sometimes it’s because our sin; sometimes it’s because we live in a fallen world. But there are times (like with the disciples and this storm) where God directs us to into the path of a storm.
- Why would He do that? There are several possibilities:
a. He is testing our faith.
b. There is something He wants to accomplish through us that requires us to be there.
c. He wants us to be an example to other people going through similar struggles.
- Peace within the storm is a more mature place than peace from the storm.
- Not more enjoyable, but definitely more mature.
- We need to have a faith that’s “storm-rated.”
2. Fear comes with looking at God through your storm; faith comes with looking at your storm through your God.
- Matthew 8:26-27.
- We tend to look at God through the storms.
- Our focus in on the circumstances we find ourselves in. We see how high the waves are. We see how strongly the wind is blowing.
- We see how great the tax bill is going to be. We see how bad the test results could be. We see how bad getting laid off could be. We see how far our teen could drift.
- We focus on our circumstances and diminish God because of it.
- What we should do instead is to look at our storms through our God. That’s not to say they aren’t real. That’s not to say they aren’t substantial. But they’re not as big as our God is.
- God is bigger than your storm.
- We don’t understand how big God is until He calms a big storm.
- Sometimes God specifically leads us into a storm just to help us understand that He is greater than our storms and our circumstances.
- We serve a God who doesn’t just provide barely enough. He’s a God who can easily do things that leave us “amazed” (v. 27).
3. Having this kind of faith helps you sleep well.
- Matthew 8:24.
- How could Jesus sleep with water coming into the boat? It probably partly had to with the great exhaustion that He was undoubtedly experiencing after an incredibly long day of ministry. It probably also had to do with the peace that comes from knowing that God is in charge and you can trust Him to do His job.
- I know there are other reasons for the sleepless nights that people have sometimes, but our overwhelming worries have a lot to do with many of those nights.
- Reaching a place of being able to trust God with doing His job allows you to lay aside many of those worries.
- Of course, one of the sad things about our worries is that they aren’t even effective in changing anything about our situation. It just pushes us to be more stressed out.
- Here Jesus is literally asleep, but God isn’t.
- We both have a picture here of someone content in God’s hand as well as a reminder that God the Father is always watching.
4. Knowing things don’t always turn out as we hope, we find out ultimate hope in knowing that “He arose.”
- Matthew 8:26.
- In all that I’ve said today, you may say, “That’s all well and good, but sometimes the situation doesn’t work out the way I want. Sometimes that loved one dies. Sometimes you lose your job.”
- That is absolutely true and I’m not promising this morning that things will always work out the way we want.
- But we do have the confidence that comes with the hope of the resurrection of Christ.
- The KJV translates the middle of v. 26 “then He arose.” (That’s where NIV has “then He got up.”)
- Things don’t always work out as we expect and answers don’t always come as we want, but our ultimate hope lies in Jesus’ resurrection.
- Even if the storm means that a loved one dies, we have hope beyond this life because “He arose.”
- Even if the storm means I have to go through the loss of my job, I have hope that He will stick with me through that crisis because “He arose.”
- Even if the storm means that depression is a constant companion, I have hope in knowing that “He arose.”
- We may not like what God allows in our life, but we have the promise that He will never abandon us.
- God doesn’t always rescue – why isn’t it ok for them to be freaked out here?
- Even though things don’t always turn out the way that we would like, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have things under control. Of course, that doesn’t mean that things always turn out the way we hope or want, but it does mean that there is a knowledge that we have that things ultimately will come together thanks to the resurrection of Christ.
