The story has been told of a museum guide who would take his tour group to a darkened room, shined a light on a mass of string, color, and apparent chaos and ask the group. “What do you think this is?” “I don’t know,” was the reply of the group. The guide would then say. “Stand over there and watch.” As the group moved over to the other side of the room, he would turn on a spotlight. It was instantly apparent that the mass of jumbled colored string seen just a moment earlier was in fact an enormous tapestry – from the back side. The real work had to be seen from a different perspective to understand what the artist was creating. So, it is with God and His ways. We often look at them and ask questions such as “Why?” and “How?” Not because there is no purpose in what God is doing, but because we are on the wrong side of eternity to be able to have the perspective that would enable us to see the order and pattern to God’s work.
Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!” Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
Luke 8:22-26
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In our day-to-day life we will always run into troubles, and when we do, we most times wonder: why is this happening to me? This was the case for the disciples who were crossing the lake with Jesus asleep in the rear of the boat. As the storm grew and the waves began to crash over the boat to the point where the boat was flooding, the disciples wake Jesus in the hopes that He would help them. Now in looking at the verses we read I am not sure what kind of help the disciples were looking for, because they sure were not expecting the kind of help they received. When Jesus quieted the storm by His word the disciples became even more afraid.
In looking at this story we need to understand some things:
• Jesus told them that they were going to the other side of the lake.
o Now correct me if I am wrong, but I have not read anything in the Bible where Jesus lied about something.
o So, when He said that they were going to the other side I take that as a truth that no matter what they were going to make it to the other side.
o The word of God says that God is not a man that He should lie, and since Jesus was God in the flesh, I believe what He says.
• Why the disciples were afraid of the storm when most of them were seasoned fisherman.
o They were afraid because this was a storm unlike any they had ever encountered.
o In Matthew 8:24 he writes that the storm was a great tempest.
• Even so, why were the disciples afraid; knowing that Jesus was on board?
o They were afraid because they had yet to understand who He really was. Which to me is interesting, because just days ago they witnessed Him raising a man from the dead…the man was in his coffin being carried to his burial spot, and Jesus stopped the procession and touched the man, and he sat up and started talking. You can find that in Luke chapter 7.
o They had yet to understand that the man asleep in the boat would be the one who would allow Himself to die for our sakes.
o And we can see by their fear, a fear that was greater than their fear of the storm of who this man was.
o They had no belief that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and if they did know that He was the Messiah they misunderstood what He came to earth for. They thought the promised Messiah would come to deliver them from the rule of the Romans.
• Just as Jesus said, they made it to the other side.
• So, we can see that if we are with Jesus we are in a safe harbor, even though the storms of life are crashing down around us, we know that we are safe in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:35-36 asks a question, and then gives us the stark reality of life:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
This verse sums up all things that can happen to us in our lifetimes. The troubles and sufferings that we experience, that is the tribulation. The anxiety and worry over little things and big things, that is the distress. The hostility and ill-treatment you suffer from those around you, that is the persecution. The times when it seemed like you had no food to eat, that is famine. The times when it looked like you had no place to lay your head, no decent clothes to wear, or when your friends and family abandoned you, that is nakedness. The times when you are faced with what looks like a no-win situation, times when you are stuck between a rock and a hard place, that is the peril. The times when we are faced with someone trying to physically hurt you, that is the sword. Then there is the reality of life…these things can come upon us in life, but are they capable of causing us to lose faith in our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus? Are any of these things capable of coming between us and our love for Jesus. The disciples in our opening verses let the tribulation of the storm come between their faith in Jesus. But we see that He brought them through. So, why do you worry about the storms in your life. Know that Jesus can handle it.
Romans 8:37-39 caps it off with:
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are told that there will be problems in life, and I believe each of you know that to be true. Then why, knowing what we know about Jesus do we worry? Why? Paul, who wrote theses verses says that even though he has gone through some stuff, that because of what he knows about Jesus, he is persuaded to trust in Him, to know that because of what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross that we are more than conquerors…get that right, it is not a mere thing that we conquer the things in life, but we are more than that.
Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China during and after World War II, brought a hundred orphans, ages four to fifteen, safely over the mountains of China to Sian in Shensi.
But it was not without cost. When Aylward arrived in Sian with the children, she was gravely ill. She had suffered internal injuries from a beating by the Japanese invaders in the mission compound at Tsechow. In addition, she was wracked with fever, typhus, pneumonia, malnutrition, shock, and fatigue.
Through her ordeal Aylward learned to choose Christ over anything else life had to offer. When the man she loved, Colonel Linnan, came to visit her in Sian and asked her to marry him, she declined because she knew marriage would interfere with the work God had given her among the children of China. She said good-bye to Linnan at the train station, and they never met again. Gladys continued serving God in China and England until her death in 1970.
Through our suffering in ministry, God wants us to learn obedience to increase our maturity in Christ.
The storm the disciples went through was a test of their faith, a test of their belief in Jesus. James 1:2-4 tells us:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
So instead of asking why to the troubles, rejoice in the fact that God is using these issues and troubles to grow and shape you into the person He wants you to be. Think about that tapestry I opened this message with, where the back of the tapestry is a mess. But know this, a tapestry is made by weaving together different-colored threads, and the images and designs are created by the interplay between the different colors and textures. What is clear on the front is opaque on the back. The back shows something of the image, but it looks more like a child’s attempt than a master’s: it lacks nuance and clarity and detail. Where the front is smooth, the back is covered in knots and loose ends. That is what God is doing with our lives, what looks like a mess is Him weaving us through to make us the perfect person He wants us to be. So don’t ask why but ask God when, knowing that He is perfecting you.
So, when the storms of life start to overflow your boat, look to Jesus, and know that He can calm the storm. Know that God wants to get you to the other side and all you must do is trust in Him. So don’t ask why but ask what…what is it that you want me to do. Instead of fearing the trouble be thankful that God wants to use that trouble to shape you, for Hebrews 12:5-10 tells us this:
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
The troubles in life do not come because God just enjoys seeing us suffer. No, they come so that we can become better. The word tells us that our earthly fathers spanked us in the hopes that we learn not to do certain things that went against what was right, and this was to help us know that our bad choices bring on bad consequences. The same is with God who allows us to go through tough times so that will profit from them. So instead of asking why just say thanks, because the outcome of this storm in your life will be that you are a little stronger to that storm, just as catching a cold makes you immune to that cold virus and is an opportunity to glorify God. Know that God wants us to know that the trial we are going through is a passageway to a great new opportunity for us.
The disciples went through their literal storm on the sea, but on the other side of it they were witness to Jesus freeing two demon possessed men from the demons that held them captive. The disciples came out of a storm to see Jesus bring others out of their storm.
When we keep our eyes upon Jesus, nothing can harm us, and no one can prevent us from getting to the other side of our storm. God wants to build you and sometimes the building process requires being put to the fire…do you know that metal is hardened by being placed in fire? Do you know that gold is purified by being placed in a fire, silver also? Don’t be alarmed, I am not talking about us going through a literal fire but is used figuratively for the troubles we face in life.
Just as the metal being hardened for the purpose it will be used for, and the gold and silver is purified, know that the fire you are going through is God’s way to harden and purify you for the next step of your life.
Trust in Jesus to carry you through the storm. You will not go around the storm, nor will you go over or under it…but for you to make it to that next level that God wants for you, you must go through it. So, stop asking why me, and start thanking God because He cares enough about you to harden you for the things to come, and in the end reward you with life eternal in heaven.
